Results

AGRINERGY aims towards a broad dissemination of project results to key stakeholders, expert communities and to the wider public. In addition to reports and event summaries, thematic policy briefs tailor-made for the needs of policy makers and further decision making will be prepared.

Main deliverables of AGRINERGY are:

1. A general review

on the effects of higher biomass production on the agricultural sector in the European Union. This review claims to represent the current state of knowledge concerning following issues:

• Linkages between EU policies and bioenergy policies
• Environmental effects of biomass production
• Effects of biomass production on future rural development
• Bioenergy policy and its relation to the future trade negotiations
• Sustainability standards for biofuels and biomass production in relevant policy fields

Survey Impacts Biomass production EU [pdf, 1.1 MB]

2. Expert seminar

The results of the review were reflected with relevant experts from science, politics and private companies in order to include aspects that are possibly missing in the ongoing of the study and to come up with first outcomes that can be broadly agreed on. There were three working groups addressing the following questions:

1. Does bioenergy contribute to local added value and can it further enhance future development of rural areas?
2. What are sound policy approaches to guarantee a fair trade of biomass without further depletion of natural resources in exporting countries?
3. How can sustainability measures for bioenergy be inserted in agricultural, energy and environmental policies?

The expert seminar was held on 20 November 2007 in Brussels. The outcomes of the seminar can be downloaded here:

AGRINERGY Expert Workshop Outcome Note [pdf, 84 KB]

For further information including all presenations given during the workshop, see Events.

3. Conference

In the light of the recent developments in EU bioenergy policies, an international conference was held in Brussels on 19-20 May 2008. More than 90 stakeholders discussed the future of Europe's bioenergy production and use from an environmental, socio-economic and policy perspective. Speakers from Uruguay and Indonesia provided a good reflection on the implications of EU bioenergy policies on an international level.

The outcomes of the conferenc can be downloaded here:

AGRINERGY Conference Summary [pdf, 163 KB]

For further information including all presenations given during the conference, see Conference

4. Policy brief

Based on the findings of the previous activities, a policy brief has been created evaluating the political objectives of bioenergy development in Europe in relation to the following issues:

• Effects of production of energy crops on the environment
• Effects of production of energy crops on rural development in EU
• Effects of EU bioenergy policies outside Europe

The policy brief can be downloaded here:

Policy Brief AGRINERGY [pdf, 190 KB]