Global Initiatives

Energy services are vital for economic development and improvements in the standard of living for the world’s poor. Agriculture, industry, commerce and household access to energy underpin growth in productivity.This booklet...

The biofuels market is not a market like the others because its development is closely tied to its total or partial exemption from the tax on petroleum products. Moreover, numerous EU member countries have not yet indicated what...

Although Europe is a relatively small producer of ethanol (2.6 percent of world production in 2005), it produces a sizable share of the world’s biodiesel (88 percent of world production in 2005). Production started in the early...

Although Europe is a relatively small producer of ethanol (2.6 percent of world production in 2005), it produces a sizable share of the world’s biodiesel (88 percent of world production in 2005). Production started in the early...

A multi-stakeholder meeting on Sustainable Biofuels was held at the EPFL in Lausanne on 28 November 2006 to investigate the potential for developing internationally accepted and implementable standards for sustainable biofuels....

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Focus Area Energy and Climate offers the following thought piece as a contribution to the dialogue on long-term cooperative action on climate change.This document...

This paper examines how the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) might apply to the biofuels sector. We emphasize “might” because this is a topic that has not yet been addressed in great detail and our examination should...

Producing fuel from agricultural crops has already raised questions about the impacts on the supply of food and land. What has received less attention is the shift that would result in the location of feedstock and fuel...

The purpose of compiling this compendium by the African Energy Policy Research Network and and Foundation for Woodstove Dissemination (AFREPREN/FWD) and the Environmental Development Action in the Third World (ENDA) is to assist...

This paper seeks to provide a preliminary identification of the main sustainable development issues involved in the debate around production and trade in biofuels.The paper is organised as follows.Chapter 2 provides a brief...