Last week, U.S. Grains Council (USGC) ethanol staff traveled to Asunción, Paraguay, to take part in the ninth Bioenergy Week of the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP).
Bioenergy Week 2022 focused on fostering the practicality of sustainable bioenergy services and supporting its accelerated implementation in the Americas. The event strengthened cooperation between member states and established institutions to increase sustainable energy services.
The forum aimed to demonstrate the state of global and regional bioenergy, policies and regulations; present the state of the regional bioenergy situation and efforts to further enhance the share of bioenergy within the regional energy mix; discuss successful, replicable bioenergy systems that provide sustainable modern energy services, with a special focus on energy transition; showcase available technologies, research and development, feedstocks and financial instruments of partners and investment firms; and provide a platform for the private sector to facilitate a viable bioenergy market in the region.
“Our participation demonstrates how the Council has become a reference in the region,” said Juan Sebastian Diaz, USGC ethanol consultant. “The Council´s efforts have gone beyond in-country engagement to multilateral organizations such as GBEP.”
During the program, Mackenzie Boubin, USGC director of global ethanol export development, took part in a roundtable discussion entitled Challenges and Opportunities for the Development of Bioenergy. Boubin shared her thoughts on the need for building a coalition within the renewable energy sector and highlighted the Council’s experience on working with various overseas markets and stakeholders to promote increased ethanol global consumption. Boubin covered ethanol’s vital and necessary role on the road to net zero and touched on ethanol’s ability to be an affordable, abundant, sustainable and compatible drop-in fuel.
“This year’s GBEP was heavily focused on the Latin America region and how countries within this market are implementing or encouraging further biofuel use. There was broad consensus among participants that regulatory certainty is imperative to increasing investment and uptake of biofuels in the near future,” Boubin said. “These types of events are valuable to the Council so it may continue engagement with key decision makers and business entities and to provide USGC resources with identified opportunities.”
The event was a unique platform to demonstrate the important role of biofuels to decarbonize the economy. The Council will continue bringing back to the table the implementation of a coherent biofuels program as the best alternative in the region to complement the Latin American government efforts to adopt electric mobility.
About The U.S. Grains Council
The U.S. Grains Council develops export markets for U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products including distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and ethanol. With full-time presence in 28 locations, the Council operates programs in more than 50 countries and the European Union. The Council believes exports are vital to global economic development and to U.S. agriculture’s profitability. Detailed information about the Council and its programs is online at www.grains.org.