Between May 2013 and November 2014, GBEP carried out activities under a dedicated group on “The global renewable energy atlas – Bioenergy component”, led by IRENA. The main objective was to develop a repository of high quality resource maps from leading technical institutes worldwide, along with a framework model for presenting the GBEP sustainability indicators within the context of the technical information.

The final ambition was to create a repository for high quality renewable energy resource and mapping data, and a catalyst to trigger sustainable planning and policy development. The group worked to develop guidance on how to interpret and use maps in light of the GBEP indicators and also to incorporate a component of the efforts on building the capacity of developing countries / institutes to use mapping as a tool to support good policy development.

During its work, the activity group considered that many GBEP sustainability indicators are not suitable to be represented in a map as the GIS information can be considered as intermediate calculations or analyses performed in support of the assessment process. In light of this, the group agreed to modify its original scope of work. It was proposed to work on a bottom-up approach towards the development of a collection of supporting datasets and best practices, regarding the mapping for each of the 24 GBEP sustainability indicators. To this end, it was agreed for IRENA to start collaborating directly with several GBEP partners and observer, beyond the activity group, with a view to link relevant bioenergy maps into the IRENA’s Global Bioenergy Atlas.