COP23: Round Table on Bioenergy for Sustainable Development

Bioenergy accounts for three-eighths of the cost-effective potential for renewable energy through 2050. Therefore, IRENA and partners are assessing sustainable biomass resource options, cost-effective bioenergy technology pathways, and strategies for bioenergy scale-up.

The Round Table discussed a briefing paper on Bioenergy for Sustainable Development which IRENA prepared with the IEA Technology Collaboration Programme on Bioenergy (IEA Bioenergy) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The main point of the brief was that significant amounts of bioenergy can be produced without jeopardizing food production or emitting carbon to the atmosphere. In other words, bioenergy can support three key Sustainable Development Goals, among others: sustainable energy for all, adequate nutrition for all, and combatting climate change. It highlighted sustainable measures to collect more farm and forest residues and to make more land available for bioenergy crops by boosting yields on food crops, reducing waste and losses in the food chain, and restoring degraded land.

• Bioenergy for Sustainable Development
  Jeffrey Skeer, Senior Programme Officer, IRENA
• Integrated Food-Energy Systems for Power and Food Security in the Tropics
  Dennis Garrity, World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), Chair, EverGreen Agriculture Partnership
• Status of Bioenergy and Roadmap to the Future
  Kees Kwant, Chair, IEA Bioenergy Technology Collaboration Programme

More about bioenergy for sustainable development can be found here: Growing Sustainably with Bioenergy.

Contact: Jeffrey Skeer (JSkeer@irena.org).