| GBEP roundup from Tokyo: news from steering committee meeting, workshop and symposium
The 12th Steering Committee meeting of the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) was held in Tokyo on 17 November 2011 and attended by 29 Partners and Observers.
The meeting welcomed the request of the Organization of American States (OAS) to become a GBEP Observer and saw the participation of Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) as Observers for the first time. The gathering also agreed on the proposal to extend the Italian Chairmanship and the Brazilian Co-Chairmanship for another year, through 2012.
Indeed, the meeting coincided with the announcement that Corrado Clini, GBEP Chair, had been appointed Italy’s Environment Minister by the new prime minister, Mario Monti.
Tokyo was also the scene of a full-day GBEP capacity building workshop focusing on greenhouse gas life-cycle analysis (LCA). The eight presentations, several of which described practical experiences in countries such as Brazil, Japan and Thailand, underscored the enormous scientific efforts that are required to conduct GHG LCAs for bioenergy. But they also demonstrated the benefits to policymaking of making these efforts. The workshop also highlighted examples of co-operation between countries and institutions around the world that have enabled the building of capacity and the exchange of experiences.
To round off the series of meetings in Tokyo, an international symposium was held by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and GBEP. The event examined the current state and future of bioenergy, with contributions from countries including Brazil, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Sweden and the U.S. The symposium provided an occasion to share points of view on bioenergy development across different stakeholders and share experiences across the Asia region.
Presentations from the events are available on the GBEP website.
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