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Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels
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The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) is a multi-stakeholder effort to develop global standards for sustainable biofuels production and processing. The Roundtable is an initiative of the Energy Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne ( EPFL) . By early 2008, it aims to have draft standards developed in conjunction with non-governmental organizations, companies, governments and inter-governmental groups from all over the world. Its hope is to create a tool that consumers, policy-makers, companies, banks, and other actors can use to ensure that biofuels deliver on their promise of sustainability.
Overview
All standards development work will be done in an open and transparent way, with ample comment periods according to the ISEAL code of good practice. The Roundtable will gather opinions and feedback through online technology such as the BioEnergyWiki, conference calls, and regional meetings, to ensure that developing countries and disadvantaged groups have a meaningful opportunity to contribute to the elaboration of the standards.
The standards will be developed through four Working Groups, which will be open to any interested stakeholder. The Working Groups will focus on the following areas:
*GHG - greenhouse gas lifecycle efficiency analysis. This group will recommend methodologies to use to calculate the efficiency of particular production and processing techniques in terms of replacing greenhouse gas emissions as compared to fossil fuels.
*ENV - environmental impacts. This group will draft minimum criteria for sustainable biofuels regarding their impact on biodiversity, soil and water resources, air pollution, and other environmental issues.
*SOC - social impacts. This group will outline the criteria for labor rights, food security, poverty alleviation, land rights, and other social elements of sustainable biofuels production.
*IMP - implementation. This group will review the recommendations of the other working groups to ensure that the standards are easy to implement and measure so that they are accessible by small-scale and other low-income farmers.
They will also make recommendations on future steps for the Roundtable, such as the potential value of independent third party certification.
Standards
There is important work already going on in sustainable biofuels standards development, and the aim of the RSB is to build on this work and create standards that are:
*Simple - "The standards should be accessible by small producers, inexpensive to measure, and easy to explain."
*Generic - "The standards should be applicable to any crop in any country, and allow comparisons across crops and production systems."
*Adaptable - "The standards should be easy to revise to take into account new technologies and their impacts on relative performance of different biofuels."
*Efficient - EPFL aims "to incorporate other standards and certifications to eliminate duplicative reporting and reduce inspection burdens on producers and processors.
The organizers state that "All standards development work will be done in an open and transparent way, with ample comment periods according to the ISEAL code of good practice."
Timeline
*By early 2008, EPFL aims to have draft standards developed in conjunction with non-governmental organizations, companies, governments and inter-governmental groups from all over the world.
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