Aux Farms, Citoyens! France’s Bioeconomy Plan Is a Stirring Call to Action on Jobs, Climate, Innovation

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) t took a long time, but France in the past year published a national bioeconomy strategy and its national government has approved it. It’s here in full form.

We’re publishing a digested version today not only as summary of activities in France (and its extensive bioeconomy resources, industrial base and technical innovation level), but as a model of what a cogent national strategy can look like.

Good jobs and good products while preserving resources for the long term — France sums up it’s four goals this way:

1. To guarantee food security and acceptable living standards for present and future generations by preserving natural resources and ecosystem functions in habitats
2. Efficient, resilient and circular, productive for the long term
3. Focused on its citizens and with local roots, A bioeconomy that contributes to the development of economic value and jobs
4. Providing innovative, effective and affordable solutions able to meet the diversity of human needs

The Plan focuses on “new modes of production and consumption that are, at one and the same time, more efficient, resilient and compatible with the planet’s limits and mechanisms” — citing the The Paris Agreement on to limit climate change to “well below 2°c”, and noting the “crucial issue of global food security and the particular vulnerability of food production systems,” given an “outlook is for a human population of over nine billion by 2050” and a shift to more protein in the diet.

The Plan states the bioeconomy’s role as central to the changes that must come: “The use of bioresources… offers opportunities for our economy. It can contribute to greater food sovereignty and the restoration of our trade balance, as well as creating value-added, thereby reinforcing the dynamism of rural areas and developing employment.”

In all, France identified 22 steps under 6 categories of action relating to co-operation, production, environment, innovation, and dialogue.

Producing bioresources sustainably to meet the needs of all bioeconomy value chains
8. Improving and sharing our knowledge of the resources and their uses
9. Producing and using more bioresources
10. Using bioresources and seeking the best possible organization

Guaranteeing a sustainable bioeconomy
11. A competitive bioeconomy works in synergy with natural mechanisms
12. The development of the bioeconomy has a major regional component
13. A productive and competitive bioeconomy is founded on sustainable production
14. The bioeconomy must make use of environmental impact assessments

Building a dialogue with society for a shared bioeconomy
15. Informing and engaging the actors
16. Organizing debate to ensure informed decisions

No note about the French bioeconomy would be complete without noting the role of the IAR bioeconomy cluster and associated projects. For 10 years, IAR has been supporting more than 210 projects for a total investment of €1,5 billion. Five examples of IAR projects are:

1. BBI – biobased industries joint undertaking (http://www.bbi-europe.eu). AIR is a board member of the BBIju
2. IMPROVE – plant based proteins (http://www.improve-innov.com/en)
3. PIVERT – oilseed biorefining (http://www.institut-pivert.com)
4. FUTUROL – ligno-cellulosic ethanol (http://www.projetfuturol.com)
5. BIO-LIC – overcoming hurdles for industrial biotechnology (http://www.industrialbiotech-europe.eu/) READ MORE