G7 Climate, Energy and Environment workshop: Sustainable and Circular Bioeconomy for reducing emissions and restoring ecosystems: success stories and indicators and best practices for monitoring their sustainability
October 31, 2024, 12am
WEB WORKSHOP hosted by the Italian Presidency of Council of Ministers, Rome
ORGANIZERS: Italian Presidency of G7 Climate, Energy and Environment and the National Bioeconomy Coordination Board (CNBBSV) of the Italian Presidency of Council of Ministers, in cooperation with OECD (BNCT WP)
BACKGROUND
Circular and sustainable Bioeconomy is based on the production and use of biological resources and integrates waste-to-wealth principles, thus contributing to the attainment of 53 targets in 12 of the 17 SDGs. Sustainable Bioeconomy ensures food security by providing access to nutritious food and can create regenerative benefits to ecosystems by regenerating soils, marginal and desertified lands and preventing land degradation and land-use change. In addition, circular and sustainable Bioeconomy contributes to climate change mitigation through fossil-based materials replacement with biobased ones obtained from plants, animals, algae and micro-organisms and organic waste streams, by also capturing carbon from the atmosphere and reconverting it into biomass. This all in turn fosters resource security and creates livelihoods for the local communities, especially in the rural, coastal, mountainous and abandoned areas, thus contributing to the achievement of both social and economic goals. Overall, sustainable circular bioeconomy approaches have the potential to contribute to more sustainable, prosperous, and equitable societies, by reconciling economic, environmental, and social goals.
Integrated assessment of all life cycle stages of production and consumption is crucial to unveil the trade- offs and ensure the identification of better options for the sustainable implementation of the sustainable and circular bioeconomy on the territories, exploiting their specificities.
RATIONALE
In April 2024, the G7 Climate, Energy, and Environment Ministers recognized the need to share examples of successful circular and sustainable bioeconomy solutions implemented at national, regional, and global levels, and welcomed the Italian Presidency initiative to hold a voluntary technical workshop for sharing information and best practices and indicators for monitoring bioeconomy, also for possible consideration by the G20 Bioeconomy Initiative. The Italian Presidency of G7 Climate, Energy and Environment and the National Bioeconomy Coordination Board of the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers will host this pilot action addressed to share best international sustainable bioeconomy practices and the tools mainly used for monitoring their social, economic and environmental implications. This dialogue may future efforts to design common, robust, and comprehensive bioeconomy indicators and monitoring procedures. The workshop features speakers and participants from G7, G20 and OECD countries, as well as from the European Commission and FAO to share and critically assess some of the most important success stories of circular and regenerative bioeconomy implemented to date in the different continents.
AGENDA
12.00 - Opening section
Chairs: Fabio Fava, National Bioeconomy Coordination Board (CNBBSV), Presidency of Council of Ministers, Italy & Duccio Maria Tenti, Italian Presidency G7 Climate, Energy and Environment
Andrea Lenzi Welcome greetings. President, National Committee of Biosafety, Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Presidency of Council of Ministers, Roma.
- Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Minister Environment & Energy Security, Italian Government, Rome
- Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of University and Research, Italian Government, Rome
- André Corrêa do Lago, Secretary of state for Climate, Energy and Environment, Brazilian Government & Presidency of G20 Bioeconomy Initiative, Brasilia
- Jerry Sheehan, Director, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD, Paris
- John Bell, ‘Healthy Planet” Director, DG RTD, European Commission, Brussels
12.40 - Session 1. Implementing a sustainable and regenerative bioeconomy: successful full-scale circular bioeconomy facilities and their environmental, social and economical impacts
Chairs: Duccio Maria Tenti, Italian Presidency G7 Climate, Energy and Environment, Italy & Vicente de Azevedo Araujo Filho, Brazilian Presidency G20 Bioeconomy Initiative, Brazil
Catia Bastioli, Chief Executive Officer Novamont SpA, Italy. The integrated biorefinery for bioproducts: the Italian case study based on the regeneration of 4 plants
Jennifer Holmgren, Chairman & CEO, LanzaTech, USA. The New Carbon Economy: Biotechnology applications in fuels, chemicals and food.
Yoshiyuki Fujishima, Global Chief Researcher, Norinchukin Research Institute / OECD-BNCT Bureau, Japan. Biomass Industrial Cities, which followed from the Biomass Towns, strategies that have spread in other Asian countries.
Ramesh Chand, Member of National Institution for Transforming India, NITI, India. Waste to Wealth and Circular Economy in Agriculture in India.
Julius Ecuru, BioInnovate Africa Programme, Africa. Bioeconomy in Action in Africa.
Summary of the main session outcomes (by the Chairs, 5 mins).
13.40 - Break
13.55 - Session 2. Towards a common framework to monitor progress in the sustainable Bioeconomy implementation: state-of-the-art and open challenges
Chairs: Fabio Fava, National Bioeconomy Coordination Board (CNBBSV), Presidency of Council of Ministers, Italy & David Winickoff, Biotechnology Nanotechnology Converging Technologies, OECD, Paris
14.00 Maenhout Greet, Head of Forests & Bioeconomy Unit, JRC European Commission. Monitoring the sustainability of the EU Bioeconomy.
14.15 Lev Neretin, Environment Lead, Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Monitoring and Evaluating Sustainable Bioeconomy: FAO's Approach to Selecting Indicators at Territorial and Product Levels.
14.30 - Round table. Monitoring tools and indicators: good practices at national/territorial level
Takeo Miyake, Professor, Waseda University / Senior Science and Technology Policy Fellow for Bio, Secretariat of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Cabinet Office, Japan;
Meaghan Seagrave, Executive Director, Bioindustrial Innovation Canada and CEO, Sustainable Chemistry Alliance, Canada;
Jörg Schweinle, Thünen Institute of Forestry, Hamburg, Germany;
Ian Townsend, UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), United Kingdom;
Andrea Bailey, Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), USA;
Lucia Gardossi, University of Trieste & National Bioeconomy Coordination Board (CNBBSV), Presidency of Council of Ministers, Italy;
Talita Priscila Pinto, Coordinator of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation's Observatory for Bioeconomy Knowledge and Innovation (FGV OCBio), Brazil;
Ben Durham, Chief Director, Science Innovation, Republic of South Africa, South Africa.
16.00 - What next for creating more robust and comprehensive bioeconomy metrics? (with the contribution of JRC and FAO speakers)
16.15 - Conclusions and future actions
Chairs: Duccio Maria Tenti, Italian Presidency G7 Climate, Energy and Environment, Italy & Fabio Fava, National Bioeconomy Coordination Board (CNBBSV), Presidency of Council of Ministers.
Ben Durham, Republic of South Africa Presidency of the 2025 G20 Bioeconomy initiative.