I Biofuture Summit

2 events in one 

Biofuture Platform Policy Conference 

below50 Roadshow

 

October 24-25

Estanplaza Hotel, São Paulo Brazil

 

 

‑ Full programme of the event is available in PDF here

Event concept

In recent times, renewable energy has been increasingly garnering attention and yielding investiment and cooperation, particularly in the power generation field. Whilst this wave of interest is welcome and critical, more should be done to scale up the alternatives to fossil fuels in the transport sector and industry, taking advantage of new, sustainable technologies already available.

Today the use of fossil fuels in transportation and industrial production contributes up to 35% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Hence, sustainable biofuels, bioenergy, and bioproducts shall play a crucial role in tackling these emissions and overall fighting climate change. 

Organized in accordance with the mandate approved by  the member countries at the All-Member Biofuture Platform meeting (Abu Dhabi, January 2017), the first Biofuture Platform Policy Conference will address the need (increasingly evident in climate and econometric models, scenarios and projections by agencies such as IEA, IRENA and REN21, among others) for scaling up the use of sustainable bioenergy in order to maintain the internationally agreed global temperature levels as well as to foster discussions, share best practices and lessons learned in tackling climate change.

Pursuant to the multistakeholder nature of the Platform, and particularly highlighting the critical importance of the private sector, the first Biofuture Platform Policy Conference will be held in conjunction with the roadshow for below50 (a global coalition of leading corporations to promote low carbon fuels, linked to the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, WBCSD). 

Combining the two events, the first Biofuture Summit aims to:

a)  provide government officials, experts and industry stakeholders an opportunity to share lessons and exchange experiences on some of the key policy aspects related to the challenge of scaling up the bioeconomy sector, including supply and demand policies, R&D policies, financing, sustainability, and usage.

b) Showcase the private sector´s current activities, research projects, investment plans and promising new technologies  aimed at achieving performance breakthroughs and cost reductions for sustainable large scale production and use of advanced biofuels and biomaterials.

The expected outcomes of the Biofuture Summit are:

a) increased awareness among key policy makers and decision makers about the need to scale up the bioeconomy and the challenges ahead;

b) a strengthened overarching sense of the solutions and ways forward, and an enhanced  understanding  that coordinated action across different policy and production areas, mobilizing public and private efforts, is the best way to overcome the challenges to scaling up the low carbon bioeconomy.

The Summit deliberations could contribute to the Biofuture Vision Statement to be elaborated and endorsed by the twenty Biofuture Platform countries during COP23.

                                                                _____________________________________________

 

The Biofuture Platform is an action-oriented, country-led, multi-stakeholder coalition on low carbon transport and the bioeconomy launched last November at UNFCCC COP22 by Argentina, Brazil, Canada,  China,  Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, Paraguay, Philippines, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay. The Platform aims to facilitate for policy dialogue and collaboration among leading countries, organizations, academia and the private sector conscious of the need to accelerate development and scale up deployment of modern sustainable low carbon alternatives to fossil based solutions in transport, chemicals, plastics and other sectors. 

below50 is a global collaboration that brings together the entire value-chain for sustainable fuels – that is, fuels that produce at least 50% less CO2 emissions than conventional fossil fuels. below50 is creating global campaign for local action, taking a global strategy and implementing solutions at a local level. below50 aims to create demand for these fuels and scale up their deployment by: Increasing the number of companies choosing below50 fuels; creating inter-sectoral B2B opportunities across supply chains; demonstrating that below50 fuels makes good economic, social and environmental sense; and addressing legislative and financial barriers to sourcing below50 fuels.