World Biogas Summit and Expo 2020 mobilises global biogas industry
World Biogas Summit and Expo 2020 mobilises global biogas industry
This year’s extra–ordinary World Biogas Summit and Expo – made virtual by the Covid-19 pandemic – reached unprecedented heights by attracting over 3,200 registrants from 115 countries.
Independently audited figures confirmed the growing reach and strength of the global biogas industry network.
Swapcard, the platform on which the event was delivered, reported over 7,000 connections made, 12,000 messages exchanged, and 5,000 discussions undertaken.
The Expo secured 71 exhibitors setting up virtual booths to welcome visitors. The experience was probably best summed up by Morgens Slot Knudsen of Kinetic Biofuel who said, “The online event was a new experience for us and probably for most of you as well. Being an exhibitor presented new challenges but also new opportunities. The many attendees (75) of our presentation was a very positive experience. Furthermore, the online conversations and chats were very productive.”
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Lord Deben: “We face an existential threat and biogas has a vital role to play“
Delegates were left in no doubt about how crucial biogas will be in addressing the climate crisis. We’re in a race to save the planet and biogas has a vital role to play.
That was the message keynote speaker Lord Deben delivered to the World Biogas Summit.
The Chairman of the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) opened the virtual conference on 6 October.
Under Lord Deben’s leadership, the CCC established the legally required net zero targets for the UK, setting a benchmark for global action. “We have got a very clear future for the biogas industry. All CCC Net Zero scenarios have at least a tripling of biomethane injection from today’s levels to 2030″, he said.
He revealed he was installing a biogas facility on his organic farm, which will be integrated with a heat pump to deliver power to his off-grid Cambridgeshire home.
He said the world faced an existential threat because humanity has “reversed the natural order of things”.
“We are borrowing from our children with no intention of paying them back,” he said. “We’re borrowing the resources, wealth and value of the planet and using it for ourselves when it should have been there for them.”
“Organic wastes are valuable resources“
The storms, wildfires, melting icecaps and thawing of the permafrost could make earth uninhabitable for humans.
“That’s the awful possibility. If we are to reduce the probability we must act now.”
AD has a special part to play, “returning the right value to materials that have been denigrated as waste. We shouldn’t think about slurries and manures and other organic materials as waste, they are resources.”
“All bioresources should be banned from landfill“, he continued, noting that he called for that to happen as the Secretary of State for the Environment 25 years ago.
“It is an awful statement about us as the human race that for all these years we’ve known it was unnecessary and dangerous putting into a hole that which might be a driver of the growth we’ve needed.”
He concluded with a strong a message to the Summit delegates: “Remember the very vital role biogas is playing; what you do is so valuable – you are making a real contribution to the revolutionary change that has to take place to beat climate change.”
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Biogas blueprints for action
Over three days and across four main stages, World Biogas Summit and Expo delegates were given cutting-edge insight into the global potential of the biogas industry and blueprints for practical action from a vast array of prominent speakers and industry experts.
Representatives of the World Bank, UN and EU spoke of the paradigm shift within global finance to build back better and re-open economies after the Covid-19 crisis and how biogas is integral to delivering systemic change.
The Mayor of Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll spoke about the biogas revolution in France, which he launched when the Minister of Agriculture (2012-17) with a series of programmes and support mechanisms to stimulate growth and urban anaerobic digestion.
On-farm biogas featured large with global soils so distressed they pose a global food crisis. Delegates were told how biogas production was proving to be the catalyst for a sequential cropping model that could reverse the trend and build in resilience.
On the R&I Hub and Engine Room stages, the latest advances in systems and process control and technology that can deliver more bang for your buck were revealed as we enter the era of power to gas.
In total there were 68 sessions featuring over 150 speakers. Video recordings of each session from the event can be purchased here.
