Summary – Fact Sheet on the Austrian Bioeconomy Strategy

The bioeconomy aims to permanently replace fossil-based or petroleum-based products with equivalent products that can be produced with renewable raw materials.

The concept of the bioeconomy encompasses on the one hand the sources of raw materials (agriculture, forestry, water management and waste) and on the other hand the use of these bio-based raw materials (food and feed, materials, energy). The aim is to create an economic cycle that reconciles technology and ecology.

Austria is committed to the international climate goals and to an active climate protection and energy policy. The central goal of the Federal Government's climate policy is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Austria will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 36% by 2030 compared to 2005. This requires a coordinated, concerted climate and energy policy that ensures a balance between ecological sustainability, competitiveness and security of supply also in the future. For this reason, the German government decided as one of its first important measures to draw up an integrated climate and energy strategy in order to take responsibility for a consistent decarbonisation path by 2050.

However, in order to achieve these goals, it is not only necessary to decarbonise the energy system, but also to largely replace fossil raw materials in all materials of daily use.

This can be achieved through:

• Bioeconomy as a cross-cutting issue
• Increasing efficiency at all levels of the value chain, from raw material production to logistics and material use to energy recovery.
• More conscious consumer behaviour and a sustainable product range
• Tapping all renewable raw material sources by using residues, by-products, waste and the production of new raw materials such as algae
• Seize opportunities through innovation for economic & social change

Learn more about in the following fact sheet (only in German):

• Bioeconomy Strategy
• Goals of the Austrian Bioeconomy Strategy
• Facts, figures and data
• Research, technology, innovation and competence development
• Implementation of the bioeconomy strategy
• Development of the circular & bio-based economy

Fact Sheet Bioeconomy (only in German), November 2022 (PDF, 456 KB)