AMBER Director welcomes national consultation with stakeholders on an Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on biotechnology

22 July 2025

AMBER Director Professor Michael Morris welcomes the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) consultation with stakeholders on an Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on biotechnology. The consultation includes biotechnology’s relationship to multiple sectors including agri-food, beverage, forestry, biopharmaceuticals, biobased chemicals and materials for sectors such as detergents/cosmetics, built environment, plastics, packaging etc. The formation of an IPCEI in the area of biotechnology is most welcome and could help bring new products to market and address our environmental concerns.

It is clear as we near 2030 and 2050 that we will miss our climate and environmental targets both nationally and on an EU basis.  Whilst there are potential solutions towards renewable energy, it is far from clear how we can de-fossilize our industrial materials and chemical sectors. Many challenges exist but feedstock restraints are critical. Globally we use around one third of our oil/gas towards manufacture of chemicals and materials. That’s around 1.5 billion tonnes (n.b. polymers alone will probably reach 1 billion tonnes per annum by 2050) but this may be a conservative estimate. Globally, we harvest around 2 Bt of wood, our most readily available low cost, easily processible carbon source (excluding crop/farming products) but wood has many other applications that are growing such as construction where it offsets cement and steel climate emissions.  Also, the yield of useful products (whether fuels, chemicals or materials) is very much less and requires very significant investments to produce bio-alternatives compared to fossil sources at significant scales to make impact. There are few if any bio-based processes that match the efficiency, the intensity, the cost and scale of conventional fossil-fuel-based technologies.

A polyethylene plant manufacturing a major component of food packaging can produce 1 million tonnes of this polymer per year or 3000 tonnes per day. Further, the yield is of the order of 80% minimum. The size of these plants is roughly an acre. The largest biopolymer producing plant has an annual output of 160,000 tonnes for polylactic acid which is actually synthetically processed using fossil fuels. There is of yet no competing technology for true bio-feedstock derived polymers and their penetration of the plastics market is less than 3%.  Similar arguments can be made for many potential biotechnology based solutions. Also, often ignored, is the actual environmental sustainability of biotechnology.  The bio-based processes often rely on fossil fuel derived chemicals for processing (separation, extraction, cleaning) and produce damaging waste streams.

The transition to a bioeconomy therefore remains a vision rather than an achievable solution and this must be recognised in any funding and the possibility of an IPCEI, the possibility of success is far lower than many suggest and believe. The scale of advancement must be matched to address the very significant challenges in the field.