Bioeconomy Strategy for Austria

The conscious use of natural resources is one of the great challenges of our time, because climate change, further global environmental pollution and the general scarcity of resources are closely linked to the use of fossil means of production.

In contrast, the bioeconomy pursues a form of economy that combines technology and ecology through the use of renewable resources - while at the same time reducing fossil raw material imports. The efficient and sustainable use of biogenic raw materials brings a variety of usable options and strengthens the development of Austria as a business location.

The long-term goal of the bioeconomy is to reduce fossil material and energy consumption and at the same time substitute it with renewable raw materials. The basis for action here is formed by European and international objectives and commitments such as the Paris Climate Agreement or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) made binding in the 2030 Agenda. In the Austrian strategy, these goals were placed in front in the form of guidelines, which thus form the framework for the further design of future bioeconomy measures.

The process of developing the strategy was conducted as an interdepartmental project between the then Federal Ministries for Sustainability and Tourism, for Transport, Innovation and Technology and for Education, Science and Research. The federal government was advised by a high-ranking committee of experts on the concrete design of the strategy. In order to involve all relevant stakeholders, an extensive consultation process was also held with two comprehensive online surveys as well as an expert conference.

Following the decision on the bioeconomy strategy, an Austria-wide series of workshops on the preparation of a bioeconomy action plan was launched in 2019. Through a total of 19 events, input on the individual fields of action was collected from more than 400 participants from all stakeholder groups concerned. The open discussions clearly showed the great interest and the opportunities and challenges associated with the topic in Austria. Building on this, concrete measures for the further establishment of the bio-based economy in Austria are to be summarised in an action plan.

At the European level, the bioeconomy is also treated as an important concept in dealing with resource consumption and in the fight against progressive climate change. Thus, the bioeconomy is anchored in various policy areas such as the European Green Deal (→ EU) of the European Commission or the new European Action Plan for the Circular Economy (→ EU).

The Austrian Bioeconomy Strategy was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 13 March 2019.

• Bioeconomy Strategy for Austria (in English) (PDF, 2 MB)
• Bioeconomy Strategy for Austria (in German) (PDF, 2 MB)
• Bioeconomy Mission Statement (only in German) (PDF, 705 KB)