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As an integral part of climate change actions, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) assists countries and partners in defining strategies and solutions to enable access to modern and clean forms of energy, as a contribution to low-carbon food systems.

What evidence is needed to do this and how can it be gathered?

Knowledge about different forms of bioenergy and its suitability in different settings is key and FAO works closely with youth providing training opportunities.

Students at the Dutch University of Twente have recently been trained to use the FAO BEFS (Bioenergy and Food Security) Rapid Appraisal tools, as part of the syllabus of the Regional Economics of Bioresources course.

The course syllabus was developed under the framework of the Horizon 2020 project BioEnergyTrain and introduces students to the sustainable use of bioenergy in a regional context and guides them to use a set of tools to analyse the positive and negative impacts of bioenergy, assess possibilities for bioenergy development, and the social impact it may have.

BEFS tools guide users to carry out assessments giving countries the possibility to implement bioenergy strategies in a sustainable way, with minimal impact on the environment.

“The demonstration of the tool and the content of the lectures helped me understand how to correctly approach problems regarding the bioenergy potential in a region and will definitely be an important resource and asset for my future development in this field.” Said John Vaskalis, one of the students on completion of the course.

The benefits

Sustainable and renewable energy can be cleaner and better for the environment, and in the future is likely to cost less, so it’s a precious resource particularly in those areas that don’t have electricity because they are ‘off the grid’. It’s also an important way for countries to meet their climate commitments or Nationally Determined Contributions.

Bioenergy is very context specific and bioenergy policy formulation needs to be based on country level evidence.

After attending the lectures, the students expressed interest in using the BEFS RA tools in their forthcoming research projects. The University have requested that lectures on the BEFS RA tools continue next year.

"Thelectures regarding BEFS RA really helped me to understand the potential of bioresources, as I could adjust the different variables and see the influence on the quantified potential of bioresources in a specific region. Additionally, the approach taken in the BEFS RA gave me inspiration for quantifying some other sustainability problems in other courses as well!” Explained Anne Rikhof one of the students following the course.

The Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Approach was developed by FAO in 2014 to support countries in developing evidence-based sustainable bioenergy policies and strategies.