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€3.8B Plan To Boost Europe’s Bio-Based Industries
Patrick Madden Forty eight companies sign up for joint technology initiative to research and bring products made from renewable natural resources to market. This will provide new markets for farmers and reduce dependency on fossil fuels The European Commission unveiled a €3.8 billion Public Private Partnership (PPP) on bio-based industries, bringing together 48 large and small companies from across different sectors to develop and commercialise food, animal feed, chemicals and fuel products made from sustainable biomass and waste. The PPP, to be called BRIDGE – Biobased and Renewable Industries for Development and Growth in Europe – will be managed by the 48 corporate partners through the Biobased Industries Consortium (BIC), with the aim of enabling European companies to bridge the innovation gap between technology development and commercialisation of high-value bio-based products. These companies are making a significant commitment to BRIDGE, putting in €2.8 billion cash and in kind resources, with €1 billion coming from the Commission as part of the €70 billion Horizon 2020 R&D programme, which is due to get underway in January 2014. It is planned that €1.8 billion will be pumped into investments and infrastructure, whilst the rest will fund activities, deployment and research across the innovation chain. CEOs of companies taking part in BRIDGE said the €2.8 billion investment from industry highlights both the strong commitment to the PPP and the confidence it can achieve its objectives. Coming together to make this investment under the umbrella of BIC also reflects the collaboration which is at the core of BRIDGE, with the ambition of laying down the foundations of a post-petroleum society by combining strengths and resources, and building bridges between different sectors. The sectors that are involved include agriculture, biotech, forestry, pulp and paper, chemicals and energy. This requirement to work across sectors was stressed by Guy Talbourdet, CEO of Roquette Freres, a company specialising in making products based on starch extracted from plants. In order to develop new technologies, collaboration and joint development and support is absolutely vital, he told a briefing held to discuss the BRIDGE project. New biomass resources Berry Wiersum, CEO of paper merchants Sappi, echoed this view and pointed towards the potential for job creation, saying that for every job which would be created directly another three jobs would be created locally. In the face of evidence that European Union policies promoting biofuels have led food crops to be diverted to biorefineries, BRIDGE will continue research to replace petrol-based products with ones based on biomass. One aim is to develop a biorefinery able to handle different types of biomass that cannot be used as food, for example, non-food crop grasses and agricultural and forestry waste, and which can produce multiple products including biopolymers and biofuels. Beyond the potential of the bio-based industries project to create jobs in a broad range of sectors in Europe, in particular in rural areas, the Commission says it will also help the EU meet climate change targets. It will also aim to bridge the ‘valley of death’ that prevents research from Europe’s universities being translated through to commercial bio-based products. The BRIDGE project is a major milestone on the journey towards a smarter, more sustainable, more innovative EU economy, said Stephan Tanda, Director of Royal DSM and Chair of EuropaBio’s Industrial Biotechnology Council. “It underscores the commitment of both the Commission and of industry to work together with a broad community of European stakeholders, from farmers to foresters, to scientists to citizens in the development of a world leading EU bio-based economy,” Tanda said. Continue reading
RM Williams Agricultural Holdings Is Put Into Receivership
By Patrick Stafford Tuesday, 02 July 2013 RM Williams Agricultural Holdings, which spent several million dollars buying a cattle station in the Northern Territory back in 2007 as part of a plan to build the world’s largest carbon farm, has been placed in receivership. The company was founded and is run by former News director Ken Cowley and counts Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims as a shareholder – although Sims was trying to sell his stake as long ago as 2011 . The ACCC was contacted, but no reply was available prior to publication. PPB was appointed as receivers last week, at the behest of Westpac. Partner Steve Parbery said the investigation is still in its “early days”. The appointment comes as the company was attempting to build the world’s largest carbon farm – it actually won a $9 million grant from the federal government to do so. But the apparent failure of this project has sparked a warning from the Australian Farm Institute, which says the company’s situation raises questions about the government’s “Carbon Farming Initiative”. The CFI allows farmers and land managers to earn carbon credits by “storing” carbon or emissions in large areas of land. These credits can be sold to businesses wanting to offset their emissions. RM Williams Agricultural Holdings was created, in part, to take advantage of the CFI. The business bought the Henbury Station in the Northern Territory for several million dollars, and received a federal grant in order to build the world’s largest carbon farm. News Corporation put $30 million into RM Williams Agricultural Holdings back in 2009. Mick Keogh, executive director of the Australian Farming Institute, said it was never clear how the RM Williams project was ever intended to produce carbon credits. “We’ve just remained completely confounded about it and why the Commonwealth put millions of dollars into it.” “We’ve never been able to sort out exactly how the project, under the known rules, was able to make credits.” In a blog post on the AFI’s website , Keogh said the receivership should serve as a warning to any company involved with the Carbon Farming Initiative. He writes that “in the absence of considerably more clarity about carbon prices and future carbon trading rules”, the best option for landholders getting involved in a carbon project is to ensure the project structure transfers risk to the buyer of any carbon offsets generated. However, Keogh says it is unknown whether the company collapsed due to any issues regarding the structure of the carbon deal. “The fact that the Henbury project seems to have encountered difficulties should serve as a caution to landholders contemplating getting involved in a carbon project, but does not mean that the opportunities presented by the development of a carbon market should be completely ignored.” Parbery said it would be premature to determine whether RM Williams Agricultural Holdings had entered difficulties because of problems with the carbon farming plan. “The shareholders and directors having been going through a capital raising which was unsuccessful…at that stage they called in the bank to seek the appointment of receivers.” “Our role at the moment is to keep things operational, and to keep the subsidiary companies operational. We are investigating those businesses as we speak.” RM Williams Agricultural Holdings also owns the Labelle Downs and Welltree stations in the Northern Territory, and the Mirage Plains and Inglewood Farms stations in Queensland. The company is not related to its namesake fashion chain RM Williams, which was recently sold to Louis Vuitton . This article originally appeared on SmartCompany . Continue reading
Real estate for sale in Dillsboro Indiana – MLS# 277350
10060 Mulford St Dillsboro Indiana 47018 MLS# 277350 For more info visit http://vt.realbiz360.com/Listing-1268190.html Many Updates To This Well-maintained 2… Continue reading
