EU bioeconomy strategy – biogas and biomethane in the spotlight

04/12/2025
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For the SAF platform, we explored the European Commission’s new bioeconomy strategy, which aims to increase circularity, climate neutrality and competitiveness in the EU.

This strategy is important for the recognition of biogas plants as biorefineries that produce not only renewable energy, but also two co-products (digestate and biogenic CO₂) and innovative derivatives from these streams (e.g., e-fuels, syngas, green hydrogen, bio-based plastics, chemicals and fertilisers, polymers, etc.).

General overview of the EU bioeconomy

Europe’s bioeconomy has strong foundations: world-class science, cutting-edge technologies, a competitive industrial base, a single market of 26 million companies and 450 million consumers and significant biomass production managed by EU farmers, foresters and fishers.

In 2023, biomass producing and converting activities employed in the EU 17,1 million people (8% of EU jobs) and generated EUR 863 billion in value added (5% of EU GDP).

Evolution of value added in the biomass producing and converting sectors (EU27). Source: Lasarte-López, J., M’barek, R. (2025). The EU bioeconomy at a glance: Focus on economic value added, employment and innovation. European Commission, Seville, 2025. JRC143759.

Over the past decade, bioeconomy sectors have grown faster than the overall economy. Estimates suggest that for every job, which is created in the European bioeconomy industry, an additional 2.9 indirect jobs are created in the EU. However, the bioeconomy still has enormous untapped potential. This is due, in particular, to a lack of investment.

Europe has the knowledge, industrial base and human resources to lead the global transition to sustainable and competitive bioeconomic development. Implementing this concept will require coordinated action at EU, national and regional levels. The European Commission will report on the implementation of the strategy by 2028.

Read the full material with more information about the positive changes brought about by the new bioeconomy strategy on the SAF platform. There you can also download the EU Bioeconomy Strategy documents.

We remind you that UABIO is a partner of the Sustainable agribusiness platform (SAF).

SAF is a communication platform that brings together agribusiness stakeholders and aims to establish strong links between market players and introduce sustainable approaches in agriculture. For this platform, our team prepares verified professional content on the bioenergy sector.