Gardanne, France – How biomass burning wrecks Europe’s forests

Gardanne, near Marseilles in southern France, is a small town with a large power station. The Centrale Thermique de Provence has the tallest chimney in France. At 300 metres high, it is only just shorter than the Eiffel Tower and dominates the town. From early 2016, the former coal-burning station will start burning wood chips...

... With 80 per cent of the biomass expected to come from trees cut for the purpose, he forecasts “carnage in the Cevennes”, the much-loved and biodiverse forested mountains nearest to the plant, with its famous sweet chestnuts especially at risk.