Author: jonas

Consequences of the Ukraine war for the bioeconomy

Published by jonas

Consequences of the Ukraine war for world food supply: German government must rethink bioeconomy Download position paper as PDF here! The Ukraine war is causing immeasurable suffering: Civilians are being displaced or even killed. The fighting soldiers also suffer trauma, torture and death under the cruelty of war. Beyond this horror, the war once again exposes failures of the world food system and further increases the chronic global crisis of hunger. Most affected are states and people in the Global South who have lost food sovereignty. For the world‘s 828 million hungry, it becomes evident once again that global supply chains are not designed to feed them. These developments clearly show how hunger is further exacerbated when agricultural commodities are made scarce and expensive by nervous markets. An industrialized countries’ shift from a fossil-based economy to a bioeconomy would result in similar negative effects, if the industrial agricultural system and our resource overconsumption remain unchanged. Wealthy countries as well as transnational corporations would buy all they can to keep their „green“ economy going. The German …

The 1.5-Degree Pledge for Society

Published by jonas

Within this project, we support the development of guidelines for an environmentally sustainable and socially just future from the perspective of people on low incomes. What does a socially just transformation toward a greener world actually look like? The shift toward this transformation risks exacerbating existing social inequalities. While the 1.5-degree pledge sets clear targets for climate policy, as of yet there are no guidelines in place to give direction for the social aspects behind society’s transformation. To bridge the gap, the charitable organization denkhausbremen has launched the project “The 1.5-Degree Pledge for Society” to develop impact-focused, measurable guidelines for finding answers to the social questions posed by climate change. With support from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the project turns the spotlight on the voice of the lived reality of people on low incomes, debating the issues they face in a future congress and discussing them with decision-makers. The aim is to raise awareness of the social aspects of climate change among politicians and ecological actors, including environmental associations and authorities.  

Bioeconomy Visuals

Published by jonas

The Bioeconomy Action Forum has created campaigning materials on bioeconomy, in cooperation with the agency construktiv. The four animations and graphics address key points of the bioeconomy debate and are available to civil society organizations for further use – feel free to reach out to the denkhausbremen crew. Animation “It’s me, your planet” Graphic “Bio Greenwashing” Animation “Extinction of species” Graphic “Exploitation”  

Online congress: How much bioeconomy can our planet cope with?

Published by jonas

Alternative Bioeconomy Summit (online), February 23, 2022 What has to be on the agenda of the new federal government, to design a socially just and ecologically sustainable economy of the future ? Again and again, salvation has been promised by bioeconomy – an economic system operating with biological resources. Though, farmland, forests and oceans can supply a limited amount of biomass only, and most ecosystems are already under enormous pressure. Now and then, the production of agricultural goods in the Global South is obtained at the cost of serious human rights violations, while in Germany an increasing social division is threatening social peace. Not an easy starting point for developing the economy of the future. Ultimately, the often-cited planetary boundaries must become the cast for practical policies without neglecting the fair distribution of natural resources. Experts from environmental and development organizations, politics, science and specialist authorities come together at this Bioeconomy Action Forum Online Summit to define guardrails for a sustainable future. Please use the following link to register : https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtc-qvrDMqH9buU-jfLKlTrFPWW1ySE-dm Event with impulses from, …

Best Practice: Pioneers of a Sustainable Bioeconomy?

Published by jonas

The possibilities that the bioeconomy can provide, become visible in the practical applications. However, in order to contribute to a socio-ecological transformation, the revision of the policy framework for bioeconomy uses is needed. At the second conference of the project “Bioeconomy in the Light of Sustainability”, which took place on November 10th and 12th, 2020, everything revolved around examples from bioeconomy practice. To what extent can companies and research projects as pioneers contribute to the success of the bioeconomy in the context of a socio-ecological transformation – and where do they run the risk of being mere green washers of a non-sustainable economy focused on growth ? Participants from environmental and development organisations, scientific institutes and specialised authorities explored this question. The current state of the world’s ecosystems is very worrying. Arable land and forests are constantly overexploited and biodiversity is rapidly dwindling. According to the World Biodiversity Council IPBES, industrial land use is the main driver of the current species extinction. In the context of the bioeconomy, the conference intensively discussed the possible contribution …

Bioeconomy: cutting back expectations

Published by jonas

In terms of quantity, fossil fuels can not be entirely substituted  by renewable resources. A sustainable bioeconomy requires systemic transformations of the economy that is currently growth-oriented. The first conference of the “Bioeconomy in the Light of Sustainability” project, funded by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and carried out by denkhausbremen in cooperation with BUND, took place on September 7th and 10th, 2020. In addition to representatives of the relevant environmental and development organisations, experts from science, specialist authorities and politics also took part. They discussed the status quo of agriculture and forestry with regard to the preservation of biodiversity and possible raw material potentials for a future bioeconomy. Ute Feit from the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation made it clear that biodiversity has so far been insufficiently addressed in bioeconomy discussions. At the same time, conflicts of goals resulting from different demands on the available land – such as biomass production, climate protection and biodiversity conservation – were also addressed and discussed. In the first keynote, Joachim Spangenberg (BUND) and Wolfgang Kuhlmann (denkhausbremen) …