In a Nutshell

What is the EU Bioeconomy Strategy?

The EU Bioeconomy Strategy aims to promote the growth of a circular bioeconomy in the EU. Bioeconomy involves the sustainable production and consumption of biomass resources for food, materials, energy, and services. The Bioeconomy Strategy seeks to harness the major growth potential of the bioeconomy, which in 2021 generated EUR 728 billion of value added and employed 17.2 million people in the EU.

The strategy aims to harness this potential to support three broad objectives. Firstly, it seeks to strengthen EU competitiveness and strategic autonomy by replacing fossil-based materials with bio-based alternatives and making better use of Europe’s biological resources and industrial capabilities. Secondly, it aims to support innovation, investment and job creation, particularly in rural and coastal regions where biomass production takes place. Thirdly, it seeks to ensure the sustainable management of biological resources, helping to deliver climate, biodiversity and resource-efficiency objectives while avoiding environmental degradation.

According to the EU Commission, the strategy is crucial for enhancing EU resilience, resource efficiency, energy security, and food sovereignty amidst global competition.

How does the EU Bioeconomy Strategy work in practice?

The strategy focuses on creating an enabling framework for the development of the EU bioeconomy, combining policy coordination, investment support, and knowledge sharing.

Key actions include improving monitoring and governance of biomass supply and use, strengthening research and innovation, supporting skills development, and facilitating collaboration across bioeconomy value chains. The strategy also aims to address structural barriers to growth such as limited access to finance, market fragmentation, regulatory complexity, and skills shortages.

How does carbon dioxide removal fit in the EU Bioeconomy Strategy?

Importantly for carbon dioxide removal (CDR), the Bioeconomy Strategy introduces the EU Buyers’ Club, a voluntary initiative that pools private sector demand for carbon farming and permanent carbon removals certified under the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF). It aims to generate predictable revenue streams for farmers and foresters and supporting private investment in CDR activities. The EU strategy also links with CDR by fostering forest carbon sequestration, enabling long-term storage in harvested wood products. CDR has the potential to advance value chain creation through sequestering carbon and converting it into sustainable long-lived materials, such as cross-laminated timber for building construction.

What’s on the Horizon

• November 2025: The European Commission published the Communication for a EU Strategic Framework for a Competitive and Sustainable EU Bioeconomy
• 2026: The European Commission is expected to review the EU Emissions Trading System review 2026, which will assess potential options for recognising permanent carbon removals, including those certified under the Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming Certification Framework.
• 2026–2027: Implementation of the CRCF will continue, including the development of certification methodologies for different carbon removal activities.
• 2026 onward: Work at EU level will continue to support the standardisation and uptake of bio-based construction materials, including timber products, through regulatory frameworks and technical standards.
• The Commission will continuously monitor the bioeconomy’s development and assess the strategy’s implementation four to six years after its adoption. 

Deep Dive

Carbon removals and biomass use

The strategy’s introduction of the EU Buyers’ Club is particularly important for CDR since many durable removal methods face high upfront costs and uncertain long-term revenue streams. By aggregating corporate demand and linking it to EU certification standards, the initiative could help CDR project developers secure financing and advance from pilot to commercial scale. Combined with the upcoming carbon farming database and the implementation of the Nature Credits Roadmap, the initiative aims to reduce monitoring costs and administrative barriers for primary producers participating in carbon removal activities. Whether these voluntary mechanisms generate sufficient and durable demand for CDR at scale will depend on private sector uptake and the integrity standards applied under the CRCF.

The permanent storage of biogenic carbon is also explicitly identified as a technology priority for industrial scale-up in the strategy, alongside biorefineries and advanced fermentation. The strategy highlights how developing the capacity of the permanent storage of biogenic CO₂ can support EU leadership in net-zero industrial technologies and complement the bio-based materials value chain by storing carbon long-term. The strategy also identifies biogenic carbon storage as a feedstock for carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), where captured CO₂ is reused in industrial processes. Biogenic CO₂ capture and use from bio-waste processing is similarly encouraged to improve resource efficiency, again referring to carbon utilisation. In terms of policy support, Bio-CCUS is primarily backed through the Innovation Fund, which will continue funding scalable projects. Looking ahead, the 2026 EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) review will assess potential pathways for recognising permanent biogenic carbon removals certified under the CRCF within the carbon market, though how such units would interact with the ETS remains under discussion.

The strategy establishes a guiding cascade principle for biomass use. It prioritises food and nutrition security first, then higher-value long-lived materials that store carbon, with residual streams directed to energy where no alternative decarbonisation solution exists. This hierarchy is directly relevant for CDR, since directing biomass toward long-lived material applications maximises the duration of carbon storage, compared to combustion for bioenergy which releases carbon on a short cycle. However, rising biofuel demand through ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU Maritime is simultaneously acknowledged, alongside the finite supply of sustainable biomass, creating a tension that the cascade principle does not fully resolve. The cascade principle is framed as guidance for national planning instruments, i.e. CAP Strategic Plans, National Energy and Climate Plans, leaving the resolution of these competing demands to Member States.

Bio-based materials and carbon storage

The strategy outlines how bio-based materials, including wood and fibre-based composites, face structural market challenges in the EU. Factors such as higher production costs compared to fossil-based alternatives, weak demand signals, and feedstock supply risks limit investment and hinder the development of economies of scale. The construction sector is particularly relevant, accounting for over 35% of EU waste generation and 5–12% of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The strategy notes that bio-based construction products can reduce embodied carbon and energy demand in buildings by around 40%. However, the market uptake of bio-based construction products has historically been complicated due to fragmented national standards and performance classification systems.

Through the revision of the Construction Products Regulation, the Commission will continue standardisation work to ensure that bio-based construction products can be fairly compared with conventional materials across the single market. Standardisation requests for structural timber, wood-based panels, thermal insulation products, doors and windows are planned for 2026. Significantly for carbon removal, the development of a certification methodology for long-lasting biogenic carbon storage in buildings under the CRCF Regulation is planned for 2026. Bio-based construction materials such as cross-laminated timber store atmospheric carbon over the lifetime of a building, and a credible certification methodology would provide the accounting infrastructure needed to recognise and potentially reward this storage.