Global Bioenergy Partnership
Government of Brazil

The Global Bioenergy Partnership promotes the transition away from the unsustainable, traditional ways of deriving energy from biomass and towards the sustainable production and use of modern bioenergy. The traditional use of biomass, such as burning fuelwood for cooking and heating, drives environmental degradation and damages human health and welfare. Sustainable, modern bioenergy offers a means to improve energy access and to reduce negative effects on human health and the environment.

Access to clean and affordable energy is a prerequisite to sustainable development. Energy produced sustainably from biomass can play a major role in achieving the goal of ?Sustainable Energy for All?. GBEP supports the transition to sustainable, modern bioenergy by fostering the sharing of best practices, encouraging the spread of relevant technologies, creating peer-to-peer learning networks, and triggering new investment. An intended benefit of these activities is to help sustainably intensify agriculture in regions where productivity is low. Driven by the goal of promoting a vibrant, sustainable bioenergy sector, the Global Bioenergy Partnership developed 24 indicators of sustainable bioenergy production and use. Evaluating these indicators will provide environmental, social and economic data, to policy-makers and other stakeholders so that they can:

1) inform the development of national bioenergy policies and programmes;

2) encourage monitoring and evaluation of the environmental, social and economic impacts of modern bioenergy production and use; and

3) support policy and programmatic responses to the impacts of bioenergy production and use.

The seminar will raise awareness on the opportunities related to modern bioenergy development, as well as discuss policy options available to ensure the sustainability of this development. It features recent GBEP accomplishments, such as the development and agreement among 23 countries and 13 international organizations of the 24 Sustainability Indicators for Bioenergy, country experiences with energy from biomass, and points to ways that GBEP Partners and Observers are working together to build capacity for sustainable bioenergy production and use.

Sustainable Bioenergy: Providing Energy Access for Sustainable Development?
The Global Bioenergy Partnership promotes the transition away from the unsustainable, traditional ways of deriving energy from biomass and towards the sustainable production and use of modern bioenergy. The traditional use of biomass, such as burning fuelwood for cooking and heating, drives environmental degradation and damages human health and welfare. Sustainable, modern bioenergy offers a means to improve energy access and to reduce negative effects on human health and the environment.
Access to clean and affordable energy is a prerequisite to sustainable development. Energy produced sustainably from biomass can play a major role in achieving the goal of ?Sustainable Energy for All?. GBEP supports the transition to sustainable, modern bioenergy by fostering the sharing of best practices, encouraging the spread of relevant technologies, creating peer-to-peer learning networks, and triggering new investment. An intended benefit of these activities is to help sustainably intensify agriculture in regions where productivity is low. Driven by the goal of promoting a vibrant, sustainable bioenergy sector, the Global Bioenergy Partnership developed 24 indicators of sustainable bioenergy production and use. Evaluating these indicators will provide environmental, social and economic data, to policy-makers and other stakeholders so that they can:
1) inform the development of national bioenergy policies and programmes;
2) encourage monitoring and evaluation of the environmental, social and economic impacts of modern bioenergy production and use; and
3) support policy and programmatic responses to the impacts of bioenergy production and use.
The seminar will raise awareness on the opportunities related to modern bioenergy development, as well as discuss policy options available to ensure the sustainability of this development. It features recent GBEP accomplishments, such as the development and agreement among 23 countries and 13 international organizations of the 24 Sustainability Indicators for Bioenergy, country experiences with energy from biomass, and points to ways that GBEP Partners and Observers are working together to build capacity for sustainable bioenergy production and use.
TENTATIVE AGENDA
11.00 ? 11.30 Registration
11.30 ? 11.45 Global Bioenergy Partnership Goals and Successes: An Overview
o Mariangela Rebuá, GBEP Co-Chair (Brazil)
o M. Michela Morese, GBEP Executive Secretary
11.45 ? 13.00 Promoting Sustainably Produced Bioenergy
o Bioenergy, food security and household welfare
Alexander Müller (FAO)
o Bioenergy, environment and sustainable use of natural resources Martina Otto (UNEP)
o Bioenergy, energy access and rural development
Gerard J. Ostheimer, Ph.D. (USA)
o Implementing the GBEP indicators at the national level
Jan Seven (Germany) and Ralph Brieskorn (The Netherlands)
o Petrobras Biofuels and the sustainable production of biofuels in Brazil Miguel Rossetto (Petrobras Biofuels)
13.00 ? 14.00 Lunch
14.00 ? 15.15 Empowering the world for sustainable bioenergy ? Africa and Asia
o ECOWAS Regional Bioenergy Forum outcomes
Bah Saho (ECOWAS) and Raffi Balian (USA)
o Assessing and enhancing capacity for GBEP sustainability indicator evaluation in Ghana
Tanko Hamza (Ghana)
o Assessing and enhancing capacity for GBEP sustainability indicator evaluation in Indonesia
Dadan Kusdiana (Indonesia)
o Cleanstar Mozambique: a private sector coalition for scaling up sustainable bioenergy
Sagun Saxena (CleanStar Ventures)
15.15 ? 16.30 Empowering the world for bioenergy - Latin America
o Biofuels in MERCOSUR: evolution and current situation
Rodrigo Rodrigues (MERCOSUR Ad Hoc Group on Biofuels National Coordinator)
o Building capacity for GBEP indicator evaluation in Argentina
Miguel Almada (Argentina)
o OAS and IDB experience in Latina America
Ruben Contreras (OAS) and Elizabeth Cushion (IDB)
o Assessing bioenergy potentials. Feasibility studies for bioenergy production
Cleber Guarany (Fundacao Getulio Vargas)
16.30 ? 17.00 Break
17.00 ? 17.20 Sustainable production of bioenergy in Denmark
o H.E. Martin Lidegaard, Minister of Climate, Energy and Building, Denmark
17.20 ? 18.40 Assessing and unlocking the potential for sustainable bioenergy
o Scaling up improved cookstoves and cooking fuels
Leslie Cordes (UN Foundation)
o Clean, safe ethanol cookstoves
Harry Stokes (Project Gaia, Inc.)
o The future is biobased: Socio-economic prospects of advanced biofuels
Fleming Voetmann (Novozymes)
o Renewable oils for a renewable future
Rogerio Manso (Solazyme)
o Promoting sustainability: aligning objectives and actions
Luiz Fernando do Amaral (UNICA)
18.40 ? 19.00 Summary
o Melinda Kimble, Senior Vice-President, UN Foundation