BIOTEAM final workshop on biogas, Brussels
- Time: Tuesday 16 February 2016, 12:45 - 17:00
- Location: Brussels, Belgium
In the aftermath of the successful COP21/CMP11 conference in Paris fostering a green growth in the EU economy poses a political and policy challenge for boosting competitiveness, while at the same time creating new jobs and foster environmental sustainability. Within the EU, a special role has been given to the Circular Economy Strategy. The package recently adopted by the European Commission aims at closing the loop among these objectives in the most cost-effective way, by extracting the maximum value from primary and secondary raw materials and introducing a new paradigm for the use of resources.
The agricultural sector is an excellent testing bed for the Circular Economy, traditionally open to the culture of cascading use and cost-effective solutions. A more circular agro-economy entails more efficient use of natural resources, while reducing the environmental impacts to a minimum level. While cost-effective technological solutions are available to combine the production of biogas with the production of organic fertilizers, and with that the recycling of valuable soil components, the market and policy conditions in the EU are not always fostering such activities. The event is focused on discussing the policy reform necessary to foster EU-wide the adoption more sustainable agricultural practices; where state of the art biogas systems are seen an integrated element of the circular-agro economy and not only as renewable energy option. The positive outcomes are well-known: the production of renewable energy and organic fertilizers that might generate additional revenues for farmers, the effective action against the nitrogen-leakage into ground water and nitrogen-based secondary air pollution, methane emissions and phosphate recycling.
The event addresses bio-economy operators, associations, policy makers and professionals and aims at discussing the barriers and the challenges for the development and innovation of the biogas sector in a number of EU Member States (Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and The Netherlands).
A strong engagement of relevant stakeholders and a qualified platform discussion will support the ambition of this event, that is twofold. The first objective is to support policy makers of the EC in their current task to upgrade the Circular Economy Package with regards to secondary materials relevant in the agricultural sector. The second objective is to collect ideas and implementation strategies to unleash the broad potential of a combined production of biogas and organic fertilizers in an EU-wide market.
For more information, please visit the BIOTEAM website's biogas event page, or contact Eise Spijker.
On the same day, in the morning, the BIOTEAM project organises a workshop on district heating: 'Jump start the EU heating/cooling strategy'.