economic evolutions are rare phenomena due to their complexity. When they happen, they promote a drastic change in the conditions of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services on a large scale. That was the Agricultural, Industrial and Digital Revolutions. Now, as argued by Thiago Falda, executive president of the Brazilian Bioinnovation Association (ABBI), the world is experiencing the Bioeconomy Revolution. This movement is transversal to all economic sectors and has been classified by specialists in two aspects: classic and advanced bioeconomy. In this interview, Falda details the conceptual and practical differences between the two, the challenges for their implementation and how a revolution of this nature can lead Brazil to global leadership in an unprecedented way.
DINHEIRO – What is bioeconomy?
Thiago Falda – The bioeconomy has existed since human beings first used living beings to generate business and income, but the modern concept appears only in 2019. It was in that year that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a document defining it as ‘a world where biotechnology contributes with an important share of economic production’ and is based on ‘the use and conversion of biomass through microorganisms and the application of innovations’. Here in Brazil, the concept defined by the Parliamentary Bioeconomy Front defines that biotechnology encompasses the entire value chain that is guided by advanced scientific knowledge and the search for technological innovations in the application of biological and renewable resources in industrial processes to generate circular economic activity and benefit collective social and environmental
Could you give an example that facilitates the understanding of what this modern concept proposes?
While the classic bioeconomy involves almost all economic activities, such as the health sector and agribusiness, the new bioeconomy is taking shape in the world now. So agribusiness is classic bioeconomy. Now, when I apply innovative technologies to, for example, convert crop residues into raw materials with high added value, we have the insertion of this activity in the advanced bioeconomy.
What is the level of maturity of Brazilian legislation for the advanced bioeconomy to gain scale in the country?
In the bioeconomy, biotechnology is transversal to several economic sectors. This means that the same product must pass the approval of several regulatory agencies. An example: let’s suppose that the pharmaceutical industry decides to use biomass residue to produce medicines. If this biomass came from Brazilian biodiversity, then it has to go through the Law on Access to Genetic Heritage. If the industry used a genetically modified microorganism, it must go through the National Technical Commission on Biosafety. To be used as a medicine, it has to go through Anvisa. If it is a drug that works as food, it needs approval from the Ministry of Agriculture, and so on. There is a cascade of regulations made by agencies that often do not even know the products. This causes overlapping work, reports with useless information and a lot of cost.
To what extent is this process an impediment to the advancement of the industry?
I will answer with another example. One of our associates developed a genetically modified mosquito to control dengue. They applied a lethal gene to the male insect that does not bite humans. When he mates with the female, all the offspring die. The technology exists, but Anvisa does not have a category in which this product can fit.
In other words, for the advanced bioeconomy to gain scale, is it necessary to modernize Brazilian legislation?
In some ways, yes. We have cases where the technology is so new that no rules apply. In other cases the product is the same, but as there has been a change in the production process, the company has to go through the entire approval process again. But the good news is that we are starting to see important advances here, such as what happened in the National Biosafety Technical Commission for the microorganism legislation. Before, the approval time for a technology was two years, today it takes three or four months.
What is the real impact of the advanced bioeconomy for Brazil?
When we look at the creation of some of the most important industries for the global economy, none of them developed in the country. Automobile, chemical, space, petrochemical and not even agriculture. In agriculture, we had a great evolution in recent years, but until recently the country was a food importer. At this moment, the world is experiencing a paradigm shift in industrial production in search of a more sustainable model. We will have countries that can generate these products and others that will need to buy them. Brazil is in the first group. We have five biomes, water resources, we are the most megabiodiverse country in the world… Where will biotechnology come from? From biodiversity. The foods? Of sustainable agriculture. Brazil has all this and also has the cheapest biomass in the world, in addition to extensive know-how in bioenergy. The bioeconomy is the first industrial leap that Brazil can lead. Now whether we are going to consolidate in this role is another story.
What is needed?
Adequate legislation: innovation advances faster than the ability of any parliament to legislate, but it is necessary to reduce bureaucracy. Risk sharing: investing in innovation is expensive and the Brazilian government’s financing programs meet the demand for basic innovation with resources in the few million. A biorefinery, for example, costs R$ 1 billion. Biotechnology is much more expensive. Developing it is partly up to the government through incentives.
Given the characteristics of Brazil and global demand, should bioenergy be one of these strategic pillars?
Undoubtedly. Just look at Europe after Russia turns off the faucet. Meanwhile, we produce energy from sugarcane and its residues. Diversifying the energy portfolio is a matter of survival.
Besides bioenergy, are there other opportunities?
Almost all industrial processes can be somehow reinvented by bioinnovation. Even the chemical industry will be able to replace some of its fossil-based products with bioproducts. Whoever has the raw material for this new production model will come out ahead. As may be the case in Brazil. There is a need to advance in technology.
One of the most discussed topics at COP-26 and which should return to the COP-27 agenda is the carbon market. How does he get into this discussion?
The carbon market is the great enabler of new technologies. What happens is that the manufacture of any product by the already established routes is much cheaper than those with sustainable technologies that are still, for the most part, very new and that have not had the same subsidies as traditional industries. The carbon credit helps this balance in two ways. By taxation, where those with higher CO2 emissions pay more tax or through processing via credit for the product that emitted less. I believe that the second model is the best model for Brazil, which has the capacity to generate a surplus of credit that can be easily sold to countries that need to neutralize their economy.
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