Bioenergy, derived from sustainable agricultural practices and resources, has received increased consideration as a renewable substitute for fossil fuels. According to the World Energy Outlook by 2030 world energy consumption under the "Business as Usual" will increase by about 1.8% per year between 2000 and 2030, driven by economic and population growth. By 2030, the world energy system will still continue to be dominated by fossil fuels but a bigger portion of the world energy demand is expected to come from the developing countries up at 55% as compared to 40% now. Given this scenario, over the next 30 years one of the challenges under the Kyoto Protocol System, is to go for the "Alternative Scenario" as against the "Business as Usual". This will be based on a combination of using mandatory policies, regulations and voluntary agreements for adoption by the industrialized countries and developing countries to improve the energy system and to reduce the CO2 emissions.

Changing energy system is not simple but there are good reasons to believe that bioenergy representing a clean and renewable source of energy may play a major role in the progression to an alternative or sustainable energy scenario. Bioenergy production being a compound issue that depends on many varying factors can play a significant role in improving rural productivity, energy supply, the environment, economic development and sustainability. Within the context of production and exploitation of modern bioenergy resources, there are opportunities to address CO2 substitution since biomass is carbon neutral source of energy, land degradation through carbon sequestration in soils through better land management, biodiversity preservation by planting abundant land and marginal areas with long-term energy crops like oil palm, air pollution by reducing atmospheric emissions of CO2 and health problems as bioenergy resources have a lower sulphur and nitrogen oxides content than fossil fuels. [more]