Goals:
- To promote African biofuels in the domestic and European markets;
- To promote and encourage African biofuel production;
- To facilitate a dialogue between African biofuel producers, users and policy makers, both North and South;
- To encourage European investment in African biofuel production;
- To encourage European development strategies to support African biofuel production;
- To monitor food vs. fuel issues;
- To encourage a dialogue between EU and Africa on biofuel sustainability;
- To represent our members' interest in the development of European biofuel policy;
Activities:
- Provide policy expertise to African governments, organisations, EU institutions and member states;
- Raise awareness of the growing African biofuels industry;
- Provide EU and African market analysis;
- Host trade development workshops for members;
- Provide trade opportunities through networking;
- Quarterly Board meetings (Brussels) tied with EC/EP networking;
- Annual General Meeting;
- Participate in biofuel conferences;
- Create strategic partnerships with other NGOs, lobby groups and institutions.
Key Accomplishments in 2008
- PANGEA participated in the following events to keep abreast of developments in the biofuels industry, to increase its network and to raise awareness of production opportunities in Africa.
- GTZ workshop on Sustainability Criteria-September (Brussels)
- EU Sustainability Criteria workshop-October (Brussels)
- International Biofuels Conference-November (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
- Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels workshop-November (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
- Rencontre Internationale sur les Agrocarburants workshop-December (Brussels)
- In collaboration with The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretariat, presented opportunities and challenges of the biofuels industry to a group of the region’s stakeholders at the COMESA Investors Conference in Brussels in November.
- Responded to major studies and events via press releases on our website. PANGEA fought to challenge controversial allegations regarding the impact of biofuel production on food prices.
- Obtained the official support from Least Developing Countries trade ministers during their discussion on the future of their sugar industries post-EU reform at the ACP Council of Ministers meeting in Addis Ababa. In view of the changes coming to those industries, PANGEA was invited to present to the ministers its goals as well as ways to help those industries transition out of sugar production and into biofuels.
- Presented findings on the EU's Renewable Energy Directive to the LDC Sugar Group of the ACP Secretariat in Brussels.
- Via an open letter to EU Institutions in November, PANGEA called attention to some of the strictest requirements of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) report that threatened to thwart development opportunities in Africa.
- PANGEA created a detailed background document followed by a presentation for the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Secretariat and states that served as the basis for discussions for the LDC sugar group, the trade and commodities sub-committee as well as the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Papua New Guinea.
- PANGEA is in the process of finalising a comprehensive EU biofuels policy review, including the finalised sustainability criteria for its members. This document includes an analysis of current and future ethanol production capacity for Europe identifying which European countries will need to import biofuels to satisfy the EU targets.
- Preparation of a database of current biofuels investment for the COMESA countries. The success of this effort encouraged the expansion of the database to include all Sub-Saharan Countries for 2009 and the remaining countries of the Africa, Pacific and Caribbean Group of States by 2010.
Main Focus in 2009
- Advocacy Activities
- Communication Activities
- Membership Development
- Policy Contribution
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