Lack of understanding afflicts bioenergy policy, experts tell FAO

Experts brought together by the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) expressed the need for better insight into the impact of biofuel policies and “urgent” further analysis into issues such as land use change, greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and food security.

This further research need and a deficit of policy co-ordination, standards and common GHG emissions methodologies were among the key messages to emerge from the FAO’s expert meeting on bioenergy policy and food and fuel security. The 12 points for action that emerged will feed into the High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, to be held from 3 to 5 June at FAO headquarters in Rome. The purpose of the conference is to create a joint effort in addressing food security and poverty reduction in the face of climate change and energy security.

Along with the expert panel, FAO also held consultations with civil society organisation and the private sector. The expert panel, which gathered in February, included university professors, researchers and representatives of international organisations such as the OECD, IEA, UNEP, UNCTAD and the WTO.

They placed the focus of bioenergy policy on greater co-ordination and integration among the various countries and regions, between developed and developing nations as well as between the public and private sectors. They highlighted the need for “policies for food and fuel to be linked so as not to compromise food security nor to deprive poor farmers of potential gains from biofuels development”. Policies also need to guide investments in food and/or biofuel and to assist those adversely affected by climate change and the expansion of bioenergy.

The need, above all, for greater understanding and insight was underlined by the experts’ calling for an “expansion of the knowledge base, which includes better analysis of data sets available, linking and integration of aggregated and disaggregated models.”

The expert panel’s key messages can be downloaded from the conference website.

 

Back to menu of articles

 

Leggi le notizie in italiano

home