District heating from biomass power plants – Switzerland’s greenwashing
Read our new article about the harmful effects of so-called green energy.
Federal Office for the Environment glosses over air quality
The Federal Office for the Environment praises falling particulate matter levels and improvements in air quality, leading the population to believe that they are breathing clean air.
However, studies show that the amount of particulate matter alone does not indicate air quality. In Bern, for example, particulate matter levels have fallen, but the air is still just as toxic, and in some places even more toxic than before. According to researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, this is due to the sources of air pollution. Together with traffic, wood combustion produces the most harmful air pollution, even when particulate matter levels are low.
Bern operates several wood-fired power plants and there are also numerous subsidised wood heating systems (wood chip and pellet plants) – which explains the toxic air.
As a reminder, air pollution is the number one health hazard worldwide and wood burning is the number one air pollutant in Switzerland and Europe.
Photo: Bern
Biomass-fired thermal networks – the greenwashing of Switzerland
Take a look at the map of Swiss thermal networks
The country is tinted a reassuring shade of green, with a verdant band across the central Plateau from Geneva in the SW to Lake Constance in the NE.
Thermal networks supply thermal energy in the form of water or steam generated from a central plant to a number of separate buildings via a system of underground pipes. They include district heating, local heating and even district cooling networks. Output ranges from 100 kW to over 1GW and while only 43% are powered by renewables, these systems are largely characterised by their “low CO2 emissions”, or so officials claim, and Switzerland is banking on them to help reach net zero and energy independence.
But these goals come with costs and controversy.
Thermal networks are plagued with exorbitant connection, construction and maintenance fees which are passed on to consumers. Laying underground pipes results in roads and neighbourhoods being dug up and disrupted. Critics also bemoan a lack of transparency, local monopolies that prevent consumers from switching providers and the fact that gas and Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants power many networks, arguably undermining green claims.
Despite this, district heating consumption increased by 9.2% in 2024 and the current 1,400 or so networks (some 9TWh) are expected to double (to 18TWh) by 2050, to provide 40% of all hot water and heat needs by mid-century.
And therein lies another problem. Look at the map again.
The preponderance of green derives from biomass (light green) and biogas (dark green) installations which make up around 70% of the total. But whereas biomass-fired systems dominate in terms of numbers, 40% of heat is supplied by WtE plants (which also burn up to 33% wood). If Switzerland’s thermal network is to double by mid-century, chances are many of the additions will be biomass-fuelled. A whopping 85% of biomass already comes from wood. And the country’s woody biomass potential has already been largely utilised or even exceeded, as is the case in the canton of Zurich.
In 2024, 75% of all deciduous wood harvested was burnt and woodchip consumption in general was up 3% from 2023 thanks to the rapidly growing network, with demand increasing in the Alps (+8%), Jura (+5%) and Pre-Alps (+1%), according to a Federal Office for the Environment press release (english, short version)
Only a tiny fraction of woody biomass can be sustainably harvested and what is extracted should be used to replace fossil fuels in high-temperature industrial processes. Precious hardwoods and whole trunks have no business going up in smoke to heat homes.
To avoid repeating the extractive errors of the fossil sector, we must prioritise the foundational social and environmental values of forest ecosystems as well as a framework that allocates biomass to high-value applications first.
If we don’t, Switzerland’s map of thermal networks could start looking very green around the gills.
January 2026
Regional added-value and sustainability of Swiss timber – far from it!
Swiss timber is particularly valued for its sustainable forest management and regional appreciation. However, in many cases this does not correspond to reality as for example in the Bernese Jura, where more forest is being cleared than is growing back (Forest Report 2025, p. 61, Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN)). And this ‘excess’ timber is not used exclusively locally either. Huge quantities of timber are transported across Switzerland and end up, as photographed here in Val d’Anniviers, being burned in wood-fired heating systems.
First cut down, then transported long distances, then burnt – a questionable definition of sustainability and regional added-value.
The photo shows only a small part of the immense amount of wood that was transported across Switzerland.
Wood-fired power plants have no future – awareness is growing!
It has long been clear that burning wood is not CO2-neutral, but rather emits more CO2 and pollutants than fossil fuels. Now it must also be recognised that burning wood is neither a sustainable nor a renewable energy source.
After the energy suppliant of the City of Bern, Energie Wasser Bern (EWB), has decided to abandon plans for a wood-fired power plant, the City of Dagmersellen is also refraining from building one.
While EWB cites failed negotiations with major customers as the reason for abandoning the project, Dagmersellen cites a lack of long-term viability.
In other words, both project managers must have realised that there is simply not enough wood!
Source: CKW / Visualisation: This is what the wood-fired power plant would have looked like.
The failure of the industrial forestry
The forestry lobby constantly invents new reasons why it is good to manage domestic forests. One of the first reasons given to justify clear-cutting was to ‘let in light to the ground’.
Another reason cited is the protection of foreign forests from exploitation.
This is a fallacy, as a glance at the world-famous Scandinavian forest industry shows.
Read more here about the scandals in the supposedly exemplary Scandinavian forestry industry.
Photo: Marcus Westberg
The failure of the industrial forestry
One of the excuses often used in Europe to justify logging home-grown trees is that it prevents the types of exploitation and abuse of forests and workforces seen in countries with laxer legislation. Our forestry and labour laws are strict and adhered to, the argument goes, especially in Europe’s Nordic countries whose forestry model is admired the world over for combining “productivity with strong environmental responsibility.”
But greed is universal.
And serious allegations have been levelled against Swedish and Finnish forestries in recent months, as Fern and Kelsey Perlman report.
This October, Nestlé dropped a bombshell by announcing its decision to stop importing virgin paper fibre from Sweden’s SCA, Europe’s largest private forest owner, due to “sourcing controversies” including threats to biodiversity and Indigenous Sami lands, as well as clearcutting and degrading high conservation value and old-growth forests.
In November, in neighbouring Finland, the mainstream Helsingin Sanomat newspaper uncovered a human trafficking scandal involving some 200 people, many from Nepal, enticed with false promises and exposed to poor working conditions and non-payment of wages. The companies involved include the well known Metsä Group and even State forest owner Metsähallitus.
Nor are these isolated cases. Occupational injuries and the exploitation of forestry workers are shockingly common, including in Sweden.
The Nordic forestry model is broken.
Profit margins are dwindling as is the sector’s workforce, while demand and harvest volumes keep increasing, threatening long-term environmental and social goals. Carbon sinks are down sharply in Sweden and Finland’s forest became a net emitter in 2021.
Yet both governments continue to call for EU standards and climate targets to be lowered to protect their forestries’ “cultural and social contributions”. Instead of blaming climate change and the war in Ukraine, they should instead reappraise a system that, to quote Fern, “prioritises volume over value, short-term extraction over long-term sustainability and political influence over accountability.”
In 2020, 3/4 of Europe’s forests were managed through clearcutting and over half the wood was burnt (Sweden burns 80%) while much of the rest was pulped. We cannot keep this up. Wood is too precious a commodity.
Neither can we weaken climate targets or let economic interests undermine human rights or the integrity of our forests. We must urgently transition to a more sustainable model that prioritises the cascade use of wood.
But the European Commission is hell bent on “prioritising competitiveness” and only has ears for those who carry big sticks and political clout.
Money corrupts. Absolutely.
If we cannot trust the world renowned Nordic forestry model, why should we trust any other?
We shouldn’t.
Industrial forestry as a whole is flawed and failing.
January 2026
Photo: Marcus Westberg
Swiss air quality: anything but good
Take a look at the disastrous air quality in places with wood-fired heating systems (where the authorities refuse to take measurements). Not only is air quality in Switzerland measured exclusively in irrelevant locations, but there is also an insistence on assessing air quality based on annual average values. This is very astonishing since no one considers passive smoking to be harmless, even for a few hours, so no one talks about an average value in that case. We wonder why this is the case with subsidised wood burning, which is just as harmful to health and which no one in the vicinity can escape? And no, neither modern wood heating systems with filter systems or pellet systems will help you to escape!
As a reminder, the WHO has set the limit value for PM2.5 at 5µg/m3. Anything above is classified as ‘unsafe’ for health.
Is the Burgergemeinde Bern lying again?
According to their own statements, the Burgergemeinde Bern had to remove diseased trees in the Wyler Forest of Bern.
However, the supposedly diseased trees and piles of wood shown in the photo are not from the Wyler Forest nor are the trees shown in the photo diseased (latest news national and international from 2 December 2025).
This makes you wonder why the Burgergemeinde Bern, clearing 500 hectares of intact forest around the city of Bern, need to misinform the public – especially when their forest management is apparently natural, sustainable and good for biodiversity.
Photo: Burgergemeinde Bern/ alleged woodpile from the Wyler Forest
Deforestation is not without consequences
Deforestation is leading to extreme weather events worldwide (torrential rain, flooding, landslides, drought, heat waves, etc.), leaving us back even less protected due to the resulting lack of forest. Find out more about the causes and consequences of the flooding in Indonesia in our new article.
As a reminder, excessive deforestation also leads to repeated landslides in Switzerland. Two examples:
- Landslide in Belp/Bern: More than the permitted 600m2-1200m2 had been cleared (see latest news national and international from 4 July 2025)
- Landslide in Schwanden/Glarus: 13 hectares had been cleared instead of the permitted 600m2-1200m2 (see latest news national and international from 22 November 2024)
Photo Walhi