Walk round many suburbs on a winter’s night and your nose will tell you that wood burning is being used for home heating. A recent UK government survey found that 7.5% of UK homes now burn wood. The vast majority use it for supplementary heating or decoration. Wood burning is most popular in the south-east where it is used by around 16% of households and it is least popular in northern England and Scotland where it is used by less than 5%.

We think of wood burning as being natural and therefore less harmful to the environment when compared with fossil fuels. However, particle pollution from UK wood burning is now estimated to be more than double diesel exhaust.



Swiss scientists have been investigating what happens to wood smoke once it leaves your chimney. They burnt logs in a stove and collected the smoke in a chamber. UV lights were used to simulate sunlight and they waited. Slowly the particle pollution in the chamber increased, in some cases by up to three times. If this laboratory experiment reflects what happens in our cities; then pollution from wood burning is even greater than we thought.

Setting aside the machinery used in forestry and deliveries, wood burning could be carbon neutral. But carbon dioxide is not the only pollutant that affects our climate. Diesel and coal smoke are well known sources of black carbon that absorbs heat adding to climate change. The smoke and the extra particles that form from wood smoke is brown, which also adds to climate warming.