The secretariat of the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) began its operation here on Monday, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in a news report.

The secretariat, located at the FAO headquarters and supported by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, was launched at the 14th Session of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development in May 2006 to promote the use of bioenergy.

The mandate of the secretariat is to facilitate a global political forum to promote bioenergy and to encourage the production, marketing and use of "green" fuels, with a particular focus on developing countries.

The secretariat will be the principal coordinator of Partnership communications and activities and will assist international exchanges of know-how and technology, promote supportive policy frameworks and identify ways of fostering investments and removing barriers to the development and implementation of joint projects.

In the short term, the secretariat will update the inventory of existing networks, initiatives and institutions dealing with bioenergy and identify any gaps in knowledge. It will also assist the partners in identifying and implementing bilateral and multilateral projects for sustainable bioenergy development and support the formulation of guidelines for measuring reductions in greenhouse gas emissions due to the use of biofuels.

The Partnership's overall aim is to respond to the growing need for the development of renewable energy sources in the light of high oil prices, global warming and concerns about diminishing fossil fuel reserves.

The FAO has always actively promoted biofuels as a means of reducing poverty while producing clean, low-cost energy. Given the right technologies, an abundant energy supply could be tapped by converting biomass such as crop residues, grass, straw and brushwood into fuel, while crops like sugar cane, corn and soybeans are already being used to produce ethanol or bio-diesel.

"We are happy that the FAO was chosen to host the GBEP Secretariat," said Alexander Muller, FAO assistant Director-General for Sustainable Development. "Its presence will stimulate us to continue helping governments and institutions formulate appropriate bioenergy policies and strategies."

"We hope the creation of a Global Bioenergy Partnership will help reduce the current dependency on oil. Over the next decades, we will most probably see bioenergy providing an increasing amount of the world's energy needs, but we need to assure that this is done in a sustainable manner. Positive synergies between GBEP and the FAO's International Bioenergy Platform (IBEP) will contribute to an expanded and sustainable role of biofuels," said Muller.

Italy and Mexico were respectively appointed as Chair and Vice-Chair of GBEP's Steering Committee for the next two years.

Source: Xinhua