Commission Adopts Its Strategy For A Sustainable Bioeconomy To Ensure Smart ...
The European Commission has today presented its strategy and action plan for a sustainable bioeconomy in Europe, called Innovating for Sustainable Growth: a Bioeconomy for Europe. The goal is a more innovative and low-emissions economy, reconciling demands for sustainable agriculture and fisheries, food security, and the sustainable use of renewable biological resources for industrial purposes, while ensuring biodiversity and environmental protection. The plan therefore focuses on three key aspects: developing new technologies and processes for the bioeconomy; developing markets and competitiveness in bioeconomy sectors; and pushing policymakers and stakeholders to work more closely together.
The bioeconomy in the European Union
The bioeconomy encompasses the sustainable production of renewable biological resources and their conversion and that of waste streams into food, feed, bio-based products1 such as bioplastics, biofuels and bioenergy. It includes agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and pulp and paper production, as well as parts of chemical, biotechnological and energy industries. Its sectors have a strong innovation potential due to their use of a wide range of sciences (life sciences, agronomy, ecology, food science and social sciences), enabling industrial technologies (biotechnology, nanotechnology, information and communication technologies (ICT), and engineering), as well as local and tacit knowledge