Biofuels to drive jobs bonanza

A new report claims that the biofuels sector has the potential to create 36,000 jobs in the UK. The International Council on Clean Transportation has said transport fuels from industry, farm and household waste can also save 37 million tonnes of oil use each year by 2030. The Renewable Energy Association welcomed the study as evidence that there are “huge benefits from using waste to create energy”. The report also found that across Europe, the advanced biofuels industry could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and replace 16% of total road transport fuel by 2030. This again shows the multiple benefits that can flow from biofuels and the bio-economy.

Report analyzes bio-economy policy

The leading industrialized nations have all positioned themselves in the bio-economy in the past 5 years. Politically, the bio-economy is not only associated with ecologic transition, but also with economic opportunities. This is the finding of a study, presented by the co-chair of the Bio-economy Council of the German Federal Government, Prof. Joachim von Braun, at the occasion of the GFFA (Global Forum on Food and Agriculture) on 15 January 2015 in Berlin. Intriguing? Check out the report and learn more.

From Lima to Paris - A Global Renewable Energy Action Plan

An initiative of the World Bioenergy Association from the climate negotiations in Lima, Peru - a Global Renewable Energy Action Plan (GREAP) for 2035 as a guideline for business and policy towards a world no more than 2°C warmer.
 

The recent reports of the IPCC (Assessment Report) and IEA (World Energy Outlook) are alarming – an increasing move away from climate targets! The logical and compelling solution to these reports is a GREAP that is broken down to continents, states, and regions based on the experiences gained in Europe and monitored regularly by UN bodies.

To bring the world on a road to achieving 2°C target with high probability, the global target of the GREAP should be a 50% share of renewables in final energy consumption by 2035 and reducing fossil fuel use by 50% in 2035 as compared to 2012.

This GREAP should be a part of the negotiations to reach a climate and energy agreement in Paris, France. As the current energy system is the main cause of climate change, a climate package integrated with a renewable energy system is crucial!

Communicating the Bio-economy

Engaging diverse groups in discussions on the bio-economy is vitally important! CommNet has been created to facilitate the communication of EU Bio-economy research to the general public and to key target groups including the media, young people, industry and policy makers. CommNet operates through various levels, ranging from media training to audio-visual production, from the creation of educational material for schools to supporting communication of research to the business world. And there is an up-coming EU conference soon!

 

Where Next for the European Bio-economy?

Check out the key insights from the European Bio-economy Panel and the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research Strategic Working Group (SCAR) in a report - Where Next for the European Bio-economy?

Structural patterns of the bio-economy

The concept of the bio-economy is gathering momentum in EU policy circles as a sustainable model of growth to reconcile the goals of continued wealth generation and employment with bio-based sustainable resource usage. Unfortunately, an economy-wide quantitative assessment covering the full diversity of this sector is, hitherto, constrained by relatively poor data availability for disaggregated bio-based activities. This research takes a first step in addressing this issue by employing social accounting matrices (SAMs) for each EU27 member encompassing a highly disaggregated treatment of traditional bio-based agricultural and food sectors, in addition to identifiable bio-economic activities from the national accounts data. Employing backward-linkage (BL), forward-linkage (FL) and employment multipliers, the aim is to profile and assess comparative structural patterns both across bio-economic sectors and EU Member States. The results indicate six clusters of EU member countries with homogeneous bio-economy structures. Within cluster statistical tests reveal a high tendency toward 'backward orientation' or demand driven wealth generation, whilst inter-cluster statistical comparisons across each bio-based sector show only a moderate degree of heterogeneous BL wealth generation and, with the exception of only two sectors, a uniformly homogeneous degree of FL wealth generation.

IEA brochure on biorefineries

There is a new IEA brochure on the sustainable and synergetic processing of biomass into marketable food and feed ingredients, chemicals, materials and energy (fuels, power, heat), including descriptions of 30 running biorefineries worldwide, and an overview of more than 100 other initiatives is available.