The newly appointed Bioeconomy Council is to support the German government with expertise in the phase-out of the fossil economy. The success of this change also depends on the Council’s commitment to a socio-ecological transformation. All good things come in threes. To what extent this proverb applies to the Bioeconomy Council, which is now being launched in its third edition, remains to be seen. In December 2020, the Federal Government appointed the council for three years, composed of a total of twenty scientists and associations representatives. New this time is that the ministries for the environment and development cooperation, among others, were actively involved in the appointment of the council members. Accordingly, the round of experts is now more diverse, recruited from the biotech lobby all the way to the environmental movement. In contrast to the past, this is a clear step forward: until now, the Council was the domain of more technology-friendly departments and therefore not a haven for ecological and justice issues. In this respect, it is hardly surprising how biased the previous …

Position paper for pdf download here! The bioeconomy can only contribute to a sustainable future if our economy is put to the test and undergoes a comprehensive socio-ecological transformation. The Bioeconomy Council should therefore advocate for clear policy frameworks and guard rails within which the bioeconomy can be shaped sustainably. Due to the expected enormous demand for biomass, an indefinitely growing bioeconomy can become an additional threat to global ecosystems and the people who live on them. Already today, planetary boundaries have been exceeded in essential areas. In addition to the climate crisis and the massive change in land use, the loss of biodiversity and genetic diversity as well as the overloading of the phosphorus and nitrogen cycles show an excess that can destroy our livelihoods. Consequently, the bioeconomy also needs clearly defined growth limits to ensure economic activity within planetary boundaries. A realistic picture of the potentials should guide the implementation of the bioeconomy. Aspects related to the common good, such as food security, water availability, biodiversity and climate protection, as well as access …

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) …

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 …

Press memo: Bremen, April 16, 2021 Environmental and development associations are giving the German Bioeconomy Council a paper with their demands on the way The newly appointed Bioeconomy Council should impose a consistent socio-ecological transformation of the economy on the German government. This is what the environmental and development organisations involved in the Bioeconomy Action Forum are demanding in view of the Bioeconomy Council meeting next week on April 19 and 20, 2021. The key points for a socially just and ecologically sustainable bioeconomy are explained by the associations in their joint declaration “Impulses for the Bioeconomy Council”, which was handed over to the Council members in the run-up to the meeting. The environmental and development organizations demand, among other things, that the interests of nature, resource and climate protection be enforced in biomass production, that genetic engineering be effectively regulated and that biomass imports be restricted. In addition, the NGOs continue, food security and human rights should not be further jeopardised in the course of the bioeconomy, research funding should set new priorities, and …