Profit to Planet
Emerging Trends in a Decarbonised World
New Models of Economic Practice
Everything is changing. The Climate and Biodiversity crisis is manifesting new ways of doing things in society. Profit before Planet is on the way out. Markets are repositioning the wealth of the Earth’s Resources as The BioEconomy, Sustainable Practice as the Circular Economy, and Technological advancement as the Digital Economy. New avenues of finance to fund the Transition to a cleaner, greener society such as the Carbon Tax have arrived.
Capitalism is shifting to become the Green Economy, intrinsically linked to a clean and protected environment with new ‘green-collar’ jobs being created.
This is good news for Offaly as long as we get to own and run our own green enterprises and our Communities are the ones who gain from the creation of green income streams within our biosphere.
So let’s have a look at the new Green Economic Model.
The Bioeconomy
The European Commission defines the bioeconomy as “the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy.
Source: Innovating for Sustainable Growth – A Bioeconomy for Europe (2012)
The transition to a sustainable bio-based economy
The coming changes in Earth’s Climate along with the exhaustion of fossil fuel reserves has forced the global economy to embrace Sustainability. The world’s increasing population and the accompanying depletion of the Earth’s Soil Bank also see a coming revolution in Food Production. The World Economic Forum has declared the Fourth Industrial Revolution and yes, it is Green and Smart and Biological. The bioeconomy offers the opportunity to reconcile economic growth with environmentally responsible action (in other words, corporations will be floating new ‘green’ stocks on their bond markets! Green Business as usual).
Image Curtesy of IES GS
An Overview of The Circular Economy
The Circular Economy ensures Sustainability through a wide range of practices regarding the use of materials, manufacturing processes, packaging, waste management, water management, product design, recovery and reuse of materials, and consumer behaviour. Opportunities are there for local Green Enterprises who are able to provide technology and services solutions based on circular economy principles, such as zero waste shops, end of chain resupply initiatives, ecotourism, plastic free packaging, innovation in waste recycling and so on.
For more information see What is the Circular Economy and How Can it Help from GreenNews.ie and Circular Economy Academy from Rediscovery Centre
Image courtesy of GreenNews.ie
The Carbon Tax
The Carbon Tax is one to watch!
At present, Ireland applies a carbon tax of €20 per tonne of carbon emitted through the direct use of fossil fuels like oil, petrol, diesel and gas in heating homes and businesses or running cars and trucks. This tax is set to increase to over €100 per tonne as we move towards the complete decarbonisation of our Society.
Proposed new climate and carbon tax laws are being accelerated through the European legislative process with calls to tax high carbon emitting foods such as meat and dairy coming down the line. Carbon food labelling is already being tested by some companies around Europe as a part of their sustainability initiatives and aims to help consumers make more informed food decisions. “Carbon currency” – whereby the higher the environmental footprint, the costlier the product is a strong possibility. See What Is Carbon Tax from Bonkers.ie
These coming laws have massive implications for agricultural livelihoods here in Offaly. This makes it even more essential that we investigate and implement farm diversification streams such as Bio Energy, Carbon Farming and Carbon Offsetting. These new income streams could do much to alleviate the economic upheaval for farming that the coming proposed ‘FoodSHIFT’, will incur.
More information on coming trends see:
Delivering Our Green Potential PDF from the EPA
Bioeconomy from the Europa Commission
Realising Opportunities for Enterprise Bioeconomy and Circular Economy Ireland PDF from The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Agriculture and Bioeconomy from the Department of Agriculture
BiOrbic – Ireland’s national bioeconomy research centre
IrBEA – Irish Bioenergy Association
The bioeconomy developments and opportunities by Kevin O’Connor from Intertrade Ireland