Bioeconomy for Businesses
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Bioeconomy for Businesses
With the publication of its new Bioeconomy strategy earlier this week, the European Union has recognized the many opportunities contained in a functional Bioeconomy. According to the document, published last Thursday (27-11), the term represents a strategic opportunity as a driver of green growth, competitiveness and resilience.
At the same time, if google trends is to be believed, the term Bioeconomy has risen in popularity at an astronomical rate. According to the search engine’s statistics tool, the term has been researched more often in the last 3 months than at any other point in the past 20 years.
While the correlation between the EU’s recent publication of its Bioeconomy strategy, and the increased search interest in the term certainly exist, the causal relationship between the two is less readily assertable. The term Bioeconomy has been the subject of several high-level discussions after all: From COP30’s Bioeconomy challenge to the G20s Bioeconomy initiative. The term seems to have been everywhere. But… What does it mean?
The purpose of this article is to explore the meaning behind the term, Bioeconomy, where it comes from, what the EU’s Bioeconomy strategy entails, and what it might mean in terms of opportunities for businesses. Below you can find a guide to jump to whichever section you are most interested in:
What is a Bioeconomy
What is a Bioeconomy?
First coined in the 1920s by Russian biologist Fedor Baranov, the term bioeconomy, or rather “bioeconomics”, was originally intended to describe the relationship between resource extraction and return on investment in fisheries. Overexploitation, Baranov held, would reduce the fishery’s long-term productivity by depleting local fish stocks. This perspective on bioeconomy was further entrenched in the 1950s and expanded to include all manner of renewable natural resources.
The term has since evolved past its original definition. One perspective, put forward in 1971 by Romanian mathematician Nicholas Georgescu-Roegens attempted to define the term Bioeconomy as a system where according to the laws of entropy all economic activities have to be understood as eventually degrading the physical environment.
Nowadays, Bioeconomy can be taken to mean two main things. On the one hand, the concept means a system that values social, cultural, and biological diversity, integrating local development and nature conservation in complex social-ecological landscapes. On the other hand, the concept of Bioeconomy as adopted by the OECD and the European Union is far more straightforward. In this perspective, the bioeconomy is an approach aimed at propelling the transition away from an economy based on fossil fuels, towards models based on biological inputs of agricultural origin.
The EU's Bioeconomy Strategy
This last definition is particularly important when it comes to understanding the EUs recent Bioeconomy strategy.
Published by the European Commission on Thursday, the 27th of November, the document titled “A Strategic Framework for a Competitive and Sustainable EU Bioeconomy” outlines a new bioeconomy strategy in the European Union. Drawing on inputs from previous versions (published in 2012 with reviewsin 2018 and 2022 respectively) the Commission characterizes the bioeconomy as a strategic opportunity, and a driver of green growth, competitiveness and resilience. Defined as activities that deliver sustainable solutions based on biological resources to create added value, the European concept of the Bioeconomy underscores the use of bio-based inputs to attain sustainable growth. To advance a sustainable bioeconomy, the strategy is structured around four core pillars:
- Scaling innovation and investment;
- Developing new lead markets for bio-based materials and technologies;
- Ensuring a sustainable biomass supply across value chains; and
- Leveraging global opportunities.
Together, these pillars support the strategy’s overarching objectives to:
- Ensure the long-term competitiveness of the EU bioeconomy and investment security. Identifying measures to scale up and commercialize existing and emerging biotech solutions and bio-based products.
- Increase resource-efficient and circular use of biological resources. Transforming the use and valuation of biomass resources, prioritizing extended high-value applications while encouraging industries and consumers to embrace circular practices.
- Secure the competitive and sustainable supply of biomass, both domestically and from outside EU. Strengthening the role of primary producers, generating wealth in rural areas by creating jobs and diversifying incomes for foresters and farmers and rewarding them for the preservation of ecosystems.
- Position the EU in the rapidly expanding international market for bio-based materials, biomanufacturing, biochemicals, and agri-food and biotech sectors. This will be done, in particular, by steering existing foreign policy mechanisms.
Opportunities for Businesses in the New European Bioeconomy
The EUs new Bioeconomy strategy sets out to incentivize the creation of a sustainable bio-based economy in the European Union. It does so through mechanisms that remove barriers, and intensify investments in sectors that contribute to biotechnology, biofuels, and or bio-based materials. Currently, for companies this presents multiple opportunities.
With the new Bioeconomy strategy, the EU is commiting itself to facilitate investments, remove compliance barriers, and provide extra guidance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who currently deal in different categories of bio-based materials. To do so, the strategy proposes to
- Improve access to finance and related services for startups and scale-ups in the bioeconomy via the Scale-up Europe Fund and other European Innovation Council instruments starting in 202 and;
- Make technical support available for SMEs scaling innovative bio-based products to accelerate authorisations while maintaining high safety standards. In particular, the Commission will support SMEs developing innovative products based on advanced fermentation, including for food and feed
With these facilities in place, the Commission aims to boost its competitivity agains, especially the US and China in the bio-based materials market through a sustainable and future-proof mechanism. This way, businesses are further incentivized to make the transition towards more sustainable materials in a way that is both profitable and environmentally sound.