Carbon Management: Bioeconomy and Beyond
The bioeconomy brings opportunities for economic growth while tackling climate change. Fossil carbon resources can be replaced by bio-based carbon resources, especially biomass. To allow these solutions to be scaled up without threats to biodiversity and the environment, it is necessary to develop the bioeconomy as a circular economy. With this carbon management approach, other sources of carbon complement biomass: industrial waste, including gases such as CO and CO2, as well as physically and chemically recycled carbon. In the future, direct air capture (DAC) may become competitive and form part of the solution. These approaches can be considered ‘circular’ because they close material loops and keep carbon recycling in the economy rather than emitting carbon to the atmosphere. This report reviews a number of hybrid technologies that can be deployed to ‘defossilise’ economic sectors and sets out policy options to bring these technologies to commercial scale.
Concluding remarks
This chapter highlights key aspects of the publication, focusing on broader sustainability issues and the risks of over-relying on biomass as a future feedstock. It emphasises the importance of a unified policy language, particularly in differentiating between CCU and CCS technologies, and stresses the need for careful evaluation of technologies ahead of the 2050 net-zero carbon deadline, highlighting the significant infrastructural changes required.
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