HISTORICAL ARTICLE
JOURNAL ARTICLE
REVIEW
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

The bioeconomy, the challenge of the century for policy makers.

New Biotechnology 2018 January 26
During the Industrial Revolution, it became clear that wood was unsuited as an energy source for industrial production, especially iron smelting. However, the transition to coal was the effort of decades. Similarly, the transition from coal to oil was neither a smooth nor rapid process. The transition to an energy and materials production regime based on renewable resources can similarly be expected to be fraught with many setbacks and obstacles, technically and politically. Those earlier transitions, however, were not complicated by the so-called grand challenges faced today. Above energy security and food and water security lurks climate change. Some events of 2015 have politically legitimised climate change and its mitigation, and 2016 saw the world finally sworn to action. The bioeconomy holds some of the answers to the economic challenges thrown up by mitigating climate change while maintaining growth and societal wellbeing. For bioeconomy policy makers, the future is complex and multi-faceted. The issues start in regions and extend to global reach. It is hard to quantify what is going to be the most difficult of challenges. However, one of the visions for the bioeconomy, that of distributed manufacturing in small- and medium-scale integrated biorefineries flies in the face of the current reality of massive fossil fuel and petrochemical economies of scale, married to gargantuan fossil fuel consumption subsidies.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app