ABSTRACT
Climate change is a global issue, which must be addressed all over the world. Many of the world’s political and economic decisions are increasingly determined by resource and energy scarcity and by climate change. Under these circumstances, a balance must be achieved between economics, ecology, and social welfare (sustainability). In Europe, several strategic documents, directives, and initiatives were launched with the aim of developing a low-carbon economy in the European Union (EU). Among these documents are the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (European Commission 2009), which was published in 2006, and reviewed in 2009, the EU Roadmap 2050 (European Parliament Council 2008; European Commission 2011), and the recycling society directive (Directive 2008/98/EC; European Parliament Council 2008). Another important document is the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, where one of the headlines relates to climate and energy. Furthermore, in 2012, the European Commission launched a strategy entitled “Innovating for Sustainable Growth: A Bioeconomy for Europe” (COM 2012, 60 final). The Commission states that Europe needs to radically change its approach regarding production, consumption, processing, storage, recycling, and disposal of biological resources in order to cope with increasing global population, rapid depletion of many resources, increasing environmental pressures, and climate change. Furthermore, the European Commission adopted the Communication “Towards a circular economy: a zero waste programme for Europe” (COM 2014, 0398 final) to establish a common and coherent EU framework to promote the circular economy. The deliverables of a circular economy could be: boosting recycling and preventing the loss of valuable materials; creating jobs and economic growth; showing how new business models,
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................85 4.2 Role of Wood and Wood Products in the Bioeconomy ..........................................................87
