August 14, 2025

In the conversation about sustainability and decarbonisation, wood heat is often sidelined, or even completely overlooked, despite being recognised as a vital component of the transition away from fossil fuels. 

There are a host of reasons, including common misconceptions and government strategy and that focuses on other technology like heat pumps. However, at the root is a misunderstanding of just how much carbon wood heat saves as compared with fossil fuels. 

The truth is, it saves a staggering amount. 

The amount of heat that a typical house uses in a year is around 20MWh. Let’s compare the typical emissions for that output with wood fuels vs fossil fuels. 

Source: Forest Research, Carbon emissions of different fuels 

At the point of combustion, wood chips emit over 50 times less carbon than coal, over 37 times less carbon than oil, and around 29 times less carbon than natural gas. 

If we look at lifecycle carbon emissions, the picture is similarly favourable for wood fuels. natural gas stands at around 202kg/MWh, oil at 260kg/MWh, and coal at 363kg/MWh. Wood chip, by contrast, has lifecycle CO₂ emissions of 18kg/MWh, and wood pellets around 15kg/MWh. 

Source: Forest Research, Carbon emissions of different fuels 

While fossil fuels are excavated and burned, not to be replaced, wood heat is part of a cycle in which waste wood from the sustainable timber industry becomes pellet or wood chip fuel. FSC-certified sustainable logging replaces felled trees, so that carbon that is released by burning is captured by living trees. 

By contrast, oil and oil derivative fuels have not absorbed carbon from the atmosphere prior to combustion, so fossils fuels involve digging up carbon and releasing it, with no capture as part of the lifecycle. 

In the EU27, biomass fuel is 95% locally sourced. Around 68% of the UK’s biomass fuel (heat, power, and transport) come from domestic feedstocks, and with some enablement and incentivisation of supply chains that figure could be even higher. Only 2% of EU oil and gas is domestic, with the rest imported.  

Of UK gas imports, about one third is used for heating. If the UK transitioned away from fossil fuels for heating, it could cut a vast proportion of the 43 million metric tons of oil and gas it imports annually.  

In 2022, emissions from oil tankers are estimated to have totalled 106 million metric tons of CO₂, so reducing that sea traffic would also be an enormous step towards decarbonisation. 

To understand the suite of low- and no-carbon technology that will help to future-proof your business, read our Guide to Green Business Energy.  

Or, if you have questions about sustainable commercial heat and power, please call 01621 892613 to speak to a renewable energy expert who can offer friendly and no-obligation advice about your transition away from fossil fuels.