COP 23: 19 Nations Say They'll Use More Bioenergy

China and 18 other nations representing half the world's population said at COP 23 they planned to increase the use of wood and other plant matter from sustainable sources to generate energy as part of efforts to limit climate change. The group would work out collective targets for increasing the use of what they called sustainable bioenergy. The 19 represent half the world's population and 37 percent of the global economy.

Argentina, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Mozambique, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Philippines, Sweden and Uruguay signed up for the plan. They agreed to "develop collective targets prescribing the contribution of sustainable bioenergy to final energy demand and as a percentage of transport fuel use", their joint Biofuture Platform initiative in a statement.

The group would also seek to expand what they called the "bioeconomy", or all economic activity related to the use of plants in the production of renewable energy, materials and chemicals.

Source: New York Times online
Read more