The European Commission's promotion of 'bioeconomies' as a central focus at Rio+20 is more about protecting banking, biotech, manufacturing, agribusiness and energy sectors then defending vulnerable communities and the environment.

A close inspection of some governments’ proposals concerning the ‘green economy’ agenda being discussed at ‘Rio+20’ reveals an absolute determination to use it as a means of protecting and developing the banking, biotech, manufacturing, agribusiness and energy sectors, even at the expense of vulnerable communities and the environment.

An important clue lies in the parallel development of ‘bio-economies,’ which are already a work in progress in a number of countries, including in the European Union. Bio-economies respond to the inevitable need to move away from fossil fuels, but do so by using biotechnologies to transform biomass into energy and an unlimited array of manufactured products.

There is no emphasis on reducing consumption and it is acknowledged (in the small print in certain documents) that even with improved resource-use efficiency there will be significant increases in demand for biomass, both domestically produced and imported.

This will in turn have severe impacts on forests and food production as land is inevitably given over to biomass-production. Yet the European Commission has recommended bioeconomies as a key component of the Rio+20 agenda for a ‘green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication’.

Download Bio-Economies: The EU’s real ‘Green Economy’ agenda?

(By Ronnie Hall and Joseph Zacune, Transnational Institute, June 2012)