Politics

EU Stakeholders of the Bioeconomy meet in EFIB to prepare the Biorevolution

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Square Cube in Brussels
Square Cube in Brussels

Leading companies and policy makers are collaborating to fuel the growth of the bioeconomy in Europe. The partnership of Biobased and Renewable Industries for Development and Growth in Europe (BRIDGE) is industries vision for building stronger more sustainable value chains, based on renewable raw materials, across Europe. It is the result extensive dialogue between a broad range of sectors, SMEs, Research Institutes and policy makers and, if adopted, will form part of the EU’s new Research and Innovation programme, Horizon 2020. Continue reading →

Canadian Government Invests in Innovative Bio-Resin Technology

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Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper
Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper

The Canadian Government, led by Stephen Harper, is enabling a company to commercialize a “green” bio-plastic, using innovative technology that was developed at the University of Guelph, Member of Parliament Dave Van Kesteren (Chatham-Kent-Essex) announced yesterday, on behalf of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

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Interview with Simão Soares, Ceo of SilicoLife. The bioeconomy is the key to overcome the economic crisis in Portugal

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parliament in lisbonIn Portugal, the unemployment rate has reached a record level of 17.7 percent, the highest in the European Union after Greece (26.4%) and Spain (26.3%), compared to an EU average of 10.9%. 952,000 people are unemployed, out of a total population of 10,5 million inhabitants.

For 2013, the center-right government led by Pedro Passos Coelho provides additional anti-crisis measures to comply with the financial assistance program of the Troika (EU, ECB, IMF), whose inspectors have already been twice in Lisbon to control the progress of the accounts. Among the measures there is the reduction of approximately 5 percent of public employees (30,000 of 700,000).

The bioeconomy could also be for Portugal an important way out of the crisis. We speak with Simão Soares, Ceo of the young company SilicoLife, one of several companies involved in the fields of bioeconomy created in Portugal in recent years, specialized in bioinformatics.

Interview by Mario Bonaccorso

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Now is the time in Europe to bring advanced second-generation biofuels to the market

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mazda_bp_biobutanol.jpgThe Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels (LSB), a group composed by the Chief Executive Officers of seven Leading European biofuel producers and European airlines, met the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels last week. The meeting was hosted by the ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy) Committee, chaired by Mrs Amalia Sartori, to discuss the positions of the EP ITRE Committee on the European Commission revision of the Renewable Energy Directive – RED. The positions expressed by Mr Alejo Vidal Quadras, the Rapporteur of the ITRE Committee, and reported in his draft ITRE Draft Opinion, were supported by the Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels.

The Leaders, whose chairman is Guido Ghisolfi, President of Mossi & Ghisolfi Group, headquartered in Tortona (Piedmont, Italy), sent a clear message to the Parliament members: “Second Generation Advanced Biofuel technologies are ready to compete with conventional biofuels, with companies keen to invest in commercial projects given appropriate conditions”.

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EFIB 2013: Brussels world capital of the bioeconomy from 30 September to 2 October

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square-brussels-cube-by-dayEuropaBio, The European Association for bio-industries, and Smithers Rapra unveil highly-anticipated agenda for the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology (EFIB) from 1-2 October 2013 taking place in the heart of Brussels at SQUARE. Officially launched by Elio di Rupo, Prime Minister of Belgium, EFIB’s opening plenary brings together a host of keynote speakers including Rudolf Strohmeier, Deputy Director General R&I at the European Commission; Maria da Graça Carvalho, Rapporteur on Horizon 2020 in the European Parliament and CEOs of Ecover and Galactic. Followed by exciting partnership perspectives from the Plant PET Technology Collaborative and a session lead by Ian Hudson, President of DuPont EMEA, examining the triggers for big business to make the shift towards the biobased economy. All speakers set the scene for another outstanding year, and transform the event from conference to congress.

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The Italian new government and the bioeconomy: everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same

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Enrico Letta and President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio NapolitanoItaly’s new government has been sworn in, ending two months of political deadlock, after politicians agreed on Saturday to form a three-party coalition, which will also include technocrats in key positions.

The impression, however, is to be faced with a handful of men and women engaged in a desperate defense of a power gained in many ways fortuitously, on the verge of sinking at any time in front of a chaos which is hard to dominate. With Silvio Berlusconi came out again as big winner and ready to pull the plug as soon as the polls will comfort him about the possibility of winning elections (even with the current electoral law, which does not guarantee the governability and for no other called by its author, Senator of Lega Nord Roberto Calderoli, like “a crap”). In short, it seems that once again in Italy, to quote from The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, “everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same”. Continue reading →

PoliKompleks invests 30 million euros to construct a bioplastics plant in Russia

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moscowPoliKompleks, a Russian industrial biotechnology company, plans to invest around 1,2 billion rubles, 30 million euros, to construct a bioplastics production complex in Russia’s far western enclave of Kaliningrad. To say it is Nikolai Tsukanov, governor of the Kaliningrad Region.

PoliKompleks has reached agreement to establish plants for products based on lactic acid and polylactides (PLA) for the manufacture of some 50,000 tpa of biocomposites. The complex will also have a biodegradable de-icing reagents plant with a capacity of around 12,000 tpa. The Russian company expected to reach an annual turnover of 1,4 billion rubles, approximately 34 million euros.

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US and Israel collaborate on advanced biofuels development

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biofuels roadshow USMore than a dozen of Israel’s top academic and industrial biofuels research scientists and innovators are in Washington to begin a week-long dialogue with their American counterparts at the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture, and the Navy, FAA and the private sector. They will be meeting with White House officials and with top government energy program managers and scientists in Washington, DC and at DOE labs in Oak Ridge Tennessee and in California. The scientific exchange, April 17th – 25th, has been designed to help build U.S.-Israel collaboration mechanisms for research and innovation to produce alternative fuels (“advanced biofuels”) that can substitute for petroleum-based gasoline, diesel oil and aviation fuel currently produced from imported oil.

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Chatham House: UK biofuel policy may need to be modified

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biodieselUK biofuel policy may need to be modified. To say it is a report published by Chatham House, a british think tank focused on “Costs and Consequences of Expanding Biofuel Use in the United Kingdom”. According to Rob Bailey, author of the report, “in its present form the RTFO (Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, editor’s note) may not be an appropriate instrument for achieving the RED (Renewable Energy Directive, editor’s note) target economically. Its volumetric target incentivizes suppliers to minimize cost per litre by supplying ethanol, thereby also minimizing the amount of energy supplied by biofuels. This runs counter to the objective of the RED to increase the share of energy from biofuels.

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Un governo che guarda al futuro. Puntando sulla bioeconomia

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palazzo chigiRiuscirà l’Italia ad avere un governo? La missione sembra impossibile. Prima delle elezioni, paventando quanto poi si è avverato, ovvero l’ingovernabilità del paese, abbiamo anche espresso il sogno di avere come ministro dello Sviluppo economico, Catia Bastioli, Ceo di Novamont. Subito dopo la stessa Bastioli è stata inserita da Michele Santoro (questo ovviamente ci fa piacere) in un suo ipotetico governo di alto profilo. Il ministero che Santoro ha assegnato a Bastioli è quello dell’Ambiente. Il che fa emergere bene come la nostra visione dell’ambiente e della bioeconomia sia di traino dello sviluppo economico ma anche sociale del paese. Nel giochino del nuovo possibile governo si stanno cimentando un po’ tutti gli organi d’informazione.

Proviamo così anche noi de Il Bioeconomista a proporre un governo di alto profilo per il paese, che abbia nella propria agenda politica tra le priorità lo sviluppo della bioeconomia e dell’occupazione.
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