Can you imagine a world in which the products we interact with every day, from plastics and paint to clothing and building materials, came from renewable, biological and local natural resources, instead of fossil fuels?
You would clean your teeth with a wooden brush, use nail polish made from algae, and use natural materials to insulate your home.
You would go to work with sports shoes made from plantsyou would carry your lunch in a bio-based plastic bag and eat with a corn fork.
Meanwhile, our farmers would grow food using biofertilizersour factories would produce sustainable packaging with hemp and our batteries would be made from wood pulp.
Each of these items and materials is as effective and reliable as their fossil-based alternatives. Due to their design, all of them are circular and climate-friendly.
You would go to work with sports shoes made from plantsyou would carry your lunch in a bio-based plastic bag and eat with a corn fork
¿Y What would happen if we could do all of this while supporting rural communities?offering quality employment and ecological growth and, in the process, reducing our carbon footprint?
Well, all of this is much more within our reach than you think. Welcome to the bioeconomy: an innovative solution to the problem of fossil-based materials that we need to quickly leave behind.
In 2023, the bioeconomy of The EU generated 863 billion euros, representing 5% of GDP of the EU and supports more than 17 million jobs. But it has the potential to represent so much more.
In the EU we are well placed to lead the global bioeconomy: driven by science and innovation, based on our own natural resources and raw materials, and supported by our single market.
The bioeconomy of The EU generated 863 billion euros, representing 5% of GDP
More than two thirds of EU Member States have committed to implementing national bioeconomy strategies.
Spain adopted a Bioeconomy Strategy in 2016. We want to promote new advances that allow the leap from innovation to growth.
The new EU Bioeconomy Strategy aims to boost this growth. We will work with farmers, foresters and other small businesses to bridge the gap between lab and market and turn ideas into industrial reality.
The Strategywill ensure a solid financial ecosystem that combines public and private investment. And it will also provide regulatory clarity by establishing simple and coherent rules that accelerate the approval of innovative solutions.
Europe must promote bio-based sectors with the greatest potential for economic expansion and environmental benefits.
But this growth must be guided by a firm commitment to sustainability. Europe’s forests, soils and other ecosystems must be managed prudently and within ecological limits.
Europe must promote bio-based sectors with greater potential for economic expansion and environmental benefits
We want to focus on green growth on the one hand and a sustainable future on the other. And that means that the bioeconomy must fight against the loss of biodiversity and pollution.
It also requires paying special attention to circularity and making better use of leftover biomass, such as organic waste or agricultural waste such as cereal straw or sawdust.
Instead of being discarded, These materials can fertilize our crops, feed our animals or form the basis of biomaterials.. We can turn waste into wealth and help Europe produce more value with fewer primary resources.
The bioeconomy can boost European prosperity and strengthen our competitive advantage. And this is in addition to reducing our dependence on vulnerable global supply chains and other countries for raw materials.
I consider it to be a defining pillar of the European project to build strategic autonomy and confront climate change; an investment for the whole of society in our communities and rural regions, in our environment and our ecosystems and, above all, in our future.
Think about it in your daily life, surrounded as you are by countless products of fossil origin. And dare to imagine a cleaner, sustainable and resilient Europe.
*** Jessika Roswall is European Commissioner for the Environment, Water Resilience and Competitive Circular Economy