| Bioenergy policy should favour carbon reductions, GBEP Report reveals
This is one of the key considerations in the GBEP’s Report, “A Review of the Current State of Bioenergy Development in G8 +5 Countries.” The document, presented at the World Energy Congress in Rome in November, provides a survey of the production and consumption of energy from biomass in 13 key countries. It found that all of the G8 +5 Countries cite climate change as a driving force behind their interest in bioenergy. In many cases, climate change policy is influencing attitudes to bioenergy.
Furthermore, the GBEP Report found two important examples where energy and transport policy is starting to take account of the importance of emissions in stimulating changes in fuel use: the UK and California.
In the UK cars are now taxed based on their carbon dioxide emissions following a change in the so-called Vehicle Excise Duty. This has resulted in a noticeable increase in the ownership of diesel cars, which produce lower CO2 emissions, although they generally produce more particulates.
In addition, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which will require that 5% of all fuel sold in the UK comes from a renewable source by 2010, will force biofuel suppliers to report on the greenhouse-gas balance and environmental impact of their products. This obligation is being seen as an important stepping-stone towards a mandatory assurance scheme rewarding biofuels based upon their carbon intensity and penalising feedstock produced unsustainably.
In California, the example is given by the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which was introduced by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in early 2007. The regulation, which imposes a 10% reduction in the carbon intensity of the state’s transportation fuels by 2020, is the first significant climate policy in the US designed specifically to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from transport fuels and to stimulate innovation in new, low-carbon fuels.
The European Commission may soon follow in this path, according to the GBEP Report. It is considering a type of quality standard that would require a gradual reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from transport fuels each year for the next decade.
While such strategies are gaining interest in Kyoto signatory countries looking for the most cost-effective greenhouse-gas emission strategies, they raise the challenge of developing standard ways of measuring emission reductions. GBEP is working to develop a framework for the harmonisation of methodologies for different bioenergy types and production systems in collaboration with relevant public, private and civil society representatives.
To download the GBEP Report click here
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