GBEP to prepare report for G8 Summit and agrees to launch sustainability task force

The Global Bioenergy Partnership is preparing to report to the G8 Summit in Japan with a document detailing the organisation’s work and the verdict of its partners.

A factual report will be drafted to summarise the work of the GBEP, such as the release of the GBEP Report A Review of the Current State of Bioenergy Development in G8 +5 Countries, the establishment and developments of the task force on harmonising greenhouse-gas methodologies, as well as the initial discussions on sustainability. The report will also provide an overview of the critical issues related to bioenergy at an international level that can lead towards the formulation of a global approach and the identification of issues requiring further consideration. This approach was decided upon at a meeting of the GBEP’s Technical Working Group (TWG) on 9-10 April in London.

The Hokkaido Toyako G8 Summit, on 7-9 July, is a key moment for renewing GBEP’s mandate because it was during the July 2005 Gleneagles Plan of Action that G8 +5 countries agreed to establish the partnership. In 2007, GBEP was given a renewed mandate by the G8 Heiligendamm Summit to "continue its work on biofuel best practices and take forward the successful and sustainable development of bioenergy".

The sustainable development of bioenergy was the other main focus for discussion at the London meeting. The UK, as leading partner, presented a proposal to establish a GBEP task force to work towards the development of a voluntary framework of international sustainability principles for bioenergy. The TWG concluded that sustainable bioenergy provides an important opportunity to meet energy security and economic development goals as well as address climate change and other environmental issues. GBEP can play an important role in furthering international discussions on and understanding of sustainable bioenergy and its work needs to be undertaken in a way that provides useful outputs, without duplicating other efforts.

To facilitate this work, the TWG agreed that GBEP should establish a task force on sustainable bioenergy to promote shared understanding and provide a reference point in the formulation of national policies and international cooperation programmes.

Documents from the TWG meeting are available from the GBEP website.

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