PISCES THEMES AND CROSS CUTTING ISSUES
The big idea of PISCES is that the security of livelihoods is contingent upon the interdependence of energy, water and food security - and that Bioenergy is the pivotal issue at the crucial intersection of these three factors. Millions still rely on bioenergy in the form of wood for basic energy services, often depleting forestry resources, contributing to the deterioration of watersheds, and promoting desertification. There is also increasing global interest and activity in the growing of energy crops to act as modern biofuels, stimulated by increasing prices, tightening access to fossil oil supplies, and the impact of climate change requiring mitigation and adaptation to these changes.
While increased cultivation of energy crops could provide increased energy access for the poor, without appropriate policies in place it could also pass them by. At the macro-level,
bioenergy could increase global energy supplies without increasing carbon emissions; at the local level it could absorb vital water supplies and fertile land needed to cultivate food.
Tradeoffs are inevitable for an increase in bioenergy provision and need to be understood and appropriately regulated and incentivised in policy if the promise of bioenergy is to be realised in meeting the energy security needs of the poor, without compromising their already limited access to water and food security.
PISCES integrates research on water, food and energy security by focussing on the pivotal issue of bioenergy. These issues require the development of robust technologies , the upscaling of proven technologies, and policies promoting service delivery that give an appropriate role to local entrepreneurship. PISCES works to establish a networked centre of expertise to translate the widespread but disparate work and experience of accessible energy technology and services into policy interventions at all levels; and thence to achieve access to these for rural and urban poor, in Africa and Asia.
In order to understand the trade-offs between energy, water and food security, governments require robust and credible information on which to base energy policy decisions. They also require tools for analysing and making those decisions while taking climate change explicitly into account. The objective of PISCES is to produce this policy-relevant information and approaches which can be applied by governments in the promotion of bioenergy access for the poor through policies and regulation.
To achieve this PISCES has identified three key research themes with four cross-cutting themes:
Research Theme 1 carried out by UDSM, focuses on technology and aims at understanding which technologies are required if bioenergy is to power rural social and economic development without negatively impacting food and water security. See more here.
Research Theme 2 carried out by PAC, focuses on access and delivery and investigates how poor people’s access to bioenergy can be created and sustained alongside food and water access.
Research Theme 3 carried out by MSSRF, focuses on climate and environment and looks at how climate change is likely to affect bioenergy provision and how we should respond to it.
There are strong synergies between the main themes which can be identified in the following cross-cutting themes:
A. Research into Use – Ensuring that research translates into policies which in turn translate
into improved access of affordable, reliable and sustainable energy benefits
B. South-South-North – Developing the mechanisms required to maximise the depth and impact of knowledge exchange and transfer between southern and northern partners.
C. Capacity Strengthening – For partners within the consortium, partner governments and the broader stakeholder community.
D. Equity – Ensuring that gender, age, race, and other factors are taken into account in policy recommendations.
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