The JRC of the EC publishes report on the size of the bioeconomy
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European
Commission has just published a report that broadens the ongoing discussion on
how to measure and determine the contribution of the bioeconomy to a
sustainable and circular economy.
Publication: “How big is the bioeconomy?”.
Figure 1. Cover of the report “How big is the
bioeconomy?”
The purpose of the report is to advance more
objective and rigorous measurement and analysis of the bioeconomy according to
the broad definition of the European Commission in 2018. The focus is mainly on
the economic indicators, aiming at the inclusion of biobased services derived
from the symmetric input-output tables from the system of national accounts
available from Eurostat and additional expert information. The approach allows
for yearly updates following the calendar of Eurostat I-O tables, probably with
a 3 to 4 years delay.
Applying the methodology with the adjustments
proposed, the estimate for the EU-28 bioeconomy in 2015 reaches €1,460.6
billion value added, which is 11% of the GDP. The nova-JRC methodology, used in
many bioeconomy publications, calculates €621 billion value added for the same
year. This difference is mainly explained by the contribution of €872 billion
by the tertiary bioeconomy sectors in the proposed methodology.