Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's two leading palm producers, plan to set aside up to 40 percent of their output for biodiesel, with Jakarta estimating 600,000 tonnes of crude palm oil will be used by the biodiesel industry next year. Indonesia's calendar year 2007 palm oil production is forecast to rise to 17.60 million tonnes from an estimated 15.90 million in 2006, overtaking Malaysia as the world's largest producer, industry sources said.

"Few now deny that the world’s major economies are facing a crisis on an apocalyptical scale if they do not find the technology to prevent the unsustainable depletion of fossil fuel energy sources and prevent global warming. No surprises to some then, that attention is once again turning to the farming community as a potentially vital component in finding a way out of the current frightening prospect.

"Climate change will directly affect future food availability and compound the difficulties of feeding the world’s rapidly growing population." said Castro Paulino Camarada, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representative in Kenya at a U.N. climate change conference in Nairobi.  The message is clear - greater attention must be given to the impact of climate change on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and on mitigation and adaptation measures. “There is likely to be a significant transition toward biofuels during the next 50 years, with agriculture and forestry among the leading sources for both liquid and solid fuels,” he said. “Although there is no single solution for all countries, bioenergy has a role to play in both climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

"World political leaders have decided to act with resolution and urgency to change the energy future. The World Energy Outlook 2006 shows how to make that happen”, said Claude Mandil, Executive Director of the IEA. “WEO-2006 reveals that the energy future we are facing today, based on projections of current trends, is dirty, insecure and expensive. But it also shows how new government policies can create an alternative energy future which is clean, clever and competitive – the challenge posed to the IEA by the G8 leaders and IEA ministers”, Mr. Mandil emphasised.

"A new five year international cooperation and collaboration program, supported by the IEA, has been launched to help countries across the world develop more energy-efficient and resilient electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) networks. The IEA Implementing Agreement called ENARD (Electricity Networks Analysis, Research and Development) is focusing on developing and sharing new technologies and best practice, to help tackle challenges including climate change, the growth of renewable power generation, replacing the ageing network asset base and rapid shifts in global patterns of energy supply and demand.

"The latest projections from pre-2004 EU Member States (EU-15) show that greenhouse gas emissions could be brought down to 8.0 % below 1990 levels by 2010. If all existing and planned domestic policy measures are implemented and Kyoto mechanisms as well as carbon sinks are used, the EU-15 will reach its Kyoto Protocol target. This projection relies on figures from several Member States which suggest that they will cut emissions by more than is required to meet their national targets.

"LiveFuels Inc. announced a national alliance of scientists focused on producing biocrude oil by the year 2010. Funded by LiveFuels, the scientific alliance will be led by Sandia National Laboratories, a U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory. The alliance is expected to sponsor dozens of labs and hundreds of scientists by the year 2010.

Biomass Gas & Electric Company announced its agreement on October 11, 2006 with Florida's Capitol city, Tallahassee, to provide the city's utility with electric power and gas produced from biomass. The advanced technology used by BG&E follows a two-step process in which biomass is superheated, without oxygen, and converted into usable gas that is similar to natural gas. This gas is then used as fuel for turbines to produce electricity.

You probably don't know it, but the answer to America's gasoline addiction could be under the hood of your car. More than five million Tauruses, Explorers, Stratuses, Suburbans, and other vehicles are already equipped with engines that can run on an energy source that costs less than gasoline, produces almost none of the emissions that cause global warming, and comes from the Midwest, not the Middle East.

Published on Saturday, June 25, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

 Lydia Polgreen reported from Abidjan, and Marlise Simons from Paris.