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COMMENT BOOKS Birds, beasts and DEVELOPMENT African nations OBITUARY Jerome Bruner,
marine protected areas and the brain: holiday reads must invest to stem brain cognitive psychology
fisheries management p.224 from Nature reviewers p.228 drain p.231 pioneer, remembered p.232
LALO DE ALMEIDA/CONTRASTO/EYEVINE
A truck full of sugar cane crosses farmland in Brazil, a leader in bio-based ethanol production from the crop.
Five cornerstones of a
global bioeconomy
Beate El-Chichakli and colleagues outline principles for coordinating
bio-based industries to achieve many of the sustainable development goals.
M
ore than 40 nations1 are proposing Union, Japan and the United States see impede producers in poorer countries who
to boost their ‘bioeconomy’ — expanding the bioeconomy as a means of lack testing infrastructure. In India and Brazil,
the part of the economy based reindustrializing and creating wealth (see strict bio-piracy regulations, which aim to
in biology and the biosciences. Around ‘Bioeconomy breakdown’). Emerging indus- protect biodiversity and traditional knowl-
US$2 trillion of products in agriculture and trial economies such as China and India see edge, are failing to benefit local populations
forestry, food, bioenergy, biotechnology biotechnology as a nascent field of innovation and are stalling international research in plant
and green chemistry were exported world- in which they can quickly compete. Brazil, biodiversity.
wide in 2014, amounting2 to 13% of world South Africa and Malaysia are investing to Without agreed global priorities and
trade, up from 10% in 2007. These sectors add value to their vast biological resources. assessment methods, it is hard to take into
are central to at least half of the UN Sus- Ecological sustainability is a prime concern account such indirect effects and trade-offs.
tainable Development Goals (SDGs), from in rich and industrializing countries; inclusive Global investments in information collec-
food security to ensuring energy access and rural development and equitable sharing of tion such as satellite tracking of biomass
health. But conflicting national priorities resources is central in developing countries. call for joint action. Nations will fund DNA
make it hard to align bioeconomy policies Knock-on effects of decisions made in one barcoding of rare rainforest hardwoods or
to meet the SDGs on a global scale. place may be felt elsewhere. The EU’s plan to use genetic stock identification to manage
Bioscience leaders such as the European ecologically certify its bio-based products will fisheries only when such technologies are
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COMMENT
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COMMENT
BIOECONOMY The European Union’s biology-based industries account for 17 million jobs, or 8.5% of the region’s workforce (A) and generate
SOURCE: REF. 9 (EU)
more than €2 trillion (US$2.2 trillion) annually (B). Equivalent statistics are unavailable elsewhere, but US industries producing
BREAKDOWN bio-based products (non-food) account for about 4 million jobs and US$370 billion. India’s bioeconomy surpassed US$4 billion
in 2013. And Brazil’s sugar-cane industry accounted for 2% of its gross domestic product and 4.5 million jobs in 2012.
2%
35
and the corporate sector. internationally to define the knowledge, professor of microbiology and molecular
First, international collaborations skills and competencies required for genetics at the Technical University of
between governments and public and private developing a bioeconomy that enhances Berlin, Germany, and co-chair of the
researchers are essential for optimizing the sustainable use of bio-based materials Bioeconomy Council of the German Federal
resource use and sharing knowledge. For in manufacturing and in consumer prod- Government. Daniel Barben is professor
instance, international initiatives that bring ucts. This will require an interdisciplinary and director of the Institute of Science,
together bioscience and IT are needed in approach that emphasizes systems think- Technology and Society Studies at the Alpen-
sustainable intensification and global soil ing, strategic planning and evaluating Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria, and
mapping, to agree common protocols. The environmental, social and economic per- a member of the Bioeconomy Council of the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the formance, as well as an understanding of German Federal Government. Jim Philp
United Nations (FAO) established a Sustain- technologies and local specifics. Govern- is a policy analyst at the Organisation for
able Bioeconomy Working Group in 2016 ments should build international teaching Economic Co-operation and Development,
and could develop such a forum. and learning exchanges into research pro- Paris, France.
Second, ways to measure the bioecono- grammes. Open learning platforms would e-mail: james.philp@oecd.org
my’s development and its contributions to allow the sharing of curricula and training
1. Communiqué of the Global Bioeconomy
the SDGs need to be found. Priority targets, content. Summit. Making Bioeconomy Work for Sustainable
such as food security, and assessment crite- Fifth, research-and-development Development (2015); available at http://
ria need to be agreed internationally, led by support programmes are needed to go.nature.com/293zhq2
2. Intesa SanPaolo. La bioeconomia in Europa: 2°
global organizations such as the UN and its encourage global collaborations in a few Rapporto (2015); available at http://go.nature.
subsidiaries. National monitoring systems breakthrough projects. For example, 300 com/29as14n (in Italian).
should include the international dimen- experts concluded 4 that collaboration 3. Coady, D., Parry, I., Sears, L. & Shang, B. How
sion so that a country could examine how in bioeconomy research would be most Large Are Global Energy Subsidies? (International
Monetary Fund, 2015).
its practices might affect others. This will needed in the following areas: new food 4. Bioökonomierat. Global Visions for the
entail efforts to make related data openly systems, bio-principled cities, sustain- Bioeconomy: An international Delphi-Study (Office
accessible. able aquaculture, biorefineries, artificial of the German Bioeconomy Council, 2015);
available at http://go.nature.com/29rz1fx
Third, bioeconomy initiatives need to be photosynthesis, consumer and citizen 5. von Braun, J. in The Fight Against Hunger and
linked more closely with multilateral policy participation and global governance. Malnutrition (ed. Sahn, D.) 240–262 (Oxford Univ.
processes and intergovernmental discus- Discussions on these five cornerstones Press, 2015).
6. US National Academy of Sciences.
sions, particularly the SDG 2030 agenda should begin now, so that structures can be Industrialization of Biology: A Roadmap to
and follow-ups to the Paris climate and Aichi in place before the next Global Bioeconomy Accelerate the Advanced Manufacturing of
biodiversity agreements. A UN body on bio- Summit in 2017. ■ Chemicals (National Academies Press, 2015).
7. Peplow, M. Nature Biotechnol. 33, 1123–1125
economy needs to be set up to handle the (2015).
coordination. Carbon pricing, the costing Beate El-Chichakli is head of the Office 8. Food and Agriculture Organization of the
of other negative impacts (including indi- of the Bioeconomy Council of the German United Nations. The State of World Fisheries and
rect costs such as air pollution and climate Federal Government, Berlin, Germany. Aquaculture 2014 Highlights (FAO, 2014).
9. Ronzon, T., Santini, F. & M’Barek, R. The
change) and the removal of fossil-fuel sub- Joachim von Braun is director of the Center Bioeconomy in the European Union in Numbers
sidies are necessities for meeting the SDGs. for Development Research and Professor for (2015); available at http://go.nature.
Fossil energy received a staggering $5.3 tril- Economic and Technological Change at the com/291rc3I
lion, or 6.5% of global gross domestic prod- University of Bonn, Germany, and co-chair The views expressed are those of the authors
uct, in post-tax subsidies in 20153. of the Bioeconomy Council of the German and not necessarily those of the OECD or of the
Fourth, educators should collaborate Federal Government. Christine Lang is governments of its member countries.
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