European Green New Deal: Carbon reduction should turn to bio-based products
Recently, the European Bioplastics website has an interpretation of the outline laid out in the European Green New Deal: Europe needs to become a more sustainable, resilient and competitive economy. The bioeconomy has great potential to facilitate the transition to the Green New Deal, as it covers all sectors involving the use of renewable resources, excluding biodiversity targets. It is by switching to bio-based products and processes that Europe will increase its resilience and reduce its reliance on fossil and non-renewable resources. At the same time, this system change will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
EU policy, in particular the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and its progress report, has recognised the importance of the bioeconomy. In this regard, the European Bioeconomy Alliance (EUBA) has just recently released a comprehensive overview of how the bioeconomy can contribute to the achievement of the European Green Deal. The overview is accompanied by a series of best practice examples to further illustrate the importance of the role of the bioeconomy.
EUBA is an active member of European Bioplastics, a unique cross-sectoral alliance dedicated to helping lead the transition from a fossil society to a more sustainable and circular bio-based industry. Due to its versatility, the bioeconomy can contribute to different parts of the economy. Food and nutrition security is one of the EU's main strategic objectives, and investments in a strong bioeconomy provide ample supply of high-quality and sustainably produced food. In addition, land use and security of supply are optimized through the resource-efficient use of renewable raw materials in Europe. This also applies to the production of bioplastics, where little land is used to grow feedstocks for bio-based products. Even in the world, only 0.02% of the global agricultural area is used for production.
