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This year’s Bioenergy Week was organized through FAO by the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) and was hosted by the Government of the Philippines in Manila, from 25 to 27 June.

“The event really stressed the importance of reinforcing collaboration between the private and public sector, and of carrying out sustainability assessments to enhance the potential benefits and reduce the negative impacts of bioenergy production”.

Said Dr Maria Michela Morese, Executive Secretary of GBEP, who expressed her appreciation for the valuable experiences that were shared from the region and beyond.

The Philippines Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture and the Sugar Regulatory Administration, in collaboration with the Ethanol Producers Association of the Philippines, US Grains Council and Novozymes played a key role in this 7^th Bioenergy Week, sharing knowledge and best practices that could be replicated in other countries.

The event gathered around 250 participants from four continents including scientists and government officials, as well as representatives from the private sector and civil society organizations.

Philippine Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, described the event as "really timely" because, according to him, the Philippines embraced the use of bioenergy, particularly biofuels, as well as renewable energy, before its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) peers.

"We came up with our renewable energy law ten years ago, we also had a biofuels law ten years ago, and we must embrace the use of both”.

He went on to describe what the Philippines are working towards:

“Number one is to come up with a sustainable future for our next generation: cleaner power and cleaner energy and the second is to help our farmers increase their income and productivity”.

He explained how this would come through an increase in the use of methanol and biodiesel but, as administrator Hermenegildo Serafica added, local farmers are not benefiting from biofuels because half of the ethanol is imported from the US.

The 1^st Bioenergy Week took place in Latin America in 2013 and has since them been hosted annually in different countries. It is the second time it has been held in Asia since 2015 when it took place in Indonesia.

Robert Uy from the Philippines Department of Energy, congratulated GBEP on choosing the Philippines to host the 7^th Bioenergy Week:

“Here we have the cooperation and the technologies, we are going to learn from these experiences all over the world and hopefully we can adopt them in the local context."

Related articles:

https://www.philippinetimes.com/news/261557974/ph-hosts-7th-bioenergy-week

https://www.doe.gov.ph/press-releases/doe-co-hosts-7th-global-bioenergy-forum