Christian Patermann and The Bioeconomy: A Testimony on his 80th Anniversary: Important next steps for speeding up and unlocking the full potential of a circular biobased economy

Abstract

Europe is at the forefront of developing a circular biobased economy, having moved swiftly ahead in the period 2014–2021, backed by the industry-led public private partnership programme, EU BBI-JU (Biobased Industry Joint Undertaking; 3.7 billion Euro). In the EU, the success of BBI-JU provided the foundation for a new vision of a circular biobased Europe, CBE, with a dedicated industry-led public/private biobased research funding programme, becoming a significant effort in the Horizon Europe (2021–2027) common research and innovation programme. In this paper, in the spirit of Christian Patermann, focus will be on describing the important next steps we should take now, with an impatient sense of urgency, to further develop the circular biobased economy, locally and globally for a more sustainable world. Next Steps: Avoiding new pitfalls in developing the circular biobased economy. Moving on from a few demo- and flagship biorefineries to entire EU biobased sectors. Health promoting biobased biorefinery products, integrating mirobiome research opportunities in the CBE. Building international collaboration within circular biobased economy. Developing many types of biorefinery business models. A CBE-conducive framework conditions, policies, incentive structures and regulatory. In conclusion, circular biobased technologies can open for reduced emissions and improved food security and nutrition; achieved by making healthy food from the biomass, which was hitherto downgraded to bulk products or waste. It is imperative and urgent to have economic calculations made of such a business model; incl figures for CO2 emission potential of upgrading, underexploited biomass to healthy food; and we need figures for the societal benefits from improved public health achieved by implementing new dietary recommendations, by climate friendly and health promoting products made from upgrading biomass.