Bioenergy

 
Biofuels: prospects, risks and opportunities

The State of Food and Agriculture 2008 explores the implications of the recent rapid growth in production of biofuels based on agricultural commodities. The boom in liquid biofuels has been largely driven by policies in developed countries in support of climate-change mitigation, energy security and agricultural development. The growing demand for agricultural commodities for the production of biofuels is having significant repercussions on agricultural markets, and concerns are mounting over their negative impact on the food security of millions of people across the world.

Go to the homepage of the publication The State of Food and Agriculture

Read the executive summary

Download the full publication

Events

The FAO Biotechnology Forum is devoting its next e-mail conference to the potential role that agricultural biotechnologies can play for production of bioenergy in developing countries, with a major focus on liquid biofuels. The conference is being organised in collaboration with the FAO Working Group on Bioenergy and will take place from 10 November to 7 December 2008. The conference will be moderated and the e-mail messages posted during the conference will be placed on the Forum website. To join the Forum (and also register for the conference), send an e-mail to mailserv@mailserv.fao.org leaving the subject blank and entering the following text on two lines:

subscribe BIOTECH-L
subscribe biotech-room3

People who are already Forum members should leave out the first line of the above message, to register for the conference. For more information, contact biotech-mod3@fao.org

FAO and bioenergy

Bioenergy and biofuel development have been issues of importance on FAO's agenda for decades. The topics are drawing attention again because of global concerns following high energy prices, environmental degradation, sustainability of current energy systems and the competition of food crops versus energy crops. A careful consideration of these and other factors and their linkages to bioenergy development must be carried out at local, national and international levels, based on proper information and understanding.

The access to adequate and affordable energy is one of the basic requirements for guaranteeing the wellbeing and development of rural populations on a sustainable basis. Nearly two billion people, mostly in rural areas of developing countries, are without electricity and rely on burning fuelwood for their household activities.

Bioenergy in general and wood energy in particular are the dominant sources of energy for about half of the world's population. FAO's wood energy programme promotes sustainable wood energy systems as a contribution to sustainable forest management, livelihoods and food security.