Tackling rural poverty, together

Bioenergy

Extract out of Hot topics: Platform consensus on rural development issues of global significance

There are clear links between bioenergy and thematic areas such as the environment and trade. However, Platform members raised a number of issues that merit bioenergy being considered as a separate “hot topic” in itself. They suggested that the implications of biofuel use for rural development are a critical issue, as is the use of biomass (produced through agriculture and forestry) for energy. Renewable energy, decentralised rural energy supply, competition between bioenergy crops and food crops, and the impacts of bioenergy use on the environment are all thematic areas that resonate with Platform members. Underlying many of these areas are the implications that bioenergy has for food security. Finally, as members highlighted the future of smallholder farmers as a priority issue under other topics, it is crucial to identify smallholder options for producing and using bioenergy, as well as energy-use options for them in general.

Summary of Platform Policy Brief on Bioenergy

Further Reading

•  Biofuels: The Promise and the Risks, World Bank 2007. Policy Brief extracted from World Development Report 2008 'Agriculture for Development'
  More information at  http://go.worldbank.org/5AI2GS29Q0.
• Development policy stance on agrofuels - Discussion Paper, BMZ, March 2008
•  Biofuels - Opportunity or Threat to the Poor? Issue Paper, SDC July 2007.

Member Policies

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