Standards and certification

With COP 15 meetings in Copenhagen fast approaching, the WBA is working hard to ensure the voice of bioenergy is heard at the table when world leaders convene to chart a post-Kyoto future.

The WBA interim board has decided to create five working groups to begin work on drafting WBA Position Papers on a variety of important bioenergy-related themes.

One working group will focus exclusively on developing a set of bioenergy certification criteria by drawing on existing examples to create WBA’s own system for bioenergy certification.

A second working group will tackle the theme of sustainability in terms of how bioenergy can contribute to solving some of the many challenges related to climate change.

In the autumn of 2009, another working group will begin examining issues related to bioenergy standardisation with the expectation of being able to present the results at a large international event in 2010. Standardisation will deal with the technology making energy from fuels and the interface between fuel and machinery. Certification criteria mostly deal with the fuel.

Another WBA working group will look at developing suggestions for public subsidies and other incentive programmes that help stimulate bioenergy utilisation.

A final working group will devote itself to analyzing the bioenergy land-use debate as it pertains to food and water supplies with the goal of presenting a WBA Position Paper on the issue sometime in 2010.