Over 250 people from four continents attended the hugely successful seventh edition of the GBEP Bioenergy Week in Manila, Philippines in 2019. As part of efforts of the GBEP Working Group on Capacity Building for Sustainable Bioenergy (WGCB), both international and national participants gathered from 25 to 27 June 2019 to discuss sustainable modern bioenergy: benefits and barriers, policies, lessons learned, and recent developments.  

It was significant that the Bioenergy Week returned to the Asia and the Pacific region for the second time, as a number of economies in the region have large agricultural sectors, and the capitalisation of the unused residues from this sector for energy generation could play an important role in mitigating GHG emissions from agriculture, in diversifying energy access and in moving away from traditional fossil fuel energy. 

The event included sessions on: conventional and advanced liquid biofuels; biogas, biomethane and waste to energy; global, regional and national policies; and opportunities and challenges for bioenergy development. During these sessions, the contribution that bioenergy can play in achieving global commitments to sustainable development and reduction of GHG emissions was stressed. On the last day, participants also had the opportunity to see bioenergy value chains in action through field visits to some of the bioenergy plants in the country, including ethanol, biodiesel and biomass power plants. 

Not only did the Philippines event present positive experiences and initiatives in the sustainable production and use of bioenergy that could guide the design and implementation of bioenergy policies in the region, it also provided the opportunity to continue a dialogue with the relevant stakeholders on ways to improve mutual cooperation towards a more sustainable production and use of bioenergy. To this end, many bilateral meetings were held to foster technical cooperation and discuss key concerns currently affecting the bioenergy sector, in particular, biofuels production and use in the Asia and Pacific region. 

The event was kindly organized by the Government of the Philippines, in particular by the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), in collaboration with the Ethanol Producers Association of the Philippines (EPAP), US Grains Council and Novozymes. It has been supported by and organized in cooperation with GBEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The full summary of the event can be found on the GBEP website. 

Due to the commitment of the Philippines to monitoring the sustainability of its bioenergy sector, the Bioenergy Week was preceded by a one-day National Workshop to familiarise local stakeholders with the GBEP Sustainability Indicators, in preparation for their potential measurement in the country in the future.