Global Bioenergy Partnership launches 24 sustainability guidelines

In Italy, the Global Bioenergy Partnership, a government-level organization of 23 countries, has established a set of 24 sustainability guidelines that it will introduce at the upcoming G8 meeting.

In addition the Partnership has approved to launch a capacity building initiative that seeks to promote the optimum use of modern bioenergy for sustainable development.

The agreement marks the first global, government-level consensus on a set of voluntary, science-based indicators for assessing the sustainable production and use of bioenergy. The indicators are intended to guide analysis of bioenergy at the domestic level with a view to informing decision making and facilitating the sustainable development of bioenergy in a manner consistent with multilateral trade obligations.

The 24 indicators identified by GBEP Partners and Observers take a holistic approach to assessing many important aspects of the intersection of bioenergy and sustainability, including greenhouse gas emissions, biological diversity, the price and supply of a national food basket, access to energy, economic development, and energy security.

GBEP and its Partners now comprise 23 countries and 13 international organizations and institutions. A further 22 countries and 9 international organizations and institutions are participating as Observers