Proposed ban on wood heating in Brussels receives support

Brussels residents who collected more than 1,000 signatures for a petition against wood heating have met representatives from the Brussels Parliament's environment committee and were met with support from most parties.

“This is an issue that politics seems to have forgotten in a sense,” said Martin Casier (PS). His colleague Calvin Soiresse (Ecolo) agreed that policy in recent years has fallen short in this area, perhaps for reasons that are also cultural.

Mounir Laarissi (Les Engagés) pointed out that the current Brussels regulations, which prohibit the installation of new stoves, are far from sufficient, as the existing stock of wood-burning stoves is left untouched.

Only the MR party expressed more caution, saying it preferred advocacy around choosing modern wood-burning stoves over a ban.

The two residents behind the petition, Laurent Scholtus and Sven Dammann, presented air pollution figures related to wood-burning stoves.

No less than 17% of PM 2.5 particulate matter (particles smaller than 0.0025 millimetres) in the region comes from wood heating - almost as much as the 22% that comes from road traffic.

The 17% is especially significant when considering only 0.18% of homes have a wood-burning stove, according to figures based on PEB certificates, meaning a very small number of wood-burning stoves are responsible for particularly high particulate emissions.

Scholtus and Dammann also noted that the first victims of pollution from wood heating are the people who burn the wood. The risk of lung cancer increases by 40% in households that burn wood, with other sources putting the figure as high as 70%.

The petitioners were inspired by a recent ban on wood burning in Utrecht in the Netherlands, where a public awareness campaign aims to ease residents into the measure by 2030.

For the Brussels parliament, the public awareness aspect is crucial and Lotte Stoops (Groen) emphasised that there was still a great deal of ignorance about the harmful impact of wood heating.

“That’s probably also the reason why it is taking so long for anything to change,” said Stoops.

“An interesting pilot project is starting in Ghent this year in this regard. Residents with wood-burning stoves can measure air quality, while the same is done at their neighbours’ homes.”

As a former restaurant owner, independent member of parliament Sonja Hoylaerts pointed out that wood-fired ovens are not a must for the hospitality industry either: “From my own experience, I can assure you: you can make excellent pizzas without wood.”

The hearing has not yet led to any concrete policy measures and new regulations on wood burning will not be able to be put into place until the next Brussels government is formed.