SPECIAL FEATURE
The current trends in world economic growth and development will have a major impact on natural resources and the ecosystem.
The world’s population is constantly growing, and with it the need for food, water and energy. At the same time, there is unsustainable use of fossil fuel-based resources and the consumption of products derived from them, which contribute to environmental degradation and climate change.
It is, therefore, essential to move to a new way of economic growth that is compatible with environmental protection and the sustainable use of limited natural resources. The development and application of innovative biotechnology methods and processes in the agriculture, health, chemistry and energy sectors has recently been seen as one of the ways to accelerate sustainable growth and development.
A greater focus on scientific research and technological innovation should lead to the development of new products from renewable resources such as biomass, and new services needed for the development of the bioeconomy, which would help to create new jobs.
In the past few decades, the need to manage climate change has been rising on the political agenda, and has been included in agreements of global multilateral organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the G8, the G20, and the African Union.
In November/December 2015, the United Nations Climate Change Conference negotiated the Paris Agreement, which has been signed by 198 countries, including South Africa. The signatories have agreed to take measures to keep global warming to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and, if possible, to limit the temperature increase to 1,5°C above pre-industrial levels.
This will require countries to reduce their carbon footprints by moving away from fossil fuel-based commercial and industrial production to bio-based commercial and industrial production.
The South African government’s National Development Plan (Vision 2030) is a long-term vision for economic development.
One of its strategic aims is to transition South Africa to a low-carbon economy. South Africa has many policies across government departments that are consistent with the move towards a green economy.
One of the most recent of these policies is the national Bioeconomy Strategy, which was adopted by Cabinet in 2013 and launched by the Department of Science and Technology in January 2014, although work linked to the strategy had begun many years before.
The strategy aims is to make a significant contribution to South Africa’s gross domestic product by 2030, through the creation and growth of novel industries that generate and develop bio-based services, products and innovations.
The South African Bioeconomy Strategy defines a bioeconomy as activities that make use of bioinnovations, based on biological sources, materials and processes to generate sustainable economic, social and environmental development.
The intention is to use the country’s entire innovation system – ideas, research, development, product creation, manufacturing and commercialisation – to develop the bioeconomy to its full potential.
While there is no universally agreed definition of a “bioeconomy”, all countries with bioeconomy policies emphasise leveraging the full potential of biological resources to address the challenges of climate change and the use of resources that are finite and environmentally destructive, as well as to ensure energy, food and water security.
There are currently more than 50 countries with elements relating to a bioeconomy in their policy portfolios. Countries with a dedicated bioeconomy strategy include Iceland, Finland, Greenland, the USA, Germany, Malaysia, Japan and South Africa. Member countries of the European Union (EU) implement the overarching EU strategy, and some members also have their own.
The USA and the EU were the first to publish bioeconomy strategies.
Between 2006 and 2016, the US bioeconomy sector is estimated to have grown by an annual rate of 10%.
The USA published its National Bioeconomy Blueprint in 2012. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the US bioeconomy has an annual turnover of $369 billion and supports 4 million jobs.
Since the EU and several of its member states approved bioeconomy strategies, starting in 2010, the European bioeconomy has 2 trillion in annual turnover and supports 17 million jobs.
The differences between the bioeconomy policies of various countries are influenced by each country’s natural resource endowments, science capacities, competitive advantages and priorities.
This makes it difficult to compare the bioeconomy products and activities of different countries.
Other challenges are the inadequacy of standard industrial classification systems for bio-based production, the lack of systematic data collection, and the unco-ordinated collection of information at national level.
The South African Bioeconomy Strategy identifies three key economic sectors – agriculture, health, and industry and environment as being the most in need of, and likely to benefit from, its implementation. Indigenous knowledge systems make a contribution cutting across all three.
The challenge is to implement the strategy so as to ensure that the country uses its strengths in biotechnology to meet national needs and position South Africa globally.
Although the Bioeconomy Strategy envisages being a significant contributor to South Africa’s GDP by 2030, its indicators speak only to knowledge and skills (full-time equivalent researchers, scientific publications, and bioeconomy-related publications) and financial support (gross expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP).
The strategy provides 18 output indicators related to industry, market, knowledge transmission and application, and the knowledge base and human resources to be used to measure and monitor the bioeconomy.
However, it is important to have a way of measuring and monitoring the bioeconomy’s contribution to GDP, and the effect it has on society and the environment.
The National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), a statutory body that advises the Minister of Science and Technology and, through the Minister, the Cabinet, on various matters pertaining to science, technology and innovation, has developed a set of indicators that can be used to measure and monitor the bioeconomy’s contribution to South Africa’s GDP at both sectoral and national level. However, the DST will still have to find appropriate social and environmental indicators.
In November 2015, more than 700 experts from about 80 countries met in Berlin at the first Global Bioeconomy Summit. During this summit, the International Advisory Committee on the Bioeconomy made several recommendations regarding the global bioeconomy.
One of the recommendations was that countries should devise ways to measure the contribution of the bioeconomy to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Many of the objectives of South Africa’s Bioeconomy Strategy link closely with the SDGs, but a measurement framework is still needed.
The South African Bioeconomy Strategy is one of many policies in South Africa that are consistent with the green economy.
However, these policies are being championed and implemented by different government departments.
The challenge is to co-ordinate and align all the policies and activities of the different departments in order to provide effective support to the relevant sectors so that targets can be met.
The Bioeconomy Strategy has many goals and objectives, and considering current fiscal constraints, it will be necessary to prioritise these so that limited resources are used to optimal impact.
The Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System and the National Evaluation Policy Framework emphasise that each policy should be accompanied by a logical indicators framework so that managers, decision makers, and other stakeholders can receive regular feedback on progress in policy implementation and results.
Once we have these indicators, it will be easier to implement the Bioeconomy Strategy and create a flourishing green South Africa.
In addition, a complete set of indicators will allow the country to measure the bioeconomy’s annual turnover in rand value as well as the number of jobs it directly and indirectly supports within the country’s economy.
The availability of this set of statistics will indicate to South Africans how far the country has made progress towards transitioning to a green economy.