The bioeconomy at COP30: putting people, planet and profit in harmony

The development of a sustainable, circular and nature-positive bioeconomy is high on the agenda for the Brazilian government as it prepares to host COP30 in the Amazon in November 2025. 

COP30 Special Envoy for Bioeconomy Marcelo Behar joined Marco Lambertini, Convener of the Nature Positive Initiative, to discuss what the bioeconomy means to them, and how to ensure that the concept is promoted in ways that benefit nature, social justice and the effort to tackle the climate crisis.

What do you understand by the word ‘bioeconomy’?

Marcelo: The Brazilian government describes it as a model of productive and economic development which uses natural resources in a sustainable, regenerative and conservationist manner, and which is based on justice, ethics and inclusion. Of course, the etymology of economy is ‘house rules’, and ‘bio’ is ‘of life’ – perhaps that is the easiest way to understand it. 

A sustainable bioeconomy is one where humankind follows rules to allow people to live and produce the things we need in ways that take nature into consideration, that work with and respect traditional communities, that are less resource-intensive and which are, as much as possible, circular. 

From where has the concept emerged? 

Marcelo: The EU has had a bioeconomy strategy since 2012, and there have been discussions in the Global South about developing a social bioeconomy – which also emphasizes social justice, inclusion and equity – for at least 20 years. 

But the concept has been given a boost by the decision by Brazil to make it a priority for COP30, and agreement among the G20 on 10 high-level principles to guide the development of the bioeconomy. 

Of particular note is Principle 5, which calls for sustainable consumption and production, the efficient and circular use of biological resources, and the restoration and regeneration of degraded areas and ecosystems. This principle connects the three UN environmental conventions – on desertification, biodiversity and climate – in a common goal, namely to develop a global economy that no longer requires the emissions of 42 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide and the destruction of 10 million hectares every year. That is what the bioeconomy is aiming for. 

To what extent does a bioeconomy already exist? 

Marco: We have always depended on nature and this is also true today. Our modern economy is entirely based on nature: we are increasingly extracting resources from nature, and we rely on a multitude of crucial services provided by nature. Unfortunately, we are not utilizing these resources or services sustainably. 

We have been taking from nature and harming it to the point of destabilizing entire systems and functions – functions on which our economy relies, such as a stable climate, water flows and access to renewable resources. We are starting to pay the economic costs of this damage. This means that the protection and restoration of nature is no longer only a moral duty or an ethical issue – it is becoming economically material, and companies, governments and the whole of society are beginning to feel the impacts. The aim is to develop a bioeconomy which respects nature’s boundaries and its ability to regenerate its resources – in the interest of a resilient and productive economy. 

How can we ensure that the bioeconomy develops in a nature-positive way? 

Marco: A nature-positive economy is one that generates more nature, not less. It is about abandoning current nature-negative practices and transitioning to nature-positive ones. For such a transition to happen we firstly need to identify and measure the impacts we are having on nature – whether through deforestation, over fishing or pollution. Secondly, we need to track the progress of our efforts to avoid and mitigate negative impacts and conserve and restore nature, resulting in a net-positive (not net-zero) outcome: more nature, not less. Nature is an asset class that can be valued economically. 

At the Nature Positive Initiative, we are undertaking a consensus-building process, involving academia, business, finance and civil society, to develop practical metrics through which a company, a financial institution, a national or local government can drive and demonstrate a nature-positive outcome, contributing to the Nature Positive global goal to ‘halt and reverse biodiversity loss’ adopted by the UN Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022.

What is the role of the bioeconomy in addressing climate change? 

Marcelo: The bioeconomy is the connector between how to decarbonize and tackle the crisis in nature at the same time. By helping to conserve nature, a sustainable bioeconomy will slow climate change. And nature is the biggest facilitator to bring down carbon emissions. 

Marco: Yes, and I would add that, by adopting nature-positive practices and delivering nature-positive outcomes, the nature-positive bioeconomy will halt and reverse the destruction of nature, contributing substantially to stabilizing the climate. Today, natural ecosystems absorb more than half of the CO2 emissions we emit annually to the atmosphere. By conserving existing nature and restoring what we have degraded, we will deliver a world with more nature than there was previously. The protection and regeneration of land, freshwater and marine ecosystems will increase nature’s ability to absorb carbon. Soil is also a massive carbon sequestration ecosystem: even soil that is used productively for agriculture can be managed in such a way as to absorb and retain much more carbon than it does today.   

How does a sustainable bioeconomy help deliver social justice? 

Marcelo: It’s key. The 10 Principles explicitly call for the bioeconomy to contribute to “the fair and equitable sharing of benefits” of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. There is an element of ‘just transition’ here, to allow the Indigenous populations that are already protecting the nature-rich areas that contain 80% of the Earth’s biodiversity to be fairly recognized and rewarded. 

We need to move from the paradigm of commoditizing everything and bringing prices down as low as possible. People should be willing to pay a little more to expand their diets to incorporate the vitamins, flavors and ingredients that nature provides. The bioeconomy can connect the dots and make a more respectful contract with traditional communities on the one side, and more conscious consumers on the other. 

Marco: I fully agree with Marcelo. The fundamental principle here is that, if we degrade and destabilize nature, we as humans lose, and the most vulnerable in the world will lose first and lose most. The only way to build a people-positive future is to prioritize a nature-positive future – which includes creating a bioeconomy inspired by sustainability principles and nature-positive practices. 

How can COP30 promote a sustainable bioeconomy? 

Marcelo: COP30 aims to address five dimensions of the bioeconomy. On forests, the planned Tropical Forests Forever Facility aims to mobilize $125 billion to conserve standing forests, and we are creating the Earth Investment Engine to build a pipeline of investible bioeconomy opportunities. In agriculture, we are working to harness carbon markets to support more sustainable agriculture, and we have a plan for integrating crops, cattle and forests.

Building on Marco’s point about a people-positive future, we have numerous initiatives planned to promote the social bioeconomy, particularly to dramatically expand our work with traditional communities. For biotechnology, Brazil’s International Chamber of Commerce has published a report showing how the bioeconomy could generate $100-140 billion for the country. We’ll present the ways that this can be accomplished during COP. Finally, for finance, there are many discussions ongoing, but the frameworks that Marco and the Nature Positive Initiative are helping to develop, with other institutions and thinkers, will begin to create the connectivity between investment, climate and nature. Those are my hopes for COP30.   

Marco: The key thing I would like to see from COP30 is for the private sector to step up. Its awareness of the material risks we face from nature destabilization has greatly increased, but the transition it’s not moving fast enough. Companies need to take much more decisive action, by supporting and lobbying for political leadership. One such example is Brazil, which gives a lot of emphasis to the interconnectedness of climate and nature as a fundamental issue for society and economy. Companies and financial institutions need to embrace strategies and mitigation actions that reduce their negative impacts and massively improve their positive footprint on nature and climate, and on a very aggressive timeline. 

Change is inevitable. We either embrace it and drive it, or will be inflicted upon us by nature herself. The future can be bright. We can build a prosperous, just and safe future for us and our children. The choice is ours.