European Bioeconomy Alli­ance Com­ments on European Cli­mate Law Roadmap

The bioeconomy is already worth more than €2 tril­lion annu­ally and employs over 18 mil­lion Europeans. Giv­en the right con­di­tions and a stable invest­ment and policy envir­on­ment, the bioeconomy can help reduce reli­ance on resources of fossil ori­gin, boost com­pet­it­ive­ness and job cre­ation, and con­trib­ute to policy goals and ini­ti­at­ives, includ­ing in the fields of cli­mate and sus­tain­ab­il­ity. EUBA agrees with the aim as out­lined in the Cli­mate Law Roadmap to ensure that that all sec­tors play their part, that all rel­ev­ant policies should con­trib­ute to reach­ing the cli­mate goals and that this amongst oth­er things includes strength­en­ing incent­ives for devel­op­ing cli­mate-friendly and sus­tain­able prac­tices, products and tech­no­lo­gies. The European Commission’s stra­tegic long-term vis­ion for 2050 ​“A Clean Plan­et for all” iden­ti­fied the bioeconomy as one of the sev­en stra­tegic areas requir­ing joint action on the road to a cli­mate neut­ral eco­nomy. In doing so, it sends a clear sig­nal that Europe needs more than ever to boost its bioeconomy sec­tors if it wants the strategy to become a real­ity. The switch towards a cir­cu­lar bio-based eco­nomy, as poin­ted out in the Com­mu­nic­a­tion stra­tegic build­ing blocks, has the poten­tial to play a lead­ing role in pur­su­ing cli­mate ambi­tions of the EU. Repla­cing finite mater­i­als with mater­i­als from renew­able sources can help sus­tain mater­i­al sup­ply, keep nat­ur­al resources in the eco­nom­ic cycle and min­im­ise the extrac­tion of finite raw mater­i­als. Also, as out­lined in an OECD report “[…] the full cli­mate change mit­ig­a­tion poten­tial of bio­tech­no­logy pro­cesses and bio-based products ranges from between 1 bil­lion and 2.5 bil­lion tons CO2 equi­val­ent per year by 2030”. Instead of releas­ing his­tor­ic car­bon into the atmo­sphere through fossil fuel extrac­tion and use, the car­bon in bio-based products is the product of atmo­spher­ic CO2 and water. When this bio­mass is then used to make bio-based products, the atmo­spher­ic CO2 remains trapped in the products through­out their lifespan. The bioeconomy encom­passes the sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion of renew­able bio­lo­gic­al resources from land and sea and their con­ver­sion into vital products and bioen­ergy with the help of innov­at­ive tech­no­lo­gies. It can help deliv­er a more com­pet­it­ive, dynam­ic and sus­tain­able European eco­nomy by val­or­ising non-fossil car­bon to sub­sti­tute fossil-based raw mater­i­als and more car­bon-intens­ive products and pro­duc­tion pro­cesses. Source: European Bioeconomy Alli­ance, Press Pos­i­tion, 12.02.2020