As a Policy Advisor, it was a privilege to reflect on the vital discussions held at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference on June 3, 2025. This round table, expertly moderated by Melina Walling of the Associated Press, brought together a distinguished panel of experts – Jukka Kantola, Roberto Jaguaribe Gomes de Matos, Éliane Ubalijoro, Rosalie Matondo, and Avinash Persaud – to dissect how the bioeconomy can serve as a cornerstone for climate action and sustainable development. The core of our discussion revolved around leveraging sustainable value chains, bio-based innovations, and nature-positive business models to drive decarbonization, biodiversity conservation, and circular economy practices, with successful experiences from Brazil setting a compelling precedent.
A recurring theme was the very definition of “bioeconomy.” While there isn’t one universally accepted common definition, it is broadly understood as the generation of resources and wealth—be it products, services, energy, or information—through interactions with biological resources. Critically, this generation of wealth must be sustainable, balancing idealism with practical application. As Jukka Kantola highlighted, it’s about a balanced, sustainable economic system rooted in three interconnected principles: the sustainable use of biological resources, the application of advanced biotechnological solutions, and the strengthening of ecological systems.
At its heart, the bioeconomy is about boosting nature capital, not reducing it. It plays a critical role in supporting food systems, fostering sustainable development, and building climate resilience. By focusing on the production, use, and conservation of biological resources, including vital ecosystem services, the bioeconomy underpins equitable development. This holistic approach ensures we address interconnected global challenges such as food security, biodiversity loss, climate change, and resource scarcity, while simultaneously creating employment and income opportunities.
A crucial element for unlocking the bioeconomy’s full potential lies in integrating traditional and indigenous knowledge systems with modern advancements. This millennia-honed wisdom, combined with insights from the digital world, is essential for truly becoming stewards of the natural world. Dr. Éliane Ubalijoro underscored the importance of moving beyond simple capitalism to account for natural, human, and social capital, ensuring that profitability also contributes to sustainable livelihoods. This approach respects local contexts and supports the socio-cultural biodiversity definitions often used by indigenous populations.
The collaboration between governments and the private sector is indispensable. Bioeconomy necessitates investment, as sustainability itself depends on our capacity to generate wealth from sustainable practices. Governments play a leading role in framing regulations that induce the private sector to move in this direction, understanding that without private sector engagement, sustainability efforts are not truly sustainable. The key lies in finding a pragmatic balance between idealistic regulations and the private sector’s need for profit, allowing for the generation of profits from sustainability.
Brazil offers a powerful illustration of this partnership. Ambassador Roberto Jaguaribe highlighted Brazil’s extraordinary success in bioenergy over the past 50 years, particularly with bioethanol. These policies, initially framed for economic purposes rather than solely for sustainability, have avoided the emission of over a billion tons of CO2 equivalent and continue to prevent 40 million tons annually. This demonstrates how bioeconomy, driven by economic incentives and government frameworks, can evolve to encompass significant environmental benefits, including advancements in agriculture and bio-based solutions.
However, the path is not without significant challenges. One major hurdle is “environmental neocolonialism,” where developed nations, having depleted their own natural resources, impose strict environmental standards on developing countries without considering their developmental needs. Furthermore, there is a risk of replicating extractive or monoculture-based approaches, and it is crucial to address inequities in access to land, finance, and knowledge. Sustainable bioeconomy development must ensure that policies integrate and align climate, biodiversity, and development goals without perpetuating historical imbalances.
A critical bottleneck identified by experts is finance. Protecting vital ecosystems like the Amazon and Congo forests demands creating alternative, profitable livelihoods for local populations, as their existing livelihoods often involve forest exploitation. Initiatives like “Amazon Forever” in Latin America aim to scale up profitable agroforestry projects, demonstrating a pathway for nature-positive development. However, the scale of financial need is immense: developing countries (excluding China) require $3 trillion annually for climate and bioeconomy initiatives, a figure vastly exceeding current aid levels.
To address this financial gap, there’s a need to differentiate between investments that generate revenues, those that generate savings, and those that are pure costs. While aid can target pure costs, development banks need to be significantly scaled up to invest in savings-generating activities. Current mechanisms like the voluntary carbon market, at only $2 billion a year after two decades, are insufficient. There’s a clear call for more robust, non-voluntary financial mechanisms that can truly scale up bioeconomy investments.
Looking at promising areas, the bioeconomy encompasses a wide range of products and innovations. Bio-based materials—from construction elements and textiles (replacing petrochemical-based fabrics) to biofuels and packaging from agricultural residuals—offer significant opportunities for replacing fossil-based products. Additionally, the biotechnology pillar is highly dynamic, driving innovations in bioplastics, enzymes, biopharmaceuticals, microbial fermentation, and synthetic biology. This “bio-revolution” is rapidly expanding, with major investment hubs in the US and China.
To ensure effectiveness, it is imperative to establish a more rules-based, inclusive system for the entire value chain. Buyers are increasingly engaging in understanding their supply chains, which is positive, but their approaches can be inconsistent or ad hoc, undermining producers’ ability to sustain nature-positive businesses. Given the heterogeneity of agriculture, involving both small and large farm owners, and indigenous populations, interventions must be inclusive and supported by stable, credible international frameworks.
In conclusion, accelerating the bioeconomy is not merely an aspiration but an urgent necessity. While high-level principles for bioeconomy are gaining traction, the pace of finance mobilization needs to dramatically increase. Unlike sustainable finance for climate change mitigation, which took decades to develop, we cannot afford to wait as long for bioeconomy investments. By fostering a shared understanding, establishing a robust financial architecture, and building inclusive, rules-based value chains, we can ensure the bioeconomy delivers on its promise of prosperity while regenerating nature and reducing our dependence on fossil resources.