Toward a climate resilient bioeconomy transition

BIOCLIMAPATHS aims to better understand the impacts of climate change in future societies that have adopted bioeconomy as a substantial pillar of their economies.

Bioeconomies can help slowing down climate change but – as the central topic in this project – farmers, supply chains, households and governments may become more exposed to the impact of climate extremes on the supply and prices of food and non-food biobased products. Already, agricultural and food commodities have been reported to become more susceptible to climate extremes, in particular to droughts, floods and wild firesEEA, 2018. National climate change vulnerability and risk assessments in Europe, 2018. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen.. Impacts of extreme events include lower crop yields, seed losses, insect infestation, storm damage and deterioration of soil organic content,  among othersEuropean Commission, 2017. EU Agricultural Outlook for the Agricultural Markets and
Income, 2017-2030. DG Agriculture and Rural Development, Brussels; Chatzopoulos, T., Domínguez, I. P., Zampieri, M., & Toreti, A. (2020). Climate extremes and agricultural commodity markets: a global economic analysis of regionally simulated events. Weather and Climate Extremes, 27, 100193; Schlyter, P., Stjernquist, I., Bärring, L., Jönsson, A. M., & Nilsson, C. (2006). Assessment of the impacts of climate change and weather extremes on boreal forests in northern Europe, focusing on Norway spruce. Climate Research, 31(1), 75-84..

In this context, bioeconomy stakeholders become increasingly aware of an important knowledge gap concerning risks and uncertainty related to climate extremes and the potential impacts in society. To fill this gap, the BIOCLIMAPATHS consortium developed an innovative, spatially explicit, modeling framework for risk assessments of bioeconomy transitions subject to climate extremes.