Environmental well-being has recently been put at risk due to unsustainable industrial practices. The relevant decision-makers have developed policies to support a greener approach in the economy. This paper aims to present a complete and comprehensive connection between the key concepts of the economy based on biological resources from both empirical and analytical perspectives by highlighting the structure, importance, and evolution. Through bibliometric research and network mapping analysis, we have revealed the most popular concept among researchers and countries, and the current trend for each term considered. Currently, there is no comparative study on the linkage between bioeconomy, circular economy, knowledgebased economy, bio-based economy, green economy, and bioeconomics, but only taken as separate concepts, thus being difficult to assess the significance and popularity of a term over another and to track the evolution over time. Our results are meant to cover the gap around the interconnected terms in bioeconomy and to enhance the current conceptual frameworks.
Giving due consideration to sustainability, the new concept of bioeconomy has faced strong support from international policymakers, changing the way the economy is currently working. And it does not involve only the replacement of fossil feedstock with bio-based fuels, but also acquiring value from waste and bringing to light the resource efficiency that can lead to a smooth transition from a linear to a circular economy. This paper aims to track the EU states movement in implementing the bioeconomy best practices by building clusters based on their progress in adapting their industries to the new requirements. To make this possible, we created two scenarios for recording the evolution of the energy industry in 27 countries: the first one that groups them according to the fossil-fuel sources, and the second one based on renewable resources. Our results revealed that the biomass tends to be used as a complementary source and not a substitute, in comparison to the traditional fuels. Same actors keep the leading positions in both scenarios, making us believe that they may face strong challenges in reaching the European Commission goals. Thus, the present study emphasizes the need to develop highly efficient policies for all EU members to keep the same path.
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