A new Bioeconomy Strategy for facilitating the deployment of sustainable biorefineries across Europe

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Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.

It is the news of the moment in the biorefining sector in Europe: the European Commission has just issued an update of its bioeconomy strategy. Launched and adopted on 13 February 2012, Europe's Bioeconomy Strategy addresses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into vital products and bioenergy.

The 2018 update aims to accelerate the deployment of a sustainable European bioeconomy so as to maximise its contribution towards the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the Paris Agreement. Main stakeholders are welcoming it with excitement. Dirk Carrez, BIC Executive Director, said: “Although progress has been made, further action and a stimulating policy framework is needed to leverage private investments. A continuation of a public-private partnership for the bioeconomy under Horizon Europe will be an additional driver, allowing implementation of the updated Bioeconomy Strategy in a sustainable way by mobilising public and private stakeholders, de-risking investments from innovative bioeconomy projects and facilitating deployment of new sustainable biorefineries”.

Figure 1. A new Bioeconomy Strategy for a sustainable Europe (extracted from the factsheet of the new Bioeconomy Strategy)

The new Bioeconomy Strategy and related resources (Factsheet / Booklet / Infographic / Video) can be found in this link: https://ec.europa.eu/research/bioeconomy/index.cfm?pg=policy&lib=strategy.
I would only like to highlight two points:
- The update has three key objectives: (1) Scaling up and strengthening the biobased sectors; (2) Rapidly deploying bioeconomies across Europe; (3) Understanding the ecological limitations of the bioeconomy.
- The EU proposes €10 billion for research and innovation funding on food and natural resources, including the bioeconomy, under Horizon Europe (2021-2027). This is almost 3 times greater that the quantity assigned under Horizon 2020 (€3.85 billion from 2014 to 2020).

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