| Summary/Abstract |
Residential stove burning using treated or untreated wood, or manufactured woody ‘pellets’ (a form of biomass), has grown in popularity globally as an environmentally sustainable alternative to residential coal or gas heating. The exponential growth of the global production of wood pellets illustrates the reach of this industry. Between 2004 and 2015 the global production of wood pellets surged from 1.7 million tonnes to 13 million tonnes, 60% of which is used in the residential home market (IEA Bioenergy, 2019). In 2013, the European Environment Agency estimated that between 1990 and 2011, the use of biomass for home heating grew by 56% among European Union member states (EEA, 2013, p.90). This growth has been driven by the global demand for sustainable energy sources, and biomass has been promoted by some governments since the mid-2000s to this end, for example with tax incentives and public information campaigns (Badouard et al., 2021).
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