What’s a Bio & Circular Economy?

The term bioeconomy refers to the share of the economy based on products, services, and processes derived from biological resources (e.g., plants and microorganisms). Some predict that the future economy will be primarily a bioeconomy (Congressional Research Service).

While some authors consider the bioeconomy to be “circular by nature” (Carrez and Van Leeuwen, 2015; Sheridan, 2016), Hetemäki et al. (2017) see the risk of following a linear business-as-usual approach if the principles of a circular economy (CE) are not considered. The CE is defined by the European Commission (2015) as minimizing the generation of waste and maintaining the value of products, materials and resources for as long as possible.

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The bioeconomy in US : Valued at nearly 1 trillion dollars and predicted to grow globally to over $30 trillion over the next two decades (Forbes).

The bioeconomy in Europe : €2 trillion (European Commission) .

Sectors covered

The bioeconomy is cross cutting, encompassing multiple sectors, in whole or in part (e.g., agriculture, textiles, chemicals, and energy).

• Agriculture (crop and livestock production), Aquaculture/Fisheries, and Forestry.
• Bio-based products (chemicals, materials & textiles, pharmaceutical, etc)
• Bio-based energy (biofuels, biogas)

The circular bioeconomy aims to transform sustainable biomass (considering waste and residues as a resource) and other sources of biogenic carbon instead of oil into a wide variety of applications through biorefineries.

What does this sector brings to the table ?

Not only employment and economic development, but it addresses major challenges such as climate change, food security and safety, energy independence, water pollution and environmental sustainability.