Minsk, 6 December 2006 - Technical, economic, environmental, financial, legislative and social aspects of large-scale utilization of wood-waste fuel was in the focus of a thematic forum held yesterday in Minsk.

The workshop “National Plan on Providing Sustainable Development of Bio-Energy and Dissemination of the Project Activities Results” was arranged under the UNDP and the Global Environment Facility project “Biomass Energy for Heating and Hot Water Supply in Belarus” (“Biomass Energy”).

Maximum reduction of energy imports is among the strategic tasks of raising the efficiency of Belarus’ economy. The task fulfillment is possible through creation of a national infrastructure conductive to increasing the share of local and alternative sources of energy in heat and power energy production.

“The search for an appropriate alternative to organic fuel has resulted in increasing popularity of biomass at energy markets in many countries of the world,” Deputy Head of the Energy Efficiency Department of the State Committee for Standardization Roman Shirma noted. “Wood and wood-waste is likely to meet 10 per cent of Belarus’ needs for fuel and energy resources”.

At present annual forest growth in Belarus surpasses the logging volumes. Increasing the production and utilization of wood biomass will facilitate strengthening the national energy security, developing new branches of machine-building, science research and design elaborations, and creating new jobs.

Wood biomass is considered by the international community an environmentally much friendlier alternative to another domestic fuel targeted by the Belarusian Government – peat. The experience of UNDP worldwide clearly indicates that extraction of this non-renewable source of energy not only threatens landscape and biological integrity, but also leads to huge carbon dioxide emissions.

So, in complement to the efforts of another UNDP GEF-funded initiative that aims to restore over 40,000 hectares of degraded Belarusian peatlands, the biomass project is now exploring the opportunities of assisting one of the heat and energy producers to shift from peat to wood biomass. If successful, this partnership could provide a valid example for replication across Belarus, thus helping the country to pursue a more consistent strategy.

“Sustainable environment and energy are among UNDP's key priorities worldwide and renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives will continue to be a priority in our cooperation with the Government of Belarus. And I believe our joint wood biomass project will prove a major milestone in this cooperation,” UNDP Resident Representative, Ms. Cihan Sultanoglu, underlined.

Background: UNDP/GEF “Biomass Energy” is the first full-scale project of the kind in Belarus funded by GEF. The project provides framework for carrying out activities targeted at removing the barriers on the way to wider utilization of wood-waste fuel, including implementation of five testing sites. Four of them are connected with conversion of boiler houses of different capacity fired by fossil fuel to wood biomass. The fifth testing site is an enterprise specializing in wood-waste harvesting, processing and delivering for burning in boiler houses. The project is also aimed at raising the global-scale efficiency of greenhouse gas emission abatement by supplanting fossil fuel with renewable ones, including wood.

For more information, please contact the Project Manager, Vladimir Voitekhovich, at 201-34-11, or UNDP Communications Associate, Vladislav Khilkevich, at 227-38-17.

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