The Secretariat of the Global Bioenergy Partnership
(GBEP), launched at the 14th Session of the UN
Commission for Sustainable Development in May 2006 in
New York to promote the use of bioenergy, opened for
business here this week.
Located at
FAO headquarters and
supported by the Italian Ministry for the Environment,
Land and Sea, the Secretariat’s mandate is to facilitate
a global political forum to promote bioenergy and to
encourage the production, marketing and use of “green”
fuels, with particular focus on developing countries.
The Secretariat will
be the principal coordinator of Partnership
communications and activities and will assist
international exchanges of know-how and technology,
promote supportive policy frameworks and identify ways
of fostering investments and removing barriers to the
development and implementation of joint projects.
In the short term,
the Secretariat will update the inventory of existing
networks, initiatives and institutions dealing with
bioenergy and identify any gaps in knowledge. It will
also assist the Partners in identifying and implementing
bilateral and multilateral projects for sustainable
bioenergy development and support the formulation of
guidelines for measuring reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions due to the use of biofuels.
Renewable energy
sources
The Partnership’s
overall aim is to respond to the growing need to develop
renewable energy sources in the light of high oil
prices, global warming and concerns about diminishing
fossil fuel reserves.
FAO has always
actively promoted biofuels as a means of reducing
poverty while producing clean, low-cost energy. Given
the right technologies, an abundant energy supply could
be tapped by converting biomass such as crop residues,
grass, straw and brushwood into fuel, while crops like
sugar cane, corn and soybeans are already being used to
produce ethanol or bio-diesel.
“We are happy that
FAO was chosen to host the GBEP Secretariat,” said
Alexander Müller, FAO Assistant Director-General for
Sustainable Development. “Its presence will stimulate us
to continue helping governments and institutions
formulate appropriate bioenergy policies and
strategies.”
“We hope the creation
of a Global Bioenergy Partnership will help reduce
current dependency on oil. Over the next decades, we
will most probably see bioenergy providing an increasing
amount of the world’s energy needs, but we need to
assure that this is done in a sustainable manner.
Positive synergies between GBEP and FAO’s International
Bioenergy Platform (IBEP) will contribute to an expanded
and sustainable role of biofuels,” said Müller.
Italy and Mexico were
respectively appointed as Chair and Vice-Chair of GBEP’s
Steering Committee for the next two years.
