Advanced BioFuels USA

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA)  The United Nation’s emphasis of “Sustainable Energy for All” (SE4All) in 2012 wrapped up with a decision to continue the focus with a Sustainable Energy for All Decade.  The Pennsylvania Sustainable Energy Fund (SEF) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) brought together the international, national and local at a Sustainable Energy Symposium held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on December 10.
A prestigious panel represented United Nations’ entities such as the UNIDO and the UN Development Programme’s Sustainable Energy Programme Bureau, US entities such as the US Department of State and the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and state/local organizations such as the University of Pennsylvania and Stein Consulting Group.  Audience members represented business, academic , government and nonprofit interests.
Audience participation and one-on-one networking was a key part of the format for the half-day event discussing the challenges of implementing Sustainable Energy for All at the global and local levels.
The stated goals of the enterprise are:

• Ensuring universal access to modern energy services
• Doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency
• Doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix

As with many functions that advertise addressing “energy,” or even “renewable energy,” energy used for transportation be it fossil-based or bio-based, gets left out.
But for comments made by Carsten Staur, Denmark’s Ambassador to the United Nations, this omission would have held true on this occasion, as well.  Thank goodness for the self-interest of Denmark in acknowledging the work of one of its international corporations, Novozymes, a leader in biofuels enzyme development.
Although the environmental and health damage due to smoke from cooking fires was mentioned during opening remarks, except for Ambassador Staur’s comments, no mention was made of examples of ethanol stoves being used to mitigate this harm.
Staur urged the international, national and local communities to give biofuels a chance to prove that they can be a success—or not, noting that investment in new technologies can be risky; but if one in 10 investments takes off at a global scale, that will cover the investment in the others that don’t make it.
He and Dr. Robert F. Ichord, Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources called for elimination of tax subsidies to oil companies, not just in the US, but globally.  Ichord sees these subsidies as vulnerable when countries are in tough financial straits.

From left, Dr. Jamal Uddin, Coppin State University; Stephen Gitonga, UN Development Programme; Joanne Ivancic, Advanced Biofuels USA