Even if able to provide multiple economic and social benefits, bioenergy sources are often associated with risks, such as biodiversity loss, deforestation, additional pressure on water resources, and increased demand for agricultural inputs, land, and commodities.

For this reason the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) recently published its first report on Sustainability Indicators for Bioenergy, with the aim of helping both developed and developing countries to assess and build up the sustainable production and use of bioefuels. The report is the concrete output of the work which several GBEP Partners and Observers have carried on since 2008 through the GBEP Task Force on Sustainability, reaching wide consensus among broad range of national governments and international institutions.

Made up of a set of 24 indicators of sustainability, the report is a voluntary tool that can support the development of national bioenergy policies and programs as well as help interpret and respond to the environmental, social and economic impacts of bioenergy production and use. Every indicator comes with its methodology sheet, which outlines the approach for collecting and analyzing the data needed to evaluate the indicator and for making relevant comparisons to other energy options or agricultural systems. The methodology sheet also provides information on data limitations and highlights potential bottlenecks to data acquisition.

The GBEP indicators do not provide answers or correct values of sustainability, but rather present the right questions to ask when assessing the effect of modern bioenergy production and use in meeting nationally-defined goals of sustainable development.

To download the full report please visit the GBEP website