BIOECONOMY – PRESENT AND FUTURE

Abstract

The pressure on ecosystems has intensified as a result of excessive pollution, overexploitation and depletion of natural resources. This imposes the need of a radical change in the existing methods of processing, storage, recycling and disposal of biological resources by establishing sustainable production and consumption models. The need to step up the transition to both clean energy and sustainable, resilient and equitable food systems has never been stronger and clearer. Future implementation of the EU Bioeconomy Action Plan will need to take into account the implications for food and energy prices, as well as the prices of energy-intensive products and global supply chains, and address the resulting additional pressures on natural resources at ecosystem boundaries. Activities in the bioeconomy sectors are especially reliant on healthy ecosystems to ensure a sustained production of biomass, but at the same time activities along the bioeconomy supply chains generate environmental impacts which can damage local and global ecosystems. The bioeconomy is directly related to 11 of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals but though the EU undertakes the steps necessary to achieve sustainability, there is still a wide range of actions to be taken in order to ensure the transition towards bioeconomy and to mitigate and eliminate the negative impacts on the environment. In the study we have focused on three important indicators that give insight about current state and trends in EU and Bulgaria about bioeconomy, respectively employment in the bioeconomy, turnover in bioeconomy, and value added at factor cost in the bioeconomy. The trend in Bulgaria follows that of the EU for those indicators which indicates the continuity of the measures adopted at the EU level and the consistency of the actions at the supranational level. The paper is based on a thorough review of available reports, analysis of official documents as action plans, communications, programs, strategies and data related to bioeconomy at EU level, reviewed in the context of global efforts for achieving sustainability. The main objective of this research is to represent the international efforts aimed at the protection of natural resources and to evaluate the measures taken to stimulate the EU transition towards bioeconomy. Keywords: Bioeconomy, European Union, Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals JEL: Q01; Q56; Q57