Political science research on policy implications for the defossilization of the chemical industry
We will need #biomass for the transition to #NetZero. But does the public support the use of forest biomass for a #sustainable chemical industry? How can policy support this transformation?
The defossilization of the chemical industry requires renewable carbon sources, including forest resources. We analyze policy processes and different governance approaches regarding the sustainable #transformation of the chemical industry. We identify drivers and obstacles to innovation; we investigate policy instruments and design options to transforming the chemical industry’s carbon metabolism.
In a recent study, we examined the changes in the forest policy subsystem of the forest-based #bioeconomy that may result from the transformation of the chemical industry in Europe. The study is the result of an innovative collaboration between political scientists, environmental psychologists and chemical engineers at Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg and Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems as part of the SmartProSys Cluster of Excellence initiative.
The main findings are:
➡ The demand to use forest biomass to de-carbonize the chemical industry has implications for forest policy,
➡ New actors from the chemical sector are trying to gain access to the political subsystem, which could lead to new political conflicts with traditional actors in forest policy.
➡ New chemical uses for forest carbon are not yet sufficiently accepted by consumers, who have little knowledge of new innovative technologies for climate protection and are more likely to support forest protection than the use of forest resources for economic benefits.
The study is currently under review (status: Revise & Resubmit) and can be found here as PrePrint: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4904040
Dr. Katrin Beer | Prof. Michael Böcher | Dr. Caroline Ganzer | Dr. Anke Blöbaum | Lukas Engel | Theresa de Paula Sieverding | Prof. Kai Sundmacher | Prof. Ellen Matthies
Picture: Symbolic photo of forestry, FotoRieth on Pixabay // Overview figure: c Dr. Katrin Beer