The Global Bioeconomy Summit 2024 in Nairobi/Kenya led to the joint understanding that a global partnership linking various activities and networks is needed.
Photo: IACGB
The Bioeconomy in a world of multiple crises – why we need a global partnership now
By Gideon Tups, Chrstine Lang, Jan Börner and Daniel Braun
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz in March 2026 has once again exposed the vulnerability of economies and supply chains that depend on fossil resources. Energy prices have surged, fertiliser costs are rising as supplies from the Gulf are disrupted, and food security concerns are mounting in import-dependent countries. This is the third major supply shock after the Covid crisis in 2020 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – and a reminder that the structural risks of the current economic model extend well beyond carbon emissions, reaching into food systems, industrial production and rural livelihoods.
More urgently than ever, this situation calls for a political and societal focus on alternatives – and the bioeconomy offers precisely that. It is in this context that sustainable bioeconomic transformation must be acknowledged as a key global policy priority.
Not only does global bioeconomy governance contribute to climate and sustainability goals, it can also open pathways towards greater economic resilience, grounded in diversified production systems, cascading, circularity and local development through the efficient use of renewable resources. A bioeconomy that produces, utilises, and regenerates biological resources – and applies biological principles – can help diversify supply chains, close material cycles, strengthen regional value creation, and reduce dependence on volatile global commodity markets.
Notably, these are not distant promises but development pathways chosen by a growing number of countries already today. More than 60 countries have adopted bioeconomy strategies and policy frameworks in recent years, showcasing impactful examples of economically feasible modes of sustainable transformation.
A transformation pathway gaining momentum
Over the past decade, the bioeconomy has evolved from a research concept into a systemic transformation paradigm. Major international organisations – from the G20 and the UN to the World Economic Forum and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – recognise it as a strategic pillar for sustainable development and economic growth, as reflected in the G20's ten high-level principles for the bioeconomy (2024), the GFFA's recent focus on "Farming a Sustainable Bioeconomy" (2025), and the EU's updated “Strategy for a Competitive and Sustainable EU Bioeconomy” (2025).
Well-functioning bioeconomies are fundamentally systemic. They cut across sectors traditionally governed in silos – agrifood systems, industrial production, energy, health and environmental protection – promoting circularity and cascading use of biomass where the fossil-based linear economy leaves material flows open and resources underutilised. They draw on advanced biotechnology and artificial intelligence, but equally on Indigenous knowledge systems and local practices. These are not competing approaches but complementary dimensions of a transformation that must be both high-tech and place-based, both globally connected and locally rooted.
For many emerging economies, the bioeconomy represents an opportunity to industrialise sustainably and to create employment through local value addition. However, realising this potential requires equitable sharing of knowledge, innovation, technologies, funding and investment – and stable political commitment to sustainability as the defining principle rather than an afterthought.
The obstacle: many isolated voices and activities
Despite growing momentum, the bioeconomy landscape remains fragmented and insufficiently visible. Numerous valuable and impactful initiatives exist at global, regional and national levels – within industry, civil society, the public sector and academia. Today, they often operate in isolation, lacking systematic exchange via shared platforms that connect their efforts. Sectors that could reinforce each other work in silos. Regions that could learn from each other's experience in context-specific implementation lack the channels to do so effectively.
The consequences of this fragmentation are real. The bioeconomy's contributions to climate action, biodiversity conservation, and industrial and agrifood transformation and resilience are insufficiently communicated. At the same time, coherent governance mechanisms to support these contributions remain lacking. National policy frameworks frequently lag behind the systemic interconnections that the bioeconomy creates in practice. As a result, the multiple voices of the bioeconomy community – often with diverse interpretations of and approaches to the bioeconomy – are not sufficiently heard in global fora.
Towards a joint voice - a partnership for global bioeconomy
What is needed now is a concerted effort to build a global partnership – a shared platform where the diverse existing initiatives come together, exchange experiences, align their visions and communicate the need for and benefits of the bioeconomy more effectively to decision-makers in policy and the private sector, as well as the broader public.
The call for such a partnership is not new. The Communiqué of the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2024 in Nairobi explicitly called for the formation of a Global Bioeconomy Partnership to assist in sharing information and lessons learned across initiatives and world regions.
Building on this mandate, the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy (IACGB) aims to establish the partnership as an independent, authoritative platform for the global bioeconomy. Together with the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, the IACGB is currently developing an operational framework for the network-of-networks in a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH).
The guiding idea is simple: a network-of-networks. A platform that connects rather than replaces, that amplifies rather than centralises. One that ensures balanced and inclusive representation across sectors and world regions, facilitates the exchange of context-specific and diverse solutions, and helps the bioeconomy community speak with a more coherent voice on the global challenges of our time.
As delegates prepare to convene at the fifth Global Bioeconomy Summit in Dublin/Ireland on the 20th–21stOctober 2026, the case for joining forces could hardly be stronger. The current crisis is a reminder that building more resilient, sustainable and circular economies is not only an environmental imperative but a matter of shared economic security. The bioeconomy offers a credible pathway – but only if its many protagonists find ways to collaborate more effectively. The time for partnership is now.
The BioSummit project is implemented by the University of Bonn’s ZEF and the IACGB. The project seeks to consolidate international communication efforts in the bioeconomy landscape into a structured partnership. More information:
Dr Gideon Tups is Senior Researcher at the Center of Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn. He currently coordinates the BioSummit project.
Prof Dr Christine Lang is an entrepreneur, microbiology professor at TU Berlin, and Co-Chair of the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy.
Prof Dr Jan Börner is a Professor for Economics of Sustainable Land Use and Bioeconomy at the University of Bonn and a senior researcher at ZEF.
Daniel Braun is a researcher at ZEF, where his work focuses on the European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) and innovation in the bioeconomy.
Contact: gtups(at)uni-bonn.de
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