Headline: Conference: Bioenergy and Development

Bioenergy is a fast-growing sector, but experiences have been mixed and there are conflicting messages about the potential for different sources of bioenergy to contribute to low carbon energy budgets and socio-economic development objectives. The IASS and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) are coordinating a high-level conference on this topic. Entitled Bioenergy and Development: the Investment Case for Sustainable Production Systems, it will take place in Berlin on 19 and 20 October 2015. The event is supported by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), GIZ and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The conference seeks to clarify the role that bioenergy can play in meeting growing energy needs, while identifying ways in which it can contribute to livelihoods, income and growth without compromising food production, ecosystems services and other ways of using productive land. It will bring together leading thinkers and practitioners from countries and organisations that have made efforts and invested in developing innovative, sustainable bioenergy production models. The conference will also focus on the governance requirements that need to be in place so that the up-scaling of bioenergy production will contribute to the aforementioned objectives. There will be one day of technical sessions followed by a high-level session.

The focus will be on possible investments in bioenergy and corresponding governance interventions to sustainably meet growing energy needs while contributing to achieving the targets of the post-2015 development agenda, including food security, poverty elimination and sustainable environmental management. In particular, by analysing relevant experiences and providing scientific evidence on sustainable bioenergy production, the conference will contribute to global debates on the development of multilateral environmental agreements (including COP21), as well as on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 7: “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all”.

Venue: Mövenpick Hotel Berlin, Schöneberger Strasse 3, 10963 Berlin

More information: http://bioenergy-development2015.org/