Hydropower
The sustainability of large hydropower has been under discussion already
before the Three Gorges Project. Policy must consider the
difficult and often negative environmental and social implications of large hydropower
structures. In an effort to find a consensus and develop standards, the World Commission on Dams
(WCD) has established authoritative
recommendations. The dialogue on this report was
taken forward by the Dams and
Development Project, hosted by UNEP. Consensus was reached on the
WCD Core Vales and Strategic Priorities. On the basis of these values,
Hydropower Sustainability Guidelines and an associated
Sustainability Assessment Protocol were developed by the
International Hydropower Association.
Wind power
As a result of its development to a mature and much-used technology, wind power
has been confronted with numerous environmental concerns. The World Wind Energy Association has, in October 2005, provided
Sustainability and Due
Diligence Guidelines to promote greater consideration of the
environmental, social and economic aspects of new wind projects.
Bioenergy
The changing competitiveness and new policies for bioenergy in the transport,
heat, and electricity sector have created a whole range of opportunities for bioenergy, including global
bioenergy trade. The rapid growth in a multitude of
technologies for production and use is fuelling concerns about sustainability.
In October 2009, the biofuels working group of the
International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management produced
the report
Towards
Sustainable Production and Use of Resources: Assessing Biofuels.
Led by UNEP and Wuppertal Institute, this report builds on an extensive literature study
in order to present the key
issues with regard to sustainable production and use of
biofuels, particularly first-generation technologies. With a series of regularly updated
issue papers,
UNEP also highlights emerging bioenergy
topics on a continuous basis.
In November 2009, the
Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels
produced a report on
Principles
& Criteria for Sustainable Biofuel Production.
The
Global Bioenergy Partnership
was established as a network of public, private and civil society
stakeholders to advance the issue within the context of the G8
process. It is currently led by Italy and Brazil and hosted in Rome
by the
Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FA0)
of the UN.
GBEP's
Task Force on Sustainability is working to develop a set of
global science-based criteria and indicators as well as examples of
experiences and best practices including benchmarks regarding the
sustainability of bioenergy.
Earlier publications in the area of sustainable biofuels include:
