| GBEP’s work to focus on GHG methodologies and bioenergy field projects
The Global Bioenergy Partnership was established to implement the commitments taken by the G8 +5 Countries (China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa) in the 2005 Gleneagles Plan of Action to “support wider, cost effective biomass and biofuels deployment, particularly in developing countries where biomass use is prevalent.” The 2007 G8 Heiligendamm Summit gave a renewed mandate to GBEP “to continue its work on biofuel best practices and take forward the successful and sustainable development of bioenergy”.
Currently, the following countries and organizations are partners of GBEP: all G8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, U.S.A.), Brazil, China, Mexico, The Netherlands, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Energy Agency (IEA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), United Nations Foundation, World Council of Renewable Energy (WCRE) and European Biomass Industry Association (EUBIA).
Austria, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, European Commission and the World Bank are participating as observers.
Looking forward, GBEP is discussing how its report and the 2007 G8 mandate could guide its work towards the sustainable development of bioenergy and facilitate collaboration on field projects. The UK has agreed to put forward suggestions on this front for discussion at the next GBEP Technical Working Group.
GBEP is also working to produce a template or best-practice guidance on assessing biofuels’ greenhouse-gas lifecycles, including a list of the major methodological assumptions necessary for such calculations. This harmonized methodology would be of use to policymakers in all countries (developed and developing) and applicable to any type of transport biofuel.
The US, which is the lead partner on this issue, is seeking to encompass the full well-to-wheel lifecycle of transport biofuels and address all significant sources of GHG emissions. GBEP has highlighted the need to include solid biomass in the framework and Germany accepted to be the lead partner for this. The GBEP Task Force on GHG methodologies for transport biofuels is due to meet again tin the first months of 2008, perhaps in the context of the International Renewable Energy Conference to be held in Washington DC, in early March.
For more information on GBEP and details of the programme of work click here
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