"In recent years bioenergy... has drawn attention as a sustainable energy source that may help cope with rising energy prices, address environmental concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, and offer new income and employment to farmers and rural communities around the world. For many countries...

"Given Europe's high import demand for fuel and its commitments to reduce CO2 emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, political pressure to implement strategies for the use of renewable energy is ever increasing. Thus, Europe aspires to use substantially more biofuels than it currently produces....

This 2012 Global Food Policy Report is the second in an annual series that provides an in-depth look at major food policy developments and events. Initiated in response to resurgent interest in food security, the series offers a yearly overview of the food policy developments that have...

"Much of the technology development for bioenergy to date has been geared toward competing with cheap fossil fuels. Bioenergy technologies have focused on reducing the cost per unit of energy produced, often exclusively by exploiting very cheap feedstocks and processing them on a large scale....

"Bioenergy crop systems can—if properly designed—yield significant benefits, both environmental and social. The right choice of biomass crops and production methods can lead to favorable carbon and energy balances and a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. But bioenergy production...

"This brief delineates two broad categories for bioenergy development — the exploitation of existing agricultural wastes and the establishment of energy plantations—and suggests high-priority steps for developing bioenergy in ways that benefit the poor... Once developing countries have...

"... There is a clear link between access to energy services and poverty alleviation and development. The first set of critical energy needs are those that satisfy basic human needs: fuel for cooking, heating and lighting, energy for pumping water, and electricity for health and education...

Food security has deteriorated since 1995 and reductions in child malnutrition are proceeding too slowly to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for halving hunger by 2015. Three major challenges threaten to drastically complicate efforts to overcome food insecurity and...

The year 2011 highlighted ongoing challenges to global food security, from food price volatility, extreme weather shocks, and famine to unrest and conflicts. On the policy front, major devel­opments at the global and national levels both offered grounds for encouragement and pointed to areas...

IFPRI's 2011 Global Food Policy Report—the first in a new annual series—provides an in-depth, contextualized look at the past year's major food policy developments and events. It both raises and answers these key questions: What happened in food policy in 2011 and why? What challenges and...