Linkages between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and GBEP Sustainability Indicators (GSIs)

The Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP), has developed a set of GBEP Sustainability Indicators (GSIs) for bioenergy with international partners. There are 24 GSIs, divided evenly among environmental, economic and social spheres, and a growing consensus that these GBEP indicators are a comprehensive and practical means for countries to measure their progress towards sustainable bioenergy development. The workshop, held 3 to 4 July 2017 at the German Development Institute in Bonn, Germany, was organized to extend and reinforce this consensus by showing how countries have applied the GSIs to ensure their bioenergy is developed sustainably.

IRENA presented a brief on Bioenergy for Sustainable Development that was jointly prepared with the Bioenergy Technology Collaboration Programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA Bioenergy) and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The brief discusses how bioenergy can be produced without jeopardizing food production or emitting carbon to the atmosphere, simultaneously supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) around energy access, nutrition, and climate change. Some ways of doing so, such as collecting more farm and forest residues or making more land available for bioenergy crops by boosting yields on food crops, reducing waste and losses in the food chain, and restoring degraded land, could eventually be proposed to GBEP members as “no regrets” best practice measures that would normally support SDGs even where data are not available on the full range of GSIs.

Presentation on the linkages between the Sustainable Development Goals & GBEP Sustainability Indicators — Jeffrey Skeer, IRENA

Conclusions from the workshop