FAO launches a new FAOSTAT domain on bioenergy

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has created a new FAOSTAT domain on bioenergy. The new statistics expand FAO’s provision of global data on agrifood systems. The FAOSTAT Bioenergy domain was launched on June 18th, during the 11th edition of The Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP).

The new statistics provide information on the production and final consumption of bioenergy by type of biofuel: solid biofuels (animal waste, bagasse, black liquor, charcoal, fuelwood, other vegetal material and residues); liquid biofuels (bio jet kerosene, biodiesel, biogasoline, other liquid biofuels), and gaseous biofuels (biogas). The conversion from physical units to energy is done by FAO according to the International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES) and the UN Statistical Division (UNSD) guidelines. Statistics are available from 1990 to 2022 by country, covering 193 countries and 22 territories, with regional and global aggregates.

Born through partnership

The bioenergy domain is the result of a collaboration between FAO Statistics Division (ESS), FAO Office of Climate and Biodiversity (OCB) and the UN Statistical Division (UNSD). 

Main findings:

• Global bioenergy production almost doubled, from 28 exajoules (EJ) in 1990 to 52 EJ in 2022.
• The year 2020 saw a slight dip to 49 EJ due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but production quickly rebounded in 2021 and further increased in 2022.
• In 2022, solid biofuels accounted for 90 percent of total bioenergy production (47 EJ), liquid biofuels for 8 percent (4 EJ) and gaseous biofuels for 2 percent (1 EJ).
• The production of liquid biofuels and gaseous biofuels grew by 9 percent on average each year between 1990 and 2022, while that of solid biofuels grew by 1.6 percent on average each year over the same period.
• In 2022, the most produced individual biofuels were all solid biofuels: fuelwood (30 EJ), other vegetal material and residues (10 EJ) and bagasse (4 EJ).
• In 2022, Asia was the largest producer of solid biofuels (18 EJ). The Americas led the production of liquid biofuels (3 EJ) and Europe that of gaseous biofuels (0.6 EJ).
• The top countries in bioenergy production in 2022 were India (8.4 EJ), Nigeria (5.2 EJ), Brazil (4.3 EJ), the United States of America (4.1 EJ) and China (3.9 EJ).

Users are encouraged to visit the new Bioenergy Domain on FAOSTAT to explore the data and visualizations available.