Studying the Transition towards a Circular Bioeconomy—A Systematic Literature Review on Transition Studies and Existing Barriers

Alexandra Gottinger,Rainer Quitzow,Luana Ladu

doi:10.3390/su12218990

Abstract

The European Commission’s strategic long-term vision for 2050, “A Clean Planet for All”, identifies the bioeconomy and the circular economy as key strategic areas for achieving a climate-neutral economy. Focus is given to the sustainability of biomass and the circularity of materials. However, in order to facilitate the transition toward a sustainable bio-based circular economy and to unlock its potential, strong accompanying measures are required. These should be designed based on a systematic understanding of transition drivers and barriers. This paper, after providing a systematic review of transition research on the circular bioeconomy, focuses on the identification and classification of transition barriers, clustering them into relevant categories. Moreover, it provides a comparison of the barriers identified by various frameworks.

Highlights

The development of a sustainable bioeconomy has been identified as a key building block in the fight against climate change, while simultaneously addressing the increasing demand for food, feed, energy, materials and products [1]
We briefly describe the most prominent approaches applied in sustainable transition studies [8], namely Multi-level Perspective (MLP), the Technological Innovation Systems (TIS), the Strategic Niche Management (SNM), or the Transition Management (TM), and their treatment of transition barriers
Focus is given to the type of actors in networks, the involved stakeholders in projects, and the interactions and knowledge exchange among stakeholders. 17% of the studies focused on understanding changes within established sectors and incumbent firms and/or their roles in the transition, including changes over time; they analyzed the role of certain sectors, such as the agricultural sector, in the transition; they investigated how firms adopted new strategies and changed their practices

Summary

Introduction

The development of a sustainable bioeconomy has been identified as a key building block in the fight against climate change, while simultaneously addressing the increasing demand for food, feed, energy, materials and products [1]. The concept of bioeconomy is often related to the circular economy, “where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of waste minimized” [5]. The European Commission’s strategic long-term vision for 2050, “A Clean Planet for All”, identifies both concepts as key strategic areas for achieving a climate-neutral economy, highlighting the importance of sustainable biomass production and processing and the circularity of materials [6]. In order to facilitate the transition toward a sustainable bio-based, circular economy and to unlock its potential, strong accompanying measures and an enabling policy framework are required

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