Steps toward a sustainable energy future |
May 2006
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This document represents the position paper of the Citizens United for Renewable Energy and Sustainability (CURES) Network for the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) February 2006.
In response to key challenges posed by the participants of the UNEP Ministerial Forum CURES proposed, initiation of a consultative process for a global agreement on sustainability criteria for bioenergy. It stated that “not only will an unsustainable bioenergy system limit the bioenergy potential available through resource depletion and land erosion, also such a consultative process is required because of the environmental and social problems that can accompany large-scale bioenergy use”. Given the expected growth in bioenergy sources and the large number of sectors potentially affected by large scale bioenergy production, governments should conduct risk assessments of bioenergy schemes with a view to determining the potential environmental impacts through their entire fuel cycle. Greater confidence about the environmental integrity of biomass-based energy systems would hasten their development, in general, and the acceptance of biomass fuels in particular.
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