FAO presents its new sustainable bioeconomy programme

The potential of the growing bioeconomy sector was at the forefront of discussions at the General Assembly of the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC), which took place in Brussels. Presenting FAO’s new sustainable bioeconomy programme to experts from the European Union institutions were Lev Neretin, lead of FAO’s programme priority area on Bioeconomy for Sustainable Food and Agriculture and FAO technical bioeconomy expert Marta Gomez San Juan.

The FAO presentation was delivered alongside those of John Bell, Director of Healthy Planet in the European Commission (EC)’s Directorate-General for Research & Innovation, and Professor Iris Lewandowski, Chief Bioeconomy Officer, University of Hohenheim and Co-Chair of the German Bioeconomy Council.

FAO also participated in networking and matchmaking workshop sessions together with the EC and BIC public-private partnership, the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU). This EUR 2 billion alliance succeeds the Bio-based Industries Joint Understanding and is focused on strengthening the bio-based industries sector in Europe.

Participants at the event expressed strong interest in FAO’s work on the bioeconomy sector and its decision to establish a new programme priority area on sustainable food and agriculture, in order to accelerate agrifood system transformation. They also acknowledged that technologies used by companies in the bioeconomy sphere can have substantial beneficial environmental impacts and were interested in engaging further with FAO to explore how to drive truly sustainable solutions.

The general consensus among BIC members at the event was that more sustainable business models and policies should be promoted to improve the enabling environment, allowing private industries involved in disruptive bio-based technologies to ‘leapfrog’ towards greater sustainable development.

They welcomed FAO’s continued engagement and collaboration with the private sector on a sustainable and circular bioeconomy, in order to advance the achievements of all the SDGs in a coherent manner. 

The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, BIC and the CBE JU have all been partners of the FAO-led Sustainable Bioeconomy initiative since it started in 2016 and will continue to work together to implement the new 10-year programme priority area on Bioeconomy for Sustainable Food and Agriculture.

You can read more about FAO’s actions on the Sustainable and Circular Bioeconomy here.

You can read more about FAO’s collaboration with the Bio-based Industries Consortium here.