Bold Goals Action Group release 40 Bold Actions to Accelerate the Bioeconomy

In Washington, the Bold Goals Action Group released the final text of the 40 Bold Actions to Accelerate at ABLC 2024. The release capped a year-long, multi-national effort by bioeconomy stakeholders to define specific actions that must be accomplished by industry, financiers and government in order to reach ambitious Net Zero defossilization goals set by governments and corporations in recent years.

“Stakeholders around the world tell us that these Actions, when achieved,” commented Digest editor Jim Lane in unveiling the Bold Actions, “are the bridge to the future that the bioeconomy needs.” 

More than 100 organizations, meeting under the Chatham House rule which provides anonymity in order to foster free conversation, participated in two online meet-ups and live workshops in Sydney, San Francisco, Ottawa and New Delhi to develop the 40 Bold Actions unveiled in today’s release.

The group was formed shortly after the announcement of President Biden’s “Bold Goals for the Bioeconomy” at ABLC 2023 in Washington DC. The founders recognized that the advanced bioeconomy has transitioned from development to deployment stage, but could not be expected to realize the ambitious timelines and scales of the Bold Goals — including but not limited to 3 billion gallons of US SAF capacity by 2030 — without significant acceleration, and without Bold Actions to ensure that acceleration occurs.

As background, the Complete Biden Administration Bold Goals can be reviewed here.

The Bold Goals Action Group had its initial meet-up in Sydney in September and formulated a draft of 25 Bold Actions, which were been revised and expanded during a similar meet-ups in San Francisco, Ottawa, New Delhi and two online meet-ups for the Asian, South American and European regions.

Ratification now begins of the Bold Actions by bioeconomy stakeholders, and the Action Group will focus on implementation. The first deliverable from the Bold Actiomns is expected to be unveiled on Thursday, March 14th, also at ABLC 2024.

Roughly one-third of the Bold Actions related to actions required of government and policymakers, the remaining Actions are for industry, financiers and supply-chain partners.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR BIOMASS RESOURCE OWNERS

The starting point of a bioeconomy is its raw materials. Yet, an incomprehensible patchwork of databases, standards, regulations, definitions, practices, goals, and priorities have failed to answer the fundamental questions that are the foundation of a biomass resource: who has what, where, when, in what condition, at what price?

ACTIONS:

 

1. Working to increase the volume and quality of sustainable, affordable biomass feedstocks through efficient use of arable land and water, yield management, restorative agriculture, effective harvesting, use of alternatives to harmful chemicals, while avoiding disadvantageous land use change.

2. Working to expand biomass capacity by developing and deploying sustainable intermediate, rotational crops, marine crops, and dedicated energy crops that improve soil productivity.

3. Developing improved methods for aggregating, processing, fractionating, and fully utilizing all biomass residue components to satisfy bioeconomy growth goals.

4. Driving adoption of climate-smart technologies that enhance soil carbon sequestration.

5. Driving down the cost, and working to remove non-price barriers, in the aggregation of forestry, agricultural, municipal, and animal residues, especially currently untapped sustainable biogenic resources.

6. Engaging more fully with indigenous, diverse, and small landowners in developing improved models for land stewardship.

7. Supporting a harmonized worldwide intellectual property system to advance the development and deployment of higher-yielding crops, intermediate crops, aggregation and pre-treatment systems, and supply chain management that equitably distributes the due benefits of the bioeconomy across the value chain.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR SUPPLY-CHAIN DEVELOPERS & OWNERS 

The foundational challenge of a bioeconomy or any sector based on refining of physical raw materials into value-added products is the challenge of harvesting, aggregating, transporting, storing, conditioning, and standardizing the raw materials. Yet, much global infrastructure in antiquated, incompatible, unsustainable, or under-utilized. Long distance transport of biomass feedstocks is inefficient and there is a need to optimize biomass supply chain management.

 

ACTIONS:

 

1. Expanding the number of feedstock pre-processing facilities (including but not limited to biomass pre-treatment and seed crushing facilities) to simplify delivery of densified biomass to biorefineries, and developing biomass hubs that support multiple lower-cost refineries.

2. Developing more innovative, reliable, and cost-effective feedstock pre-processing and pre-treatment technology and working towards a technical and trading Uniform Transportable Feedstock Standard.

3. Developing more effective and affordable use of existing infrastructure and supporting the construction of new systems to transport solid, liquid, and gaseous feedstocks and by-products, including but not limited to sustainable power supply, pipelines, barging and rail. 

4. Establishing longer-term safe storage and warehousing for biomass at scales that reduce cost, manage hazard, offer diversified market options to biomass resource owners and providing financiers and refiners greater transparency and reliability on biomass availability and carbon intensity specifications.

5. Enabling provenance data of feedstock supply to increase trust and traceability, and to support “book and claim” systems for delivery of low-carbon alternatives.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR PROJECT, TECH & PROCESS DEVELOPERS

A major issue facing the expansion of the bioeconomy is the lengthy time from discovery to significant market penetration for new products. The current timeline is 20+ years and to date with very few success stories. However, there is a convergence of powerful new technologies that enable truly disruptive approaches that can accelerate a bioeconomy, but most of these technologies are focused early in the value chain. There is a need for strategies to accelerate development and commercialization to dramatically reduce time to market and improve the rate of success.

 

ACTIONS:

 

1. Promoting bio-based products not only for their utility but also for their carbon intensity and societal benefits and highlighting the need for green premiums that are linked to performance and carbon benefits.

2. Utilizing all existing programs that support development in disadvantaged communities to diversify and spread the growth of bio-based production and jobs.

3. Creating and managing integrated demonstrations of advanced biorefineries that demonstrate and de-risk complete systems instead of individual processes and components. 

4. Ensuring that products and intermediates are infrastructure–compatible.

5. Collaborating to develop new “ways of working” as an industry with the goal of dramatically reducing the time to market for new products and services. Inducing industry led initiatives that foster open innovation, collaboration, cooperation, partnering, and that promote the formation of relationships at the earliest stages of product discovery to ensure access to resources in a timely manner. 

6. Forming partnerships at all levels of government to ensure that government policies, regulations, incentives, and resources are aligned with critical needs, reflect the sustained support needed by a nascent industry, and attract private sector capital.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR FINANCE

The capital and operating costs — and the financial rewards for success at scale — of a biorefining industry are immense. Yet, capital accumulation takes too long, and is inefficient and expensive. The risks of new technologies, the price volatility of raw materials and products, offtake contracts, the sunsetting of incentives, and regulatory uncertainty are not efficiently measured and mitigated. Accelerating deployment of technology requires more and better financial tools deployed by motivated public and private finance working together to harmonize, accelerate, and reduce the cost of due diligence, mitigate risks, assure investors and bring sustainable products to willing buyers at the price they can afford.

 

ACTIONS:

 

1. Developing project risk ratings to facilitate due diligence and create development funnels to realize greater capital allocation efficiency.

2. Fostering the growth of a Development Capital Industry to address the financing of projects between pilot scale and commercial deployment.

3. Developing a system of financial agreements that are harmonized, transparent, and repeatable, and straightforward to act upon.

4. Prioritizing regionally strategic investment in infrastructure to ensure that biomass-replete zones are also project-ready zones.

5. Taking a portfolio approach to the development of process technologies, feedstocks, products, and linking techno-economic analysis to process development as an iterative cycle that will lead to better technologies, sooner.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY GROUPS

Trade and industry groups play a valuable role in the development and deployment of the bioeconomy. Yet, groups are often formed to foster subsets of feedstocks, regions, and value-add products, focusing their efforts on regulations, adoption, standards of interest to many, collaboration and coordination is tactical rather than strategic, and certain tasks that must be undertaken by all, for the benefit of all, are left undone.

 

ACTIONS

 

1. Advising on economic development programs that support conversion of existing refining assets, particularly those that can use increasing amounts of sustainable biobased feedstocks.

2. Designing an effective and scalable repeatable program of education, including the certification of bioeconomy educators and influencers in the public and private sectors that can better inform non-industry stakeholders, support effective and swifter decision-making, and foster a portfolio approach to energy investment and deployment.

3. Educating the market about the value of clean, low carbon fuels, food, feed, fiber, materials, and the economy-wide value of investments in near-term green premiums for sectors still building to scale.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR RESEARCHERS & ACADEMIA

The bioeconomy is built on a foundation of science and innovation, and workforce training, carried out by researchers and academics around the world. Yet, inefficiencies remain in: the transfer of technological innovations from the lab to the field or the refinery; the training of a workforce with the right skills and the needed capacity; the development of proven, scalable systems as opposed to components or sub-processes and the development of resilience from the crop in the field through to the manufacturing process.

 

ACTIONS:

 

1. Focusing on development of new feedstocks and intermediate crops, uniform feedstock conditioning, the efficiency and robustness of catalysts, and supporting partnerships for the improvement of processing technologies and for new product development.

2. Developing instruction and certification coursework in bioeconomy engineering, techno-economic feasibility, lifecycle analysis, and bioeconomy project due diligence, beginning in secondary school and continuing into undergraduate and postgraduate education, including the promotion of coursework involving vocational training programs and partnerships with biomass resource owners, technology developers and international agencies.

3. Encouraging the use of robust cell factory organisms wherever possible to maximize the possibility of transferring and duplicating success at scale. and focusing on expanding the scalability and diversity of feedstock options.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR GOVERNMENT

Strong collaboration between government and industry is needed to enable de-fossilization of fuels, chemicals, and materials. Public investment should prioritize commercial-scale demonstrations of technologies and systems; prioritize investments subject to techno-economic feasibility to ensure investment flows to the best projects for deployment at scale. Further, a chief objective of investment and government support in early-stage development should be the reduction of risk especially for those projects that industry cannot or will not undertake. In later stages, for risks associated with deployment at scale that project insurance cannot affordably cover; and in all phases of development, the focus should be on broad provision of capital rather than picking ‘winners’. Policies and programs should be expanded, simplified, and sped up to support commercial-scale projects that offer the highest carbon reduction values and account for carbon intensity.

 

ACTIONS:

 

1. Adopting an all-of-government and all-levels-of-government approach when supporting the development of fossil alternatives — including but not limited to departments of energy, agriculture, defense, science, finance, and environment, and local, state/provincial, and national levels — with an emphasis on developing transparent, speedy, technology-neutral and efficient programs, and reliable, speedy, and consistent regulatory support. Aiming for harmonized regulations that are feedstock-neutral, science-based, harmonized, predictable, and reliable. Harmonization should include permitting reform that reduces the time and cost of project development and fossil-alternative deployment.

2. Creating economy-wide credits and incentives, stable and harmonized across all regions, to create a level playing field with fossil carbon, that lasts until the cost of a given facility is paid off, begin at the commencement of production, are payable directly to the project developer, and support a minimum selling price for early-stage, smaller-volume products as they seek to compete in highly volatile commodity markets.

3. Supporting the capital costs of converting fossil refineries, or mothballed bio-based refineries, to 100% sustainable bio-based feedstocks.

4. Undertaking permitting reform to reduce the time and cost of project development and fossil-alternative deployment; implementing less prescriptive crop insurance to speed up the development of bio-capacity and extending coverage to include intermediate crops. 

5. Mapping global feedstock availability (agriculture, marine, woody biomass, waste, etc.) down to the actual growers and volumes — a census of biomass that reflects availability and intent, and which measures sustainability from soil to end use, and characterizes feedstock condition to incentivize the expansion of biorefineries near feedstock sources and prioritize feedstock availability beyond crops to include all biomass sources.

6. Creating an international agency to coordinate the sharing of information on by-products valorization, prices, feedstock aggregation, pre-treatment, crush, grinding, transportation infrastructure, distribution, biomass capacity, and technologies for license.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

The bioeconomy is the one, true global industry, because it shares with people the dependency on land and water; where people are abundant, so is biomass. International bodies, agencies and leaders can play a catalytic role in accelerating the bioeconomy transition. Yet, global organizations to coordinate this inherently world-wide economic effort in innovation and sustainable deployment are few in number, young, and lacking in unified purpose.

 

ACTIONS:

 

1. Harmonizing standards, regulations and development programs that are transparent, consistent, reliable, and science-based, and communicate benefits in an accessible manner.

2. Encouraging countries to prepare and enforce transparent, harmonized, and science-based standards for carbon intensity, water use efficiency, and land-use standards.

3. Prioritizing efforts to hire, train, and retain a highly skilled workforce to achieve all of the Bold Actions with a focus on capacity building and competence expansion.

4. Engaging with industry, and national and sub-national agencies to develop and deploy transparent, aggressive, science-based, and harmonized low-carbon fuels and materials standards.

BOLD ACTIONS FOR THE BOLD GOALS ACTION GROUP

Stakeholders seeking to catalyze industrial development need world-wide industrial and financial counterparties to advise them, since it is industry and financiers that must build, own and operate the assets by which BOLD GOALS are met. Yet, technical and deployment advisory groups are regional, unstable, politicized, periodic and must be made more effective to ensure that global stakeholders realize BOLD GOALS as quickly, affordably, and sustainably as possible. The members of the BOLD GOALS ACTON GROUP have proven that working groups can organize quickly and effectively to gather, process and prioritize feedback and perspective from stakeholders.

 

ACTIONS:

 

1. Creating and supporting for the long-term, a working group to steward and oversee the implementation of these Bold Actions and to continue to serve for all organizations that seek independent, commercially focused, science-based, technology-neutral feedback from a “coalition of the willing” of project developers, scientists, financiers, end-users, and economic development officials.