Over the past decade, conversations that once felt niche, about enzymes, renewable feedstocks or fermentation, have steadily migrated into mainstream discussions on industrial resilience, productivity and climate strategy.
This is a pivotal moment. The European Commission has acknowledged that Europe’s Net Zero transition will depend not only on clean energy, but on clean materials as well.
Like many professionals working in public affairs much of my role involves education. In conversations about bio‑based plastics, the concept of “decarbonisation” often dominates. Yet it is precisely here that the Biotechnology Act matters most, because plastics and chemicals cannot be decarbonised like power or transport can. They can only be defossilised.
The European Commission has acknowledged that Europe’s Net Zero transition will depend not only on clean energy, but on clean materials as well
That distinction should sit at the heart of how the Biotechnology Act is designed. The Act has the potential to move bio‑based solutions from something we learn about to something we actively deploy.
Materials are the missing pillar of Net Zero
Europe has made real progress on energy decarbonisation. Renewable power is scaling, electrification is advancing, and emissions from electricity generation are falling. Yet emissions embedded in materials remain stubbornly high. For plastics in particular, energy efficiency alone is insufficient. Even if production were powered entirely by renewable electricity, a fossil‑based polymer would still introduce new fossil carbon into the system and perpetuate reliance on unsustainable raw materials.
Bio‑based plastics offer a fundamentally different starting point. By using renewable, biogenic carbon as a feedstock, they prevent fossil carbon from entering the system in the first place. We often refer to the “Five Rs” of sustainability—reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, rethink. Bio‑based materials are not intended to undermine this framework, but to complement it and go further by addressing the origin of the carbon itself.
By using renewable, biogenic carbon as a feedstock, they prevent fossil carbon from entering the system in the first place
Thinking this way recognises that recycled and renewable carbon are complementary climate tools, tackling different but equally vital aspects of the problem. One without the other does not deliver full sustainability, and to date, renewable carbon has largely been overlooked.
Why the EU Biotechnology Act matters
The promise of the EU Biotechnology Act lies in its ability to address the long‑standing neglect of renewable carbon solutions and to remove persistent structural barriers: fragmented regulation, inconsistent definitions, and weak demand signals for bio‑based products.
Bio‑based plastics are not experimental. They are technologically mature, deployed at scale globally, and already used across packaging, consumer goods and industrial applications. If the Biotechnology Act recognises renewable carbon as a strategic climate lever, it could unlock the investment, policy certainty and market uptake needed to scale these solutions in Europe.
What comes next?
To realise this opportunity, three principles should guide the Act’s final shape and implementation:
- Defossilisation must be recognised explicitly. Bio‑based and other renewable carbon materials should be acknowledged as contributing to climate objectives by reducing fossil carbon demand.
- Policy incentives must be aligned. Biotechnology policy cannot succeed in isolation; taxation, product regulation, public procurement and carbon accounting frameworks must speak the same language on renewable carbon.
- The focus should be on scale and deployment, not innovation alone. Europe does not lack ideas. What it needs is policy certainty that allows proven solutions to compete fairly and grow.
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