Biofuture Platform Members Meet in Abu Dhabi

Over 20 representatives of the Biofuture Platform, a multi-stakeholder mechanism formed to accelerate development and scale up deployment of modern sustainable low carbon alternatives to fossil based solutions in transport, chemicals, plastics and other sectors, met on 19 January 2017 in Abu Dhabi to discuss and coordinate key initiatives of the group for 2017.

The Platform, established in November 2016, at the COP22 meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, aims to be a mechanism for policy dialogue and collaboration among leading countries, organisations, academia and the private sector to advance a global economy based on materials, chemicals and energy derived from renewable biological resources.

Participants discussed preparing a report and a vision statement on the low carbon bioeconomy in order to provide a strong signal to markets, investors, planners and policy makers about the bioeconomy’s relevance to climate change and sustainability. They also planned a series of focused policy debates related to the low-carbon bioeconomy, on topics such as demand-creation policies, internalization of environmental benefits, investment risk mitigation and accelerating research and development (R&D).

“Bioenergy is key to achieving the sustainable development goals agreed to by the UN, in particular on access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy as well as to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement which entail decisive action to decarbonise the energy sector. In this regard, the Biofuture Platform has a key role to play as a pathway to a low-carbon bio-economy.” said IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin during the opening session of the meeting.

Available material and presentations can be downloaded through the links below:

• About the Biofuture Platform
• Facilitator’s Report on the Meeting’s Conclusions
• Technology Innovation Outlook for Advanced Liquid Biofuels by Jeffrey Skeer, IRENA
• Role of Bioenergy and Transport Biofuels in Energy and Climate Scenarios by Paolo Frankl, IEA