Tracking the Evolution of the European Bioeconomy - From Devising a Conceptual Framework to Using Novel Indicators

Summary

EU (European Union) policymakers strive to transform their fossil-based economies and steer them onto a sustainable path by using their natural resources differently. Tracking this path is challenging because it affects many economic sectors, societal aspects, and environmental systems. One opportunity for a society is to transition towards a bioeconomy, which entails all economic sectors and systems linked to biological resources and their functions and principles. The EU aims to promote the bioeconomy and reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by establishing an extensive policy framework. Tracking this process and its dynamics is crucial to ensure that resources are efficiently spent. This thesis provided sophisticated and novel approaches and indicators for measuring the bioeconomy and found varying but generally positive trends. A focus was on providing methods to analyze the many aspects of the bioeconomy and its contribution to sustainability.