12th GBEP Bioenergy Week
Hybrid Event, 07/07/2025 - 11/07/2025
Background
Since 2013, the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) has been organizing a Bioenergy Week every year in a different region of the world. In 2025, for its 12th edition, the GBEP Bioenergy Week will be held in Kampala, Uganda from 7 to 11 July 2025. The event is organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the context of the GBEP Programme of Work, hosted by the government of Uganda. The conference will take a regional perspective, focusing on bioenergy development in Africa.
Objectives
The Bioenergy Week seeks to support efforts to ensure that bioenergy can play a constructive role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and implementing the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, thereby advancing climate goals, food security, better land use, and sustainable energy for all. The main aim is to formulate key messages to inform the priorities of intergovernmental forums and processes at global level (e.g. G20, G7, UNFCCC COP) and regional economic communities in Africa (e.g. East Africa Community, ECA).
The GBEP Bioenergy Week brings together a large network of bioenergy stakeholders, including international experts, decision makers and private sector representatives to discuss current trends, future opportunities and challenges in bioenergy. Previous editions have successfully contributed to exchanging views, best practices and lessons learned among stakeholders on ways to improve the sustainability of bioenergy systems through both practical and policy interventions on agricultural productivity and yield, feedstock logistics, and the use of modern conversion technologies. The event will provide the opportunity to enhance dialogue with the private sector and other stakeholders on ways to improve cooperation to this end.
Sustainable bioenergy for just and inclusive energy transitions
The 2025 GBEP Bioenergy Week will enhance learning from positive experiences on how to build, both at regional and national level, an enabling environment for just and inclusive energy transitions. Furthermore, it will share best practices and knowledge on sustainable bioenergy systems that can optimize the water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus both in agrifood systems and beyond. The contribution of sustainable bioenergy to the achievement of the SDGs will also be highlighted, specifically SDG7 on modern energy access and clean cooking.
Given the regional nature of the conference, the Bioenergy Week will include sessions on issues that are specifically relevant for Africa, including modern energy access, data and statistical systems for good governance, rural development, financing, and Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem management for climate change adaptation and resilience.
Each day of the five-day conference will focus on a different theme:
DAY 1 – 2nd GBEP Bioenergy Youth Day
The 2nd GBEP Bioenergy Youth Day will encompass both educative and training activities on sustainable bioenergy, with a focus on innovation and technology. The activities will be targeted at youth of various age groups, including high school and university students. The day will also include a presentation of the 2025 GBEP Youth Award.
DAY 2 – Building an enabling environment for the transition
Enabling bioenergy expansion that supports the achievement of climate and development goals requires that policies and strategies to promote sustainable management and further development of the sector are put in place, both at regional and national level. The development of these policies should consider the variation in conditions across regions and countries and take into account priorities and needs of all actors along the value chain, including their priorities and challenges. Evidence-based and tailor-made policies and strategies are required conditions for attracting financing and investments both from government and private sector sources, which could help to overcome crucial barriers such as high investment costs for bioenergy producers and consumers.
DAY 3 – Advancing clean cooking access
Globally, 2.1 billion people – around one in four – do not have access to clean cooking systems and rely primarily on inefficient burning of solid biomass in open fires or polluting cookstoves. In Africa, this number increases to more than half of the population, with four out of every five people in sub-Saharan Africa. In the last 2 years, increasing attention and growing investment have been dedicated to this topic at a global level. In 2025, the presidencies of both the G20 and G7, as well as the UNFCCC COP29, recognized the topic as a priority issue. The relevance of bioenergy in the clean cooking transition is important given that there is no suitable one-size-fits-all clean cooking solution. This day will offer the opportunity to share knowledge, demonstrate and discuss relevant efforts and activities implemented in Africa to foster bioenergy-based clean cooking solutions (including improved feedstock, biogas, bioethanol, micro-gasification, and others) in urban and rural areas, as well as in humanitarian settings.
DAY 4 – Enhancing the management of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem Nexus
The economic use of natural resources, such as water and land, in the African region are constrained by resources limitations, climatic conditions and socio-economic stresses. This day will provide examples of how sustainable bioenergy could contribute to enhance positive synergies within the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem Nexus, including interactions among the four domains: water allocation, clean energy access, food production and ecosystem health. Discussions will investigate best practices, such as innovative tools and strategies, and their potential to create new socio-economic opportunities both in agrifood systems and beyond. Specific sessions will delve into the use of bioenergy for enhancing land and water use efficiency, replacing traditional and fossil-based energy sources, enhancing waste and residue management as part of the circular economy, and reducing food loss and waste, both in rural and urban areas.
DAY 5 – Field visit
The Bioenergy Week will conclude with a field visit to local bioenergy facility. Exact location to be confirmed.