Can the evolution of the European bioeconomy contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals?

Abstract

Launched and adopted on 13 February 2012, Europe's Bioeconomy Strategy addresses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into vital products and bio-energy. The Strategy proposes answers to the challenges Europe and the world are facing, in particular the increasing populations that must be fed, depletion of natural resources, impacts of ever increasing environmental pressures and climate change. In addition, on 25 September 2015, the UN General Assembly formally adopted the universal, integrated and transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 associated targets. The EU has committed to implement the SDGs both in its internal and external policies. A newly developed MAGNET SDG Insights module enables the impact of policy on SDG indicators to be evaluated in an ex-ante framework. The module carries the advantage of translating complex modelling results into the impact on SDG indicators which are fast becoming the common language of global impact assessment. Specifically, the new module includes 60 official and additional indicators, covering 12 of the 17 SDGs for each region of the world. This paper evaluates a range of selected scenarios in terms of the impacts on the SDGs, using the Modular Applied GeNeral Equilibrium Tool (MAGNET), a GTAP-based global economic simulation extended to include second generation biofuels, bioelectricity and waste, biochemicals and a suite of SDG indicators. This approach provides a unique insight into the synergies or trade-offs in scenarios where several market instruments are operating simultaneously and allows for a more coherent approach to policy implementation. The results show the contribution of economic development and policy changes to societal challenges in 2030, both in terms of synergies and trade-offs