COP30: Circular Bioeconomy

Recommendations

• Strengthen cross-sector collaboration. Foster cooperation between aquaculture, agriculture, industry, and energy sectors to improve utilisation of by-products and residual streams.
• Develop digital and physical infrastructure. Build platforms, transport solutions, and standards that facilitate sharing and circular resource flows.
• Modernise regulation and incentives. Adapt laws and policy instruments to enable safe and profitable use, transport, and trade of biological by-products, and to support the establishment and scaling of industrial symbioses.
• Promote innovation and competence development. Increase efforts in biotechnology, material recycling, circular logistics, value chain development, and business models that make circularity economically viable.
• Connect land- and sea-based value chains. Facilitate efficient, low-emission value chains that strengthen food security and value creation.
• Establish test arenas for circularity. Pilot integrated solutions where technology, markets, and regulation are developed together.

Current situation

Norway possesses large quantities of biological resources from aquaculture, fisheries, agriculture, and forestry, but utilisation remains fragmented. Many by-products are used for low-value applications or not used at all. Industrial symbiosis is still in its early stages — while good examples exist, upscaling and collaboration between companies is hindered by a lack of overview of resource flows and legal barriers.

Value chains are poorly connected, and markets, logistics, and technology must all evolve to support circularity. Investment is discouraged by profitability challenges, unclear responsibilities, and uncertainty about quality and stability of resource flows.

Circular bioeconomy has gained increased political attention, but comprehensive strategies and policy instruments are still lacking — ones that connect resource potential with industrial development and food security. Norway has strong competence in biotechnology, process industry, digitalisation, and logistics, but this potential is not fully realised. More knowledge is needed about how markets, regulation, and technology can work together to create value from renewable resources.

Today, Norway’s economy is estimated to be only about 2 % circular, highlighting both a major improvement potential and the need for clear priorities and trade-offs. Questions of profitability, responsibility, transport distances, and actual demand for reused materials must be addressed holistically — at local, national, and global levels.

Solutions

The transition to a circular bioeconomy requires a systemic shift in which technology, regulation, markets, and collaboration evolve in parallel. Digital tools for resource mapping and sharing can be key enablers for industrial symbiosis, but they must be supported by well-functioning markets and predictable framework conditions.

Such a systemic transition demands coordination across sectors and governance levels. Public authorities must develop a more coherent policy framework for the circular bioeconomy, aligning industrial, climate, agricultural, and fisheries policies toward common goals. National targets and indicators for circularity should be established to measure resource efficiency and value creation.

Market development is as important as technology. To ensure profitability, functioning markets for secondary raw materials and biological by-products must be created. Public procurement can play a decisive role by demanding circular solutions and stimulating new value creation.

A circular bioeconomy requires resource management across sectors — from production and processing to transport, consumption, and recycling. This integrated approach makes it possible to connect value chains, reduce waste, and create new value based on biological materials.

Technologies for bioprocessing, material upgrading, sensors, and digital traceability can enhance efficiency. Equally important are social and economic incentives, competence building, and collaborative arenas that make these solutions scalable.

Integrated testbeds and demonstration projects can connect technology, markets, regulation, and logistics in practice. By developing such ecosystems, Norway and other Nordic and European countries can share experiences internationally and contribute to global solutions for sustainable resource use. A more circular bioeconomy will not only reduce waste and emissions — it will also strengthen food security, value creation, and the green transition, demonstrating how economic growth can be combined with lasting emission reductions.