Dubbed the Global Sustainable Bioenergy Project, the project aims to carry out a “global analysis of the feasibility of large-scale bioenergy production”.
The project is lead by a three person steering committee of which includes Nathanael Greene of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Tom Richard of Pennsylvania State University, and Lee Lynd of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.
Other members of the organizing committee for the project’s first phase include experts from Brazil, the Netherlands, Malaysia, South Africa, and Kenya.
"While there is a natural reluctance to consider change, we must do so since humanity cannot expect to achieve a sustainable and secure future by continuing the practices that have resulted in the unsustainable and insecure present," Lynd said in a recent commentary.
"Most analyses involving biofuels ... have been undertaken within a largely business-as-usual context. In particular, none have explored in any detail on a global scale what could be achieved via complementary changes fostering graceful coexistence of food and biofuel production."
The project’s first phase will include a series of meetings held at various locations around the world, with the first meeting scheduled to take place in November 2009 in Malaysia.
Subsequent meetings are scheduled to take place in the first half of 2010 in the Netherlands, South Africa, Brazil, and the United States.
Read the full press release here.