Introduction to Sustainable Bioeconomy

The European economy faces multiple simultaneous challenges related to environmental sustainability. Alongside the threat of climate change, nations are also grappling with resource depletion, population growth, and overconsumption.

On this course, you’ll learn how a circular bioeconomy could solve these issues, and come away able to identify the latest developments in European bioeconomic policy.

A bioeconomy is an economy where the basic building blocks for energy and materials come from renewable biological sources.

Alongside experts from the University of Padova and seven other renowned European Universities, you’ll explore how recent wood-based innovations could help nations move to a fossil-free future.

You’ll describe the different ways the bioeconomy is interpreted across Europe, and understand what these different national approaches mean for Europe’s forest-based sectors.

You’ll summarise and interpret the perception held among citizens towards the bioeconomy, and learn how the concept itself emerged.

Examining real-world examples, you’ll understand the most recent innovations in the European bioeconomy, and the challenges forest-based sectors face going forward.

Ultimately, you’ll grasp how the introduction of bioeconomy policy could jumpstart the sustainable transformation of society in Europe.