Ten questions to be posed when assessing GHG savings

The Global Bioenergy Partnership’s task force on harmonizing greenhouse-gas (GHG) methodologies is preparing a flowchart of questions that will help countries and institutions to calculate biofuels’ emissions savings. This approach was thought to be more appropriate than developing a universal GHG methodology.

The decision was taken at the task force’s second meeting, held in Washington DC on 6-7 March and co-chaired by the US and the UN Foundation. It drew up a list of ten core questions, derived from the checklist agreed on during the task force’s first meeting, in October last year. The group is now refining the chart with the aim of completing the framework by March 2009. The process will also involve public consultation.

The goal of the methodological framework is to provide a reference of pertinent questions for countries and institutions to ask when seeking to develop a methodology. Although the answers may differ, the task force recognised that having a commonly agreed set of questions would increase transparency and facilitate comparison among methodologies. It was also decided that solid biomass fuel should be incorporated into the framework.

Here are the ten questions that make up the basis of the flow chart:

  1. What are the GHGs covered?
  2. Is the biomass a waste (i.e. municipal waste, grease, manure)?
  3. Is there land use change?
  4. How is the biomass feedstock produced?
  5. Are there any by-products/co-products?
  6. Is the biomass transported away from production site?
  7. Does the biomass need to be processed into fuel?
  8. Does the fuel need to be transported for use?
  9. What are the GHG emissions from fuel use?
  10. How does it compare to fuel replaced?

Each core question leads to a further series of questions that are now under examination so as to cover all the possible greenhouse-gas impact of the biofuel’s life cycle. The task force recognised that several components of the methodological framework needed further discussion and decided to set up four sub-groups to investigate them: land use change and feedstock production (led by US); biomass processing (led by the European Commission); fuel transportation and use (led by Germany); and biofuel usage compared to fossil fuels (led by Brazil). Initial consideration of these areas should be completed by 15 June.

Download documents and presentations from the second task force meeting.

 

Back to menu of articles

 

Leggi le notizie in italiano

home