Climate change is a global problem that demands global action, while we still have time to make a difference. We know that mitigation efforts over the next 20 to 30 years can play a significant role in stabilizing our climate and protecting the earth’s capacity to support life.
One of our climate mitigation goals is to ensure that expansion of bioenergy is environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. Under the guidance of Peter Riggs, a senior advisor to the Packard Foundation, we have revised our approach to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from bioenergy, as part of our Land Use subprogram (previously called the Agriculture subprogram). Our bioenergy strategy has transitioned from a biofuels-only strategy to one that also includes some work on biomass energy.
Short-term objectives of the approach are twofold. First, we will support work that we hope will sharply limit the use of biofuels that result in little or no GHG reductions, and put caps on the use of food-based biofuels. Second, we will support efforts to establish bioenergy GHG emission reduction and sustainability standards and norms worldwide, and to ensure that those standards are not undermined by perverse incentives and subsidies that promote unsustainable production of bioenergy.
You can learn more about our climate mitigation work here.
