We live in a world of limited resources. Global challenges like climate change, land and ecosystem degradation, coupled with a growing population force us to seek new ways of producing and consuming that respect the ecological boundaries of our planet. At the same time, the need to achieve sustainability constitutes a strong incentive to modernise our industries and to reinforce Europe’s position in a highly competitive global economy, thus ensuring the prosperity of its citizens. To tackle these challenges, we must improve and innovate the way we produce and consume food, products and materials within healthy ecosystems through a sustainable bioeconomy.
The European Commission updated the 2012 Bioeconomy Strategy and published “A sustainable bioeconomy for Europe: strengthening the connection between economy, society and the environment”.
This updated strategy highlights five objectives:
- ensuring food and nutrition security
- managing natural resources sustainably,
- reducing dependence on non-renewable, unsustainable resources whether sourced domestically or from abroad
- mitigating and adapting to climate change
- strengthening European competitiveness and creating jobs,
The purpose of this update to the 2012 Bioeconomy2 Strategy is to address these challenges through a set of 14 concrete actions which will be launched in 2019 at the latest.
To support these five objectives in the context of evolved policy priorities, the updated strategy proposes three main action areas:
- strengthen and scale-up the bio-based sectors, unlock investments and markets,
- deploy local bioeconomies rapidly across Europe;
- understand the ecological boundaries of the bioeconomy.
Download the updated strategy to know more.