Work Package 4 of the BioTop project investigates the sustainability of the whole biofuel production cycle and idetifies research needs and technological opportunities sustainability aspects. As the development of biomass certification schemes for sustainability is in its early stage, the objective is to set up and provide sustainability criteria for the development of an integrated system of indicators. The focus will be on standards and certification schemes that are already available or under development by the relevant international, regional and government bodies, companies, roundtables and various NGOs.
In order to develop sustainablitiy tools for biofuel production, it is necessary to gain specific information and projections of expected trends and future developments at local, regional, national and international level. Furthermore, the comparison of existing policy frameworks in LA and Europe points out the demand for cooperation to contribute to the agenda setting process in this sector.
The development and selection of sustainability assessment tools includes an assessment of the social, environmental and economic dimension of sustainability in biofuel production. A initial analysis identifies required institutional and legal frameworks for the environmental, economic and social sustainability of biofuel production in Latin America. Based on the results of the sustainability analysis, relevant indicators and outcomes are listed and presented in the form of guidelines.
BioTop Reports
In the framework of BioTop WP4, the following reports were elaborated:
BioTop Workshop on Sustainability
Within WP4, a workshop on state-of-the-art and latest developments in sustainability issues of biofuels production as well as on improved conversion technologies was organised on 25-26 September 2009 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
For more information on the workshop, please click here!
Other workshops on Sustainability
The IEA and the International SCOPE Biofuels Project both held workshops on sustainability and made their results available in reports.
To find out more about the IEA workshop: "Biofuels for transport - Part of a sustainble future?", please click here.
To find out more about the International SCOPE Biofuels Project "workshop on the environmental effects of Biofuel technologies", please click here.
Current European Biofuel-Sustainability Initiatives
For biofuels to be deemed environmentally compatible, it is necessary to demonstrate that they are produced on an environmentally sustainable basis, and that they contribute positively to climate change mitigation (COM, 2006).
Currently, sustainability initiatives for biofuels exist in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Germany as well as on EU level.
Sustainability 
