Opportunities and barriers for sustainable international bioenergy trade and strategies to overcome them
Year: 2006
Type: other
Abstract: Trade of Biomass and Bioenergy (Biotrade) can provide a stable and reliable situation for sustainable production of biomass fuels, become a source of additional income and increased employment (e.g. for rural communities) and may contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources.For importers, biotrade may assist to fulfil GHG emission reduction targets in a cost-effective manner, diversify their fuel mix and lead to a more sustainable energy production.Stimulated by the renewable energy policies in several countries, rising oil prices and a wish for diversification of supply, in most Task 40 member countries, growth rates of 10-20% per year (and above) have been observed in international trade of biomass and bioenergy.However, a multitude of different barriers currently exist, hampering the development of international bioenergy trade.These include economic, technical, logistical, ecological, social, cognitive, legal, and trade barriers, lack of clear international accounting rules and statistics, and issues regarding land availability, deforestation, energy balances, potential conflicts with food production and local use vs. international trade.To address these barriers, a number of issues have been identified for further consideration:To ensure biomass sustainability, it is recommended for actors in the various bioenergy routes both in importing and exporting countries to seek agreements on short-term (minimum) sustainability criteria, and to support a long-term development of international standards for important and generally accepted issues.Some of the Task 40 members advocate an international certification system for biomass embedded in (inter)national regulations, while others would preferably see a voluntary approach.For market transparency, Task 40 recommends to the IEA, UNCTAD, WTO and national trade organisation to include (new) biomass types in their statistics, and to include the final application (e.g.energy, chemical feedstock, fodder etc.) where possible.Furthermore, it is recommended that the various standards that are applied today are developed into internationally accepted quality standards for specific biomass streams (e.g.CEN biofuel standards).To stimulate international trade, Task 40 identifies import barriers for certain biomass and biofuels types to be a major obstacle for a smooth further development of international bioenergy trade.Some Task members emphasise that on the short-term, local industries should also be given the opportunity to develop innovative and improved processes for biomass and biofuels production.Other task members stress that such a process should be coupled to a phase-out agenda with clearly defined quotas.To create a stable demand-side,• On the longer-term, market support policies in the various countries, etc. should be designed to promote and stimulate international trade when and where trade would be the logical option.Some task member advocate a harmonization of e.g.EU policies but recognize that this will be hard to achieve in practice and would require a gradual process of adjusting the various national support systems.• Policy incentives could also include requirements for energy and/or CO 2 balances.• In order to create long-term incentives, policy makers in countries with biomass targets (or renewable energy targets in general) are advised to formulate sound long-term biomass policies, including new targets with a time horizon of at least 10 years or longer, e.g.2020, in order to create clarity and security for the industry for long-term investments.To stimulate a stable supply side • Improved logistical infrastructure on the supply-side is needed, such as low-cost longrange shipping.• Further technology development of pretreatment technologies should be stimulated • Projects by e.g. the World Bank or FAO should recognize and increasingly stimulate the use of residues as important (by-) products and actively promote energy crops as bioenergy source.• Stimulate and support capacity building on bioenergy trade related issues.
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2151558491