The Smart Specialisation Platform on Bioenergy
The Smart Specialisation Platform on Bioenergy (S3P) is a tool to improve interregional cooperation through specialisation. From spring 2015 EC launched the initiative of the Smart Specialisation Platforms (S3P) as a joint initiative of the Directorates-General for Regional and Urban Policy, Energy, and the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Energy being a crucial societal challenge for Europe, the pace of development quickly picked up and the S3P-Energy emerged.
Illustration : Pixabay, Light Bulb
Currently, the S3P-Energy is divided into 5 partnerships, of which one of them is bioenergy, having as a priority area of work: biofuels, heating & cooling, biogas and knowledge transfer. The S3P-bioenergy is planned to become an enabling tool for regions to coordinate, rationalise and plan their bioenergy strategies, developing a shared vision on knowledge-based bioenergy policy development, and set up a strategic agenda from a collaborative work among the regions where bioenergy is an important economic sector.
Bioenergy will play a crucial role in the investment and development scene for the next decade, according to European policy, and mean a significant contribution to renewable energy targets by 2030 according to the National Renewable Energy Action Plans in member states. Bioenergy represents about 2/3 of the renewable energy production in the European Union and is one of the main energy sources contributing to fulfilling the 20% renewables target for 2020.
The European Commission assesses the environmental sustainability, estimates for land use change due to an increased biofuels demand, calculates the direct and indirect emissions from biofuels and different bioenergy pathways.
This bioenergy partnership is led by the regions of Lapland (FINLAND) and Castilla y Leon (SPAIN) and engages the participation of other 14 regions committed to being front-runners in developing forest-based as well as non-food agriculture-based bioenergy as the basis for sustainable regional growth.
During the next weeks will be launched a questionnaire (available soon) with the focus of having a mapping of the bioenergy sector in the interested regions. Its results will serve to have an analysis of bioenergy in the regions and is expected that interregional cooperation projects could emerge from partnership regions.
If you are interested to know more about the S3P-bioenergy or want to be involved go to www.s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu
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