KCB Science for Policy briefs
KCB selected publications
Expand the tabs to explore publications contributing to the KCB knowledge base of that year.
This 2026 edition of the Bioeconomy Bulletin provides a biophysical, statistical description of the EU bioeconomy, with a primary focus on agriculture, forestry and downstream forest-based activities. The bulletin presents a descriptive and diagnostic reference that supports science-for-policy discussion by making connections across biomass production, ecosystem condition, resource use, trade and future bioeconomy options more explicit and comparable.
This report presents a parameterized what-if workflow for examining European Union bioeconomy land-system trade-offs, illustrated through two storylines (1) wood-products trade exposure, and (2) dietary transition.
This report aims to support the implementation of a conceptual framework, which links environmental pressures related to bio-economy and the condition of agro- and forest ecosystems in the framework of the System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA).
Sankey diagrams of woody biomass flows in the EU and its Member States 2012-2021: how they were made
In this report, data pre-processing and harmonisation techniques are used to derive a robust assessment of woody biomass sources and uses along the main supply chains of the forest-based sector for all 27 EU Member States from 2012 to 2021, with the results aggregated at the EU level for the same time span.
The report identifies evidence-informed enablers to strengthen long-term competitiveness while delivering on the EU’s climate and environmental ambitions. In doing so, the report further emphasises the enabling role of innovation, research and technological development in accelerating the uptake of clean technologies and enabling the transformation of production and consumption systems.
This report, using a combination of methods - scenario building with an adapted Futures Wheel, the identification of barriers and enablers, and stakeholder role mapping through the Berkana Two Loops framework - to examine barriers and enablers shaping the transformation of European food systems and synthesises insights from a participatory exploration of potential pathways toward more sustainable, resilient and equitable food systems.
This study is envisaged as an initial preparatory step for further scenario-based analyses that might serve as further insides into different pathways for the EU bioeconomy, in the event of the upcoming update of EU Bioeconomy Strategy and Action Plan expected at the end of 2025.
This report presents a patent-based indicator to measure the innovation output of the bioeconomy, which is a key driver for the European Union's transition to a sustainable and circular economy. The analysis covers the period 2008-2020 and provides insights into the trends and patterns of bioeconomy-related patenting activity in the EU.
This study explores potential environmental impacts related to the use of biological resources to provide evidence of how bioeconomy innovations could support the reduction of the environmental footprint of the EU consumption. The analysis was based on life cycle assessment and applied both at the material (e.g., plastic packaging or fuel) and at the product (e.g., packaged product or vehicle) level.
This report describes the bioeconomy policy developments in Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine, associated to the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. The work extends the geographic coverage of the existing Bioeconomy Country dashboard developed by the European Commission Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy at the Joint Research Centre.
This report is the fourth comprehensive public report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) entirely dedicated to the topic of biomass in its many shapes and forms. This is the ten-year anniversary edition of the JRC Biomass Mandate. In the central chapters of the report, biomass supply from forests, agriculture, and marine ecosystems are quantified, as well as waste streams for a wide range of uses in the European Union. The second half of the report is dedicated to a presentation and discussion of various possible actions to address biomass governance.
This annual report, presented in a new layout, provides a thorough overview of the scale and breadth of the Blue Economy within the European Union (EU). Its primary aim is to offer guidance to policymakers and stakeholders in fostering the growth of ocean-based and maritime-related markets and the sustainable use of coastal and marine resources.
This report explores the epistemic and methodological foundations of the Integrated Bioeconomy Land Use Assessment (IBLUA) project, in which an innovative deliberation support system is developed toward more informed discussion over bioeconomy futures in the European Union (EU). In terms of the knowledge space it delivers, integral to the support system, the project employs a biophysical approach to scientific accounting, emphasising key insights from the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) framework, among other frameworks.
This report provides a comprehensive assessment of progress towards the European Green Deal (EGD), the European Union’s transformative agenda for achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The analysis encompasses 154 quantifiable targets from 44 policy documents between 2019 and 2024 across key sectors such as climate, energy, circular economy, transport, agriculture and food, ecosystems and biodiversity, water, soil and air pollution.
This study maps progress towards the five objectives of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy. It detects notable improvements in ensuring food and nutrition security, reducing dependence on non-renewable resources with substitution by bio-base sources, and strengthening European competitiveness and creating jobs. However, the challenges in managing natural resources sustainably and mitigating and adapting to climate change persist.
Food waste prevention calculator and Food waste action planner
This summary presents selected facts, figures and findings from the recent JRC report “Biomass production, supply, uses and flows in the European Union”. It informs policymakers on the trends in biomass supply and demand at EU level and notably on the increasing demand from both primary domestic production and secondary sources, putting pressure on ecosystems.
Jointly produced by DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and the Joint Research Centre, the 2023 edition of this report highlights the evolution of the blue economy sectors since 2010. It shows that despite the negative impact of the COVID19 pandemic and the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, most of the analysed sectors increased their economic performances.
In this report, five authors share their perspectives on the existing narratives related to the bioeconomy, after discussions held at a workshop of the Community of Practice on Bioeconomy. The themes covered include: understanding human-nature relationship to frame the bioeconomy; facing the challenges of green growth; embedding the Environmental Justice agenda principles for a just bioeconomy; and the complexity of the agri-food system. The authors identify so far under-represented perspectives in the bioeconomy discourse, to develop an alternative vision for a “green, just and sufficient bioeconomy”.
This scientific publication presents a Life Cycle Assessment-based Bioeconomy Footprint developed by JRC researchers to assess and monitor the environmental impacts of the EU bioeconomy along time. The study quantifies the overall impact of 76 representative products based on the consumption intensity and the environmental impacts of the life cycle of each of them.
This science for policy report collects the contribution of 42 scientists from JRC and external organisations to provide a cross-sectoral overview of the biomass produced and used in the EU-27, as well as specific data on biomass production, supply, uses and flows by sector. It also dives into topics such as the trade of bio-commodities or some innovative wood-based products.
The EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System was by the JRC to track economic, environmental and social progress towards a sustainable bioeconomy. This publication reports the first assessment of the trends of the EU bioeconomy, based on the tracked indicators. The analysis shows that while resource efficiency is improving, there is a growing pressure on ecosystems from forestry and agriculture.
The Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy online library provides a one-stop shop for filtered and distilled knowledge on the bioeconomy to support evidence-based EU policymaking. It is constantly updated with the latest publications, datasets, events, news, visualisations and other resources, and made publicly accessible. This report describes the workflow process and methods to curate, organise, store and share the bioeconomy-relevant knowledge.
In this report, the JRC presents its updated database on algae, with recent data on algae production, novel socio-economic data and an extension to enterprises that are part of the post-production steps of the algae value chain. Based on these data, the report illustrates qualitative and quantitative aspects of the production and use of macroalgae, microalgae and Spirulina in Europe.
A prospective Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) looks at future environmental impacts of technologies and their products, and is a well-suited methodology to assess the environmental performance of novel and emerging technologies for bio-based products, to ensure that such technologies present a genuine decrease of environmental burdens. This JRC report, based on discussions in a workshop of the Community of Practice on Bioeconomy, provides guidance on how to perform a prospective LCA for emerging bio-based products.
The purpose of this report is to present an overview of the European Union bio-based products and industries. The focus is mainly on the analysis of the impacts of final demand variation on value added and employment by sectoral level disaggregation. By using the the Bioeconomy Social Accounting Matrix (BioSAM) database it is possible to deepen the impact analysis by considering a detailed disaggregation of bio-based products. A country cluster analysis focusing on food system sectors is also introduced. In addition, the results are presented in a dashboard to allow the replication and comparison of different impacts by sector and country.
The fifth edition of the EU Blue Economy Report, published by the Commission, looks at the latest trends and developments in the economic activities that are marine-based or marine-related, including the blue bioeconomy sectors. It provides analyses for the EU-27 as a whole and by sector and industry for each Member State, to contribute to the assessment of the evolving contribution of oceans and coasts to the European economy.
JRC researchers have developed a methodology to estimate the employment and value added of the EU bioeconomy at the regional level. The method uses existing data from the JRC and Eurostat and estimates the missing regional data from national statistics by applying various criteria, allowing the monitoring of major trends for EU regional bioeconomies. The report also highlights the main methodological challenges encountered and gives insights for future improvements.
This report, elaborated for the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy, maps and analyses the deployment of bioeconomy strategies at regional level in the EU-27. The study covered regions at the territorial levels NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 and, in some cases, at NUTS 3 level, looking at different regulatory frameworks, different thematic coverage of the strategy, and different levels of development of the strategy.
This report describes the 2022 release of the EU Biomass Flows tool, contributing to its biomass study. It is a visualisation, in the form of Sankey diagrams, of the flows of biomass for each sector of the bioeconomy, from supply to uses including trade. In addition to the updated data, novel features of this release include a redesign of the flows for woody biomass and integration of food waste flows.
This JRC report accompanies the Sankey diagrams of woody biomass flows in the European Union for the years 2009-2017. Starting from primary sources of wood, removals or imports, wood can either feed wood processing industries for the manufacturing of wood-based products or be used for energy production. The woody biomass transferred across the different transformation steps and among the different subsectors follows complex flows, illustrated with the Sankey diagrams, where the width of each arrow is proportional to the magnitude of the flow.
Currently, there is a general paucity of data available from respected secondary data sources for supporting the monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the EU bioeconomy. This paper represents an attempt to bridge that gap by employing varied sources, assumptions and data analysis techniques to examine the patterns of productivity growth and transition in the bioeconomy of the EU and its 27 Member States.
Following the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the JRC, with the support of experts from Member States, has developed an internationally coherent monitoring system to track economic, environmental and social progress towards a sustainable bioeconomy. The EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System, hosted in the EC's Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy platform, was officially launched in November 2020 and is in continuous improvement since then, with new features and enhancements. This report describes the progress made in 2021. It contains an overview of its current status, with technical details of the IT system, and future outlook.
The Sankey biomass diagram represents the flows of biomass for each sector of the bioeconomy, from supply to uses including trade. The diagram enables deeper analysis and comparison of the different countries and sectors across a defined time series. In this document, the sources and data transformation steps to create the database used to represent these biomass flows is summarised, as well as the main data gaps and challenges encountered. The report presents the main features and functionalities of the new EU Biomass Flows tool and some insights based on the represented data and potential future research opportunities.
This report presents an ecosystem assessment covering the total land area of the EU as well as the EU marine regions. It also constitutes a knowledge base which can support the evaluation of the 2020 biodiversity targets and provides a data foundation for future assessments and policy developments, in particular with respect to the ecosystem restoration agenda for the next decade (2020-2030).
The EU Bioeconomy Strategy, updated in 2018, in its Action Plan pledges an EU-wide, internationally coherent monitoring system to track economic, environmental and social progress towards a sustainable bioeconomy. This paper presents the approach taken by the European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Centre (JRC) to develop such a system.
In its third edition, the EU blue economy report continues to analyse the scope and size of the Blue Economy in the European Union. For the first time, the report addresses the environmental dimension of the blue economy in detail, thereby also contributing to achieving environmental objectives. The report also looks at the economic value of several ecosystem services provided by the ocean, including habitats for marine life, carbon sequestration, and processes that influence climate change and biodiversity.
The JRC PESETA IV study shows that ecosystems, people and economies in the EU will face major impacts from climate change if we do not urgently mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or adapt to climate change. The burden of climate change shows a clear north-south divide, with southern regions in Europe much more impacted, through the effects of extreme heat, water scarcity, drought, forest fires and agriculture losses. Limiting global warming to well below 2°C would considerably reduce climate change impacts in Europe. Adaptation to climate change would further minimize unavoidable impacts in a cost-effective manner, with considerable co-benefits from nature-based solutions.
The purpose of this report is to advance more objective and rigorous measurement and analysis of the bioeconomy according to the broad definition of the European Commission in 2018. The focus is mainly on the economic indicators, aiming at the inclusion of bio-based services derived from the symmetric input-output tables from the system of national accounts available from Eurostat and additional expert information.
This document describes the first year of the development of the EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), in collaboration with experts throughout European and International organisations, EU Member States, Commission Services and other stakeholders to assess questions such as those posed above. The framework is designed to house several basic indicators that are, analogous to the instruments of a symphony, in themselves useful and meaningful but whose value is enhanced once they are placed within an orchestra.
In this study, model-based scenarios are built following the European Commission's Global Energy and Climate Outlook to 2050, which constitutes a central element of EU's vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy. Results of this study indicate that in the reference scenario (REF) economic growth in developing and emerging countries remains strong towards 2050, while global income disparities persist.
This ex-ante study assesses the potential impacts on land use changes, and associated GHG emissions, in Brazil resulting from increases in EU demand for ethanol to 2030, and draws evidence-based conclusions to verify the compliance of sugarcane feedstock production with the REDII environmental criteria.
The EU Blue Economy Report analyses the scope and size of the blue economy in the European Union, solidifying a baseline to support policymakers and stakeholders in the quest for a sustainable development of oceans, sea and coastal resources. The second edition oft his report includes several improvements and new elements, such as a more detailed and extensive analysis on emerging activities, new chapter on natural capital and ecosystem services, and a regional analysis focusing on socioeconomic features.
Bio-based products can bring new functionalities to the market and make the EU economy more sustainable. According to this analysis by JRC, based on ten key chemical categories, the EU produces 4.7 Mt/a of bio-based chemicals which represents a bio-based share of about 3.0%, although the market is diverse and large differences can be found between product categories.
These factsheets have been prepared as part of the report "Insights into the European market for bio-based chemicals". For each bio-based chemical category described in the report, a factsheet has been produced, summarising the main results of the market study. Further details on the information provided in the factsheets, including underlying methods, sources and uncertainties, can be found in the main report.
This report describes the main findings from the Canopy Health Monitoring (CanHeMon) project, which achieved the detection of ca. 19 000 individual declining coniferous trees through remote sensing, and an outlook on the potential future use of remote sensing in support of plant health measures.
KCB visualisations
Expand the accordions to view various visualisations representing key data and information regarding the EU bioeconomy.
Interactive charts
- Interactive Sankey diagrams of woody biomass flows in the EU and Member States (2026): This Interactive Sankey diagrams shows the woody biomass flows at EU Member State level, as well as at EU-27 aggregate level, for the years 2012 to 2021
- EU Biomass Flows (2026): This diagram is a compilation of harmonised data from the various units contributing to the Biomass project. Shows data from 2008-2023.
- Spatial distribution of biomass production (2022): These maps present the spatial distribution of cop residues estimates, in kt of dry matter, per 25km across EU for the average period (2016-2020).
- Bio-based industry and biorefineries in the EU (2022): This dashboard presents the distribution of the bio-based industry (and biorefineries) in the EU, including the following production: bio-based chemicals, liquid biofuels, bio-based composites and fibres, biomethane, pulp & paper, sugar, starch and timber
Infographics
- The EU Bioeconomy: trends, biomass and competitiveness (2026): This infographic provides key data on the EU Bioeconomy, revealing that the biomass producing and converting sectors do not only contribute to European competitiveness and strategic autonomy, but they are also enhancing food security and energy efficiency, while reducing dependency on non-renewable resources.
- EU Biomass supply and demand in 2022 (2025): The infographic provides data on the amount of biomass produced and used by primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors within the EU in the year 2022.
- Bioeconomy employment and value added (2023 data) (2025): The infographic provides updated data on employment and value added of the European bioeconomy from 2012-2023.
- Bioeconomy employment and value added (2022 data) (2025): The infographic provides updated data on employment and value added of the European bioeconomy from 2012-2022.
- Bioeconomy employment and value added (2021 data) (2024): The infographic provides updated data on employment and value added of the European bioeconomy.
- Infographics on biomass sources and uses in the EU-27 (2017 data) (2023): These infographics show how much biomass, in dry matter, is sourced from different primary and secondary sources and used for food, feed, materials and energy as well as recent trends in biomass uses and in the recovery of bio-waste.
Videos
- Bio-based textiles in Europe (2025): An explanatory video that explores the European textile industry and examines the key factors necessary to scale up the production of bio-based fibres.
- Brief on jobs and growth in the EU bioeconomy (2024): An explanatory video describing how the bioeconomy and biomass producing and converting sectors contribute to the economy of the EU and its Member States.
- Are you looking for ways to prevent consumer food waste? (2024): An explanatory video offering suggestions from the European Consumer Food Waste Forum (ECFWF) to help individuals reduce food waste, whether at home or elsewhere.
- The role of the forest-based bioeconomy in mitigating climate change through carbon storage and material substitution (2022): An explanatory video on collected information about the role of the forest-based bioeconomy in mitigating climate change through carbon storage and material substitution in Europe.
- The fisheries & aquaculture biomass in Europe (2021): An explanatory video on collected information about Fisheries & Aquaculture biomass in Europe.
- The algae biomass in Europe (2021): An explanatory video on collected information about Algae biomass in Europe.
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate environmental impacts of Bioeconomy (2021): An explanatory animation on the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate environmental impacts of the Bioeconomy.
- A sustainable bioeconomy for Europe: strengthening the connection between economy, society and the environment (2021): An explanatory video about the European Bioeconomy Strategy and the priorities of the action plan in acheiving the goals of the Bioeconomy strategy.
- The agricultural biomass in Europe (2020): An explanatory video on collected information about agricultural biomass in Europe.
- Forestry biomass for a sustainable and circular Bioeconomy (2020): An explanatory video on collected information about forest biomass in Europe.
- The EU bioeconomy monitoring system (2020): A video introducing the new EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System developed to track the bioeconomy’s progress towards environmental, societal and economic sustainability in the EU and its Member States.
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More information and links
| Originally Published | Last Updated | 21 Aug 2020 | 03 Nov 2026 |
| Related organisation(s) | JRC - Joint Research Centre |
| Knowledge service | Metadata | Bioeconomy Knowledge Centre |
| Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET) | bioeconomybiomassbio-based productresearchpolicy analysisforestAgricultureaquacultureblue economyIndicatorMonitoringLife cycle assessmentcircular economyFoodfood wasteforesightsustainable development |
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