Clariant, a Swiss leader in specialty chemicals, and French industrial biotech company Global Bioenergies last Tuesday announced the development of a new bio-based polymer for cosmetic creams and lotions, which is derived from renewable isobutene.
“We need an ambitious and long-term bioeconomy policy framework to enable the creation of a Bioeconomy Single Market. The framework needs to ensure predictability to investors and companies, enhance risk-taking capacity and define priority pathways to move towards a low carbon economy, where a circular bioeconomy becomes a growth engine”. Marc Palahí, director of the European Forest Institute, talks to Il Bioeconomista. In this long and exclusive interview, released after the Second edition of the European Bioeconomy Summit, he talks about the next steps which are needed to place the bioeconomy at the core of the EU industrial, climate and sustainability agenda.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Dear Readers,
thank you very much, again. 2017 was another very positive year for Il Bioeconomista: 12% more visits to our blog.
Il Bioeconomista confirms itself as one of the world’s leading blog on bieconomy. Our readers are mainly Europeans, but a growing number of readers are from Turkey, the United States, Canada, Brazil, India, Australia, Japan and Malaysia.
The year that has just ended was very important for the global bioeconomy. And we are sure that the best has yet to come. 2018 will be another relevant year for the implementation of the bioeconomy, waiting for the pre-announced new strategy on bioeconomy in the European Union. We will be again on your side to tell the facts and continue growing.
Happy new year!
Mario Bonaccorso
“It’s time to deliver!” This is, extremely briefly, the message that comes from the second edition of the Bioeconomy Investment Summit, which was held in Helsinki last Thursday, December 14. In this invitation made at the opening of the summit by the former Swedish prime minister, Göran Persson, it can be synthesized the will of over 300 summit participants to move rapidly towards the creation of new markets for the bioeconomy and to accelerate the transition to a new, more sustainable economy, which finally could leave the GDP behind as an indicator of welfare of the countries. “From the sustainable perspective, GDP is a misleading measure of success”, said Robert Costanza, professor at the Australian National University.
As the world population keeps growing and living standards improve in many third world countries, there is an ever-increasing demand for textiles and textile fibres. The global textile market currently amounts to about 90 Mtons per annum, but is projected to exceed 140 Mtons by 2025.
Our readers have voted: the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2017 is Tony Duncan, CEO of Circa Group, the Australian company headquartered in Melbourne that is converting waste biomass into advanced biochemical materials. For the second consecutive year is the CEO of an Australian company to win the award (in 2016 was Ken Richards, CEO of Leaf Resources).
Bio-on, listed on the AIM segment of Borsa Italiana and one of the main players in the new eco-sustainable chemical industry, starting from 1st December is listed on the MSCI World Small Cap Index. This announcement arrives after the agreement between the Italian company headquartered in Bologna and International Paint Ltd (AkzoNobel) to continue their collaborative relationship thanks to excellent results achieved within Synergistic Fouling Control Technologies-SEAFRONT project, funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission
The bioeconomy is innovation, the result of the skills and passion of researchers and managers able to create value and new high-qualified jobs. At the end of 2014 Il Bioeconomista launched a new initiative: The 10 Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEOs.
We have asked a panel of world bioeconomy experts to tell us the Chief Executive Officers that have stood out as the most innovative during the last year.
Now we ask you to choose the most innovative CEO responding to our survey (open till December 7 at 2 pm, Western European Time).
This is the result in 2017 (in alphabetical order)
Mossi Ghisolfi is for sale. According to different rumors in Italy, Versalis, the chemical division of the oil giant Eni, and various European (such as the French oil colossus Total) and Asian industrial groups would be interested in acquiring the Italian chemical company which is one of the world’s largest PET manufacturer with a capacity of nearly 1.6 million tonnes per year and plants in Brazil, Mexico and the United States.
“Imagine wearing yoga pants made from recycled carbon!” said LanzaTech Ceo, Jennifer Holmgren. “We want people to have a choice of where their carbon comes from. Fresh fossil or recycled, ‘carbon smart’, products. Much like the idea of buying organic, fair trade or recycled products, we see a future where you can walk into a store and make a conscious decision to buy everything from a chair to running shoes made from recycled carbon. This future is now possible through advancements in synthetic biology which enable the production of targeted molecules.”
IL BIOECONOMISTA 