Bio energy has rapidly emerged as a top priority on the international or regional energy, environment and sustained development agenda. The Global Bio energy Partnership builds its activities upon three strategic pillars on integrated energy, environment and economy model: energy security, food security and sustainable development. It is now recommended to: 1. Build and nurture Bio energy partnership world-wide across the globe ;
2. Adapt and implement environment friendly bio fuel best practices; and
3. Take forward the successful and sustainable development of bio energy”. The introduction represents a strategic tool to respond to this mandate furthering the Global goal of sustainable bio energy development. Bio energy production and use is increasing inexorably all over the world and although priorities may vary, its reasons are shared by most countries across the globe: Rising oil prices and energy security considerations are forcing countries to look for alternative fuels;
Bio fuels can play a role in rural development in some countries, providing energy access to remote communities and creating employment;
Climate change benefits that can be realized through reduction of GHG emissions. We are keenly aware that a fast growth in bio energy demand and supply bears some risks for food security and for the environment as well. Rising demand for bio energy has already caused a surge in the use of grain and other food crops for energy and some crop commodities prices have been risen on that account. Bio energy production also poses environmental challenges, for instance increasing mono-cropping practices and greater fertilizer and pesticide use may jeopardize water and soil quality. Perhaps of highest concerns are land use change and the risk that large areas of natural forests and grasslands be converted to energy crop production, which not only would threaten biodiversity preservation and other ecosystem services, but also result in additional green house gas emissions. In this respect, sustainability is a key objective and it is wise to put in place the necessary safeguards to ensure sustainable management of the entire bio energy production chain – feedstock production, processing and use of bio fuels etc. An enormous amount of work needs to be done to develop, disseminate and implement these safeguards and best practices, as the key issues on bio energy partnership. If bio energy production systems are not developed so that they can be sustained over time, bio energy supply will not reach its potential and therefore will not deliver the expected benefits. Life cycle analysis, labeling and “certification of origin” of bio fuels should be agreed regionally as well as internationally and be introduced into the Asian and Global energy market. Global Bio Energy Partnership is hereby looking into the harmonization of methodologies to measure GHG impacts of bio fuels used for transportation as contribution to this end. Certification and labeling mechanisms should be used to ensure sustainable development, environmental gains and to promote social equity but not to introduce barriers to trade and commerce on energy, environment and climatic issues. Accelerating bio energy innovation and tackling its main challenges will require strong cooperation, and the Global Bio energy Partnership aims to play an important role. This overview of current bio energy developments among South Asian Nations aims at to identify common ground in policy priorities and opportunities for regional cooperation, as well as provide guidance on what still needs to be done for a sustainable development of bio energy. The Regional Bio energy Partnership should take advantage of the current momentum to make sustainability criteria and best practices a major area in context of climate change and development of sustainable energy portfolios. Author: Dr. Jagdish P. N. Giri,
Founder and Executive Director: Aaditya Energy Foundation, Chennai, India,
E-mail: jpngiri@aadityaenergyfoundation.com
Website: http://www.aadityaenergyfoundation.org