Europe is undergoing an unprecedented crisis and the impacts are felt in all aspects of our daily lives. While our society is facing challenging times, the bio-based industries welcome the immediate reaction from the European Commission to formulate a common response to the crisis and its economic consequences. 

With about 700 billion EUR turnover and 3.6 million people employed, the bio-based industries are helping to alleviate the impact of the crisis by keeping essential services running and maintaining green jobs. Our companies are providing much-needed supplies such as food and feed ingredients, (compostable) packaging, hand sanitisers, masks, tissues, and energy from renewable feedstock.

The future impacts of the crisis are unpredictable. What is predictable, however, is that climate change will not halt if we do not take action. Reducing Europe’s dependency on fossil-based resources, sustaining healthy ecosystems and reaching the climate neutrality goal will require better integration across sectors to create more circular and innovative bio-based solutions. To quote President von der Leyen, the European Green Deal is “an opportunity to rebuild our economies differently and make them more resilient”.

The bio-based sector can help by turning the crisis into new opportunities for green growth and by being a strong partner in the EU’s green economic recovery. We are integrating ‘traditional’ industrial sectors into innovative value chains in making the European bioeconomy the global leader. We sustainably use domestic renewable feedstock from agriculture, forestry and fisheries as well as residues and bio-waste, and process it in state-of-the-art biorefineries to provide bio-based solutions for our customers and consumers. We help to improve food security, foster circularity, stimulate rural development and maintain green jobs in EU regions.

It is necessary to build on the positive impacts of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) and to fully implement the EU Bioeconomy Strategy. To enable our industry to fully deploy its potential, the European Green Deal should better recognise the importance of the bioeconomy and support the private-public partnership ‘Circular Bio-based Europe’. Only together can private and public sectors ensure that economic recovery and green growth go hand in hand. Our companies are committed to investing in circular and innovative bio-based solutions in Europe, paving the way to a more sustainable and resilient future.