National Policy Statement on the Bioeconomy.

The bioeconomy emphasises the importance of using an increasing list of renewable biological resources and in some cases what would have hitherto been discarded as residues or waste and putting them to more productive uses. It extends across sectors - from farming and the agri-food businesses, marine and maritime industries, forestry, novel protein production, water and waste management, energy suppliers, and biopharmaceutical products. Ireland has many promising pioneers in all of these sectors. This National Policy Statement is a further step towards our ambition to develop the bioeconomy. The Government has consulted widely with bodies within the public system and interested parties working at the cutting-edge of the bioeconomy in Ireland, whilst noting developments in the European Union and further afield. Incorporating insights from all these sources, this National Policy Statement sets out a vision, common principles and strategic objectives for the future development of the bioeconomy. The purpose of this National Policy Statement on the Bioeconomy is to capitalise on this potential. It does so by elaborating on how the strategic development of the bioeconomy might be advanced through greater policy coherence across all relevant sectors and dealing with fundamental challenges to its commercial success and social development. The recognition of climate change as a serious global and local issue is seeing the emergence of a new economic model focused on two principal pillars: low carbon growth and resource efficiency. Ireland needs to move beyond simply a target compliance and carbon mitigation focus to integrating sustainable economic development into our economic model as we transition to a low carbon economy.
The Government’s vision for the bioeconomy is to grow Ireland’s ambition to be a global leader for the bioeconomy through a co-ordinated approach that harnesses Ireland’s natural resources and competitive advantage and that fully exploits the opportunities available while monitoring and avoiding unintended consequences. An important objective of the bioeconomy is to move Ireland beyond simply a target compliance and carbon mitigation focus to integrating sustainable economic development into our economic model as we transition to a low carbon and circular economy. The guiding principles that will help translate this vision into coordinated action include the: 1) Principles underpinning the Bioeconomy Sustainability Principle - Environmental sustainability is an integral, core principle of the bioeconomy and products developed must be sustainable. Feasibility assessments should include environmental and social feasibility. The amount of biomaterial extracted should not have a negative impact on our biological resources; it should not exceed the capacity of the environment to replenish itself; and should cause no lasting damage to an environment. This should be regarded from a holistic view, which takes all biomass into account, including that in the soil. Activity in the bioeconomy should not degrade resilience or biodiversity in the ecosystem; 2) Cascading Principle - whereby higher value applications are preferentially derived from biological resources (e.g. food, bio-based materials and chemicals) prior to their use in energy and fuel generation which will allow us to derive the maximum value from our bioresources; 3. Precautionary Principle - is a risk management approach to prevent policies or actions causing harm to the public or the environment. Innovation in the bioeconomy will depend on the sensible application of this principle and it should be informed by the latest scientific information and consensus; 4) Food First Principle - gives priority to food and nutrition security by improving the availability of and access to a safe and healthy food supply for citizens. In seeking to expand the bioeconomy, Government has several strategic policy objectives in mind: 1) Sustainable economy and society - Growing the bioeconomy can put Ireland’s economy on a more sustainable footing by encouraging the efficient use and re-use of resources and materials to a much greater extent than hitherto; 2) Decarbonisation of the economy - the bioeconomy can play a part in lowering greenhouse gas emissions through, for example, the development of innovative practices and processes that can improve the efficiency in agriculture and forestry production systems. Bioprocessing and bio-refining can replace high embedded carbon products such as concrete, steel, plastics and chemicals with biobased alternatives and produce new products; 3) Jobs and Competitiveness - the bioeconomy can foster employment as many of the inputs for the bioeconomy are sourced nationally, so its development has a greater impact compared to other areas of the economy that are more reliant on imports. In this context, it is worth noting that as the agri-food and marine sector faces considerable uncertainties due to the prospect of Brexit, growing the bioeconomy represents an opportunity for this sector to diversify and reduce the risks confronting it; 3) Regional Prosperity - one of the advantages of the bioeconomy is that many of the businesses rooted in it are located in rural and coastal areas. Helping the bioeconomy to grow can assist in halting rural decline.