The Route to Sustainability—Prospects and Challenges of the Bio-Based Economy

Abstract

Abstract:The bio-based economy has been increasingly recognized in the sustainability debate over the last two decades, presented as a solution to a number of ecological and social challenges. Its premises include climate change mitigation, cleaner production processes, economic growth, and new employment opportunities. Yet, a transition to a bio-based economy is hampered by risk factors and uncertainties. In this paper, we explore the concept of a bio-based economy, focusing on opportunities of achieving sustainability, as well as challenges of a transition. Departing from an understanding of sustainability provided by the weak and strong sustainability paradigms, we first outline the definition and development of the bio-based economy from a theoretical perspective. Second, we use Sweden as an example of how a transition towards a bio-based economy has been evolving in practice. The review indicates that the proposed direction and strategies of the bio-based economy are promising, but sometimes contradictory, resulting in different views on the actions needed for its premises to be realized. Additionally, current developments adhere largely to the principles of the weak sustainability paradigm. In order for the bio-based economy to develop in accordance with the notion of strong sustainability, important steps to facilitate a transition would include acknowledging and addressing the trade-offs caused by biophysical and social limits to growth.

Member Heterogeneity in Agricultural Cooperatives: A Systems-Theoretic Perspective

“…A logical implication of this sort of self-reproduction is that it is likely to run up against the limits of the environmental carrying capacity at some point. The ecological economics and sustainability scholarship teach us that the system of world society is substantially overstraining the carrying capacity of the natural environment already now [48]. According to the Living Planet Report 2014 issued by World Wide Fund for Nature ( [49], p. 9), the current global consumption of ecosystem services would be sustainable if the Earth had been 1,5 times its current size.…”

Marginal Lands to Grow Novel Bio-Based Crops: A Plant Breeding Perspective

“…A global bio-based economy where building-block materials, chemicals and energy are derived from biological biomass could significantly mitigate main environmental and social problems of our fossil-based society, including climate change, environmental pollution, and geopolitical tensions (McCormick and Kautto, 2013;Bennich and Belyazid, 2017). To address this challenge, more than 40 governments worldwide have explicitly set up strategies to transit toward bio-based economic systems (Dietz et al, 2018), and projections indicate that the biomass demand to sustain bio-based production chains will amount to 6.7-13.4 Bln tons year −1 in 2050, with an increase of 198-396% compared to 2011 levels (3.4 t year −1 ) (Piotrowski et al, 2015).…”

Water limitation may restrict the positive effect of higher temperatures on weathering rates in forest soils

“…ForSAFE is an integrated forest ecosystem model that simulates the interlinked biogeochemical cycles of water, carbon, nutrients and other elements (Belyazid, 2006;Zanchi et al, 2014;Belyazid et al, 2017, Yu et al, 2016. Base cation release through weathering in ForSAFE is based on the concept of the PROFILE model (Sverdrup and Warfvinge, 1993), where four dissolution rates are parameterised for each mineral.…”

“…boundaries (Steffen et al, 2015) including climate change (IPCC, 2014). Awareness about these impacts is driving a shift away from conventional, linear resource use to a circular, bio-based economy (Bennich and Belyazid, 2017). Sweden is engaging on an ambitious national strategy to have no net emission of greenhouse gases by the year 2045 (Regeringskansliet, 2017), supported by a national strategy for a biobased economy (FORMAS, 2012).…”