Sustainability of Sugarcane Bagasse Briquettes and Charcoal Value Chains in Kenya. Results and recommendations from implementation of the Global Bioenergy Partnership Indicators

The following report Sustainability of Sugarcane Bagasse Briquettes and Charcoal Value Chains in Kenya: Results and Recommendations from Implementation of the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) Indicators assesses the current and future potential of Kenya’s bioenergy sector. It outlines the consequences of the widening gap between supply and demand for wood fuel with the current supply not matching demand in various parts of the country. The report also illustrates key factors that can shape the long-term and periodic monitoring of the sector. Kenya Vision 2030 has identified energy as one of the enablers of the three pillars of its vision. The level and intensity of commercial energy use will be the key indicator of economic growth and development. Bioenergy like other energy sources will continue to play a role in both the traditional and commercial energy mix. Kenya’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) includes four key climate change mitigation targets related to forestry and bioenergy: working towards 10 per cent tree cover of the land area of Kenya; promoting clean energy technologies to reduce overreliance on wood fuel; employing low-carbon and efficient transport systems; and using climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in line with the National CSA Framework. The 24 GBEP indicators assess the environmental social and economic aspects of bioenergy use. In this study two critical pathways were chosen: 1) use of sugarcane bagasse briquettes in the tea industry; and 2) household use of charcoal produced on woodlands and farmlands. I hope that you will find the conclusions and the recommendations presented in this report informative and that by better understanding the environmental social and economic impacts of bioenergy use we will be able to sustainably manage this important national resource. This work was undertaken by four research centres – Stockholm Environment Institute for Africa Kenya Forestry Research Institute Strathmore University and the World Agroforestry Centre – with the support of a multi-stakeholder working group. We are grateful for the technical support from the United Nations Environment Programme and for the financial support from the German Climate Initiative (IKI).

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