Who is doing what about bioenergy

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Bioenergy > Organizations > Who is doing what about bioenergy?

This page will summarize and provide links to important initiatives related to sustainable bioenergy. See also organizations.

Governmental

• FAO - The UN Food and Agricultural Organization
  • Press release from the FAO website: "Bioenergy, Key to the Fight Against Hunger".
  • Press release from the FAO website: "FAO sees major shift to bioenergy: Pressure building for switch to biofuels".

• The European Union: Under the 8 February 2006 EU Communication on Biofuels, biofuels are to provide 5.75% of transportation fuel needs by the year 2010.

• The United States: The "President's Biofuels Initiative" includes the goal of making cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive by 2012.

A number of countries and regions have set goals for future biofuel production.

Hybrid Organizations (Public-Private, Profit-Nonprofit and/or Governmental-Nongovernmental)

• IUCN - The World Conservation Union
  • Statement from Mr. Jeffrey McNeely, Chief Scientist, The World Conservation Union: "Global Challenges to Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century: science and technology to mobilize people for conservation".
  • Excerpt:
    • "Over the coming decades, we will need to make a fundamental shift from a petroleum-based economy to one based on other forms of energy. Biofuels are being highly promoted, but undoubtedly will have impacts on food production, biodiversity, and water consumption. How will we balance the multiple demands for using land to produce bioenergy or hydroelectricity as opposed to other uses that will provide more sustainable benefits to biodiversity?"[1]

Nongovernmental

• Biofuelwatch. Works "to ensure that only sustainably-sourced biofuels can be sold in the European Union."[2].
  • From the Biofuelwatch website:
    • "We are particularly concerned about the potential of the biofuel market to drive the destruction of old-growth forests, which are significant carbon sinks and sites of considerable biodiversity.
    • "Sustainable biofuels should have been rigorously shown not to have an adverse effect on old growth forests, wetlands and grasslands, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, soils, water, food security and human rights. For example, heat and energy can be sustainably provided by agricultural and forestry waste, whilst sustainable sources of transport fuel include waste vegetable oil and possible future technologies such as algal biodiesel."[3]

Research organizations

• Biofuel crops: power to the dryland poor, article by Dr. William D. Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, noted that "drylands, often neglected compared to more favorable areas, can contribute importantly to a bio-fueled future." He noted that while the bulk of "bio-ethanol in India is produced from the molasses left over from the refining of sugar from sugarcane," "a little-known dryland crop, sweet sorghum" is a promising feedstock for bio-ethanol production, as sorghum stores "large quantities of energy as sugar in their stalks, while also producing reasonable grain yields."
  • "Sorghum, like sugarcane and maize, exhibits C4 metabolism – making it more efficient at converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into sugar than most plants. As a dryland crop, sorghum requires far less water than costly irrigated sugarcane, making it more accessible to the poor."

• A powerpoint presentation on the potential and challenges of ethanol, by Mark Muller of the IATP (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy)--"Working to strengthen rural economies through a thriving agriculture, sound land use, and thoughtful development strategies."

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