Fossil shortcuts, long-term risks and building real energy security

Authored by Helen Motwani, Head of Heat & Biomass

Faced with geopolitical instability, the volatile fossil fuel market and rising energy demand, policymakers are increasingly framing the clean energy transition as a trade-off: security versus decarbonisation.

On top of this regressive framing, knee-jerk calls to expand North Sea oil and gas production are often presented as pragmatic responses to immediate pressures. In reality, this does little to shield consumers from global price volatility and even less to build a genuinely secure energy system. Now is the time to redouble efforts to build a progressive and resilient energy system through a mix of wind and solar, backed by bioenergy in the form of biomass power and anaerobic digestion producing low-carbon biomethane.

Geopolitical headwinds aside, balancing energy supply and demand is becoming more complex, with the electrification of heat and transport, as well as rapid growth in data centres and AI-driven infrastructure, increasing demand on the grid. In this context, a stable system needs a mix of complementary sources of renewable power. Wind and solar will remain the backbone of decarbonisation, while storage and other flexibility technologies will play an increasingly important role in balancing supply and demand. But we also need bioenergy to balance the mix.

Adding more biomass power to the mix can provide firm, dispatchable generation: energy that can be generated when needed, helping to compensate when wind and solar output is low. Bioenergy helps balance the grid and reduce reliance on gas-fired generation. Today, biomass provides the UK with up to 5.5GW of firm power capacity and, across power, heat and transport, bioenergy supplies almost 12% of the energy consumed in the UK. Analysis by Baringa for the Renewable Energy Association suggests that retaining existing biomass capacity could significantly reduce system costs, including through lower investment in additional firm generation.

Bioenergy is not a single technology – it is versatile and encompasses a range of technologies, from large-scale biomass power generation to smaller, decentralised systems. One of these is anaerobic digestion, which converts organic matter, including agricultural and industrial waste, into biogas, which can then be upgraded to biomethane. This low-carbon gas can be injected into the existing gas network, providing a route to decarbonise parts of the gas system while making use of existing infrastructure. This circular use of organic resources strengthens domestic energy resilience while producing nutrient-rich digestate that can reduce reliance on fossil-fuel-intensive manufactured fertilisers.

A key strength of bioenergy is its versatility, particularly in sectors that are difficult to electrify, including parts of heavy industry and transport, particularly aviation. It also has a critical role in meeting long-term climate goals. In its latest Balanced Pathway, the Climate Change Committee projects that bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) will account for around 89% of engineered carbon removals in 2040.

Of course, bioenergy is not without its challenges. Questions around sustainability, land use and supply chains are legitimate and must be addressed transparently. The credibility of the sector depends on robust standards, strong governance and clear accountability. The development of a common, cross-sectoral sustainability framework will be essential to ensuring that biomass continues to deliver genuine climate benefits.

While critical, these parameters should not obscure the system value that bioenergy provides. Nor should they lead to simplistic assumptions about risk. Imported biomass is increasingly criticised through the lens of energy security. Yet in practice, imported biomass, which accounts for around a third of UK bioenergy feedstock demand, is often sourced through established, long-term supply arrangements and diversified international supply chains. These supply chains are based on renewable feedstocks and can offer greater price stability than fossil fuels, in contrast to the concentrated and geopolitically exposed nature of international gas markets.

This reframes the question of how energy security should be defined. It cannot be reduced to a narrow focus on domestic production alone; rather, it must incorporate system reliability, supply diversity and exposure to price volatility. At the same time, strengthening domestic sustainable biomass supply chains should remain an important part of the UK’s long-term energy security strategy.

In the next phase of the energy transition, policymakers must strategically coordinate generation, storage, flexibility and demand. This means avoiding familiar but flawed solutions – expanding fossil fuel production may appear to offer a shortcut to security, but it risks locking in the very vulnerabilities the transition is meant to resolve. The UK need not choose between reliability and decarbonisation; the focus should be on building a resilient, low-carbon energy system for the future.