A Strategy for the Future: Bioeconomy

Be it power generation, energy consumption or sustainable production, the “Green Deal” is on everyone’s lips. In Carinthia, many companies are already successfully transitioning to a green economy.

15/03/2023

Climate protection a crucial competitive factor for businesses

Carinthia has set itself the goal of becoming the bioeconomy frontrunner in Austria. By doing so it seeks to obtain a competitive advantage for the future that will enable it to offer companies a climate-friendly setting.

The ambition is to achieve a balance between the greenhouse gas emissions produced and the greenhouse gases taken out of the atmosphere by no later than 2050. In pursuit of this goal, an increasing number of European states are introducing carbon taxes. It is therefore clear: in the future, climate protection will also be a crucial competitive factor for businesses.

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Carinthia is already well positioned to achieve this goal! For example, 53% of the region’s total energy requirement is produced from renewables. This puts Carinthia, together with Sweden, at the top of the EU league tables. Furthermore, hydropower accounts for almost 100% of the electricity generated in the province.

Favourable conditions in Carinthia

As well as the necessary production factors, Carinthia also has the know-how to use them. The province is home to world-class solar power and solar heating companies as well as financially strong timber firms (Hasslacher, Offner, Mondi, Stora Enso, etc.), a host of tech enterprises (Infineon, Flex, Kohlbach etc.) as well as a chemicals industry that has the potential to generate ecological alternatives from biogenic raw materials in future.

Carinthia has immense potential in terms of the availability of natural resources. Here are some key points:

With its outstandingly sunny climate (Klagenfurt is the provincial capital with the most hours of sunshine in Austria), Carinthia is perfectly poised to expand the generation of solar power.

As the Austrian front-runner, Carinthia already uses its abundance of water to generate electricity in 540 hydropower plants. Moreover, the modernisation of existing (small) hydroelectric power plants and the construction of new ones offers a great deal of additional potential.

With 62% of its surface area covered by forests, Carinthia is one of the most densely-wooded regions in Austria boasting 178 million cubic metres of wood. Just 70% of the annual growth is currently used

Thanks to its climate, Carinthia has one of the most diverse agricultural sectors anywhere in Europe. In addition to the high-quality food produced by its farmers, the province has a great deal of potential for sourcing renewable raw materials from grassland and arable land.

15/03/2023

Moving in the right direction

The bioeconomy concept stands for a reorientation of the entire economic model by replacing fossil and mineral raw materials with renewable raw materials in as many areas as possible (food system, timber processing industry, chemicals and plastics industry, energy supply, etc.).

With its focus on enhancing the use of residuals, waste avoidance and recycling, the circular economy is fundamental to the bioeconomy and to developing an even more sustainable economy. Together, both concepts create regional added value and new green jobs.

» The pricing of emissions as part of the eco-social tax reform will make wood more competitive as a raw material compared to other raw materials. «

Attractive framework conditions

With attractive framework conditions and one of the best funding systems in Austria – especially for biomass and solar power – Carinthia is helping accelerate Austria’s transformation to a non-fossil fuel economy. National framework conditions such as the Renewable Energy Expansion Act round off the portfolio.

Then there are lighthouse projects such as “H2Carinthia” that seeks to establish “green hydrogen” as a sustainable source of energy for the future. Of course, there is more that still needs to be done to expand and strengthen Carinthia’s position in the bioeconomy: The province still has no bioeconomy strategy that bundles and coordinates all agency services in the province, red tape still has to be reduced if the best possible use is to be made of renewable raw materials, and a bioeconomy cluster would support Carinthia’s positioning.

» With 62% of its surface area covered by forests, Carinthia is one of the most densely-wooded regions in Austria boasting 178 million cubic metres of wood. «

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In a nutshell

Building on the EU Bioeconomy Strategy of 2018, Austria presented its own bioeconomy strategy in 2019. This is anchored in the current government programme as a concept for the future. The strategy focuses on measures to improve the availability of natural resources and energy sources, funding measures for research and on developing new products and processes as well as on creating effective framework conditions to make bioeconomy-based products competitive (e.g., labelling).

Bernhard Rebernig

Bernhard Rebernig is an expert in the field of socio-ecological market economy, agricultural science and business administration. With a degree from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and a Master’s Degree from Vienna Business University, he is chair of “Ökosziales Forum Kärnten“.

Further information about: Ökosoziales Forum Kärnten

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