The issue of waste and its management, by nature, poses a twofold environmental and economic problem. With renewable gases, we are producing non-intermittent renewable energy that is beneficial to the community, using polluting or poorly recovered materials. To provide a single solution to a two-fold problem is virtuous
More generally, while the bioeconomy is central to the ecological transition, the ecological transition is just as central to the bioeconomy. Renewable gases are further proof of this. They contribute to developing the circular economy to the point that they are even being considered as a circular energy source. They come from the regions, they support the creation of non-relocatable jobs and benefit the urban areas surrounding their production sites. They also promote the development of new agricultural practices: they provide farmers with additional income and they also facilitate the switch to more environmentally friendly agriculture by reducing the use of chemical fertilisers in particular.
In 2012, in one of its publications entitled Innovating for sustainable growth: a bioeconomy for Europe, the European Commission defined a framework for reflection, which is not only uncontested to this day, but has also ended up becoming a reality for all of us when we consider the challenges of the future. Although in 2012 renewable gas didn’t receive the same attention as it does today, could we not be tempted to replace the word bioeconomy with renewable gas in the following paragraph and say that this statement is just as accurate? “The Europe 2020 strategy recommends developing the bioeconomy as a key element of green and smart growth in Europe. (…) Presented as an alternative to “all-oil” economies and the exhaustion of natural resources, this bioeconomy would be able to produce equivalents or substitutes. (…). It would thus meet current consumer demand, while minimising the environmental impact of producing these goods while contributing to the fight against climate change.”
Renewable gases are not just an energy solution. They have a positive economic impact. They provide new and reassuring social solutions. They respond to the environmental concerns of our planet and our regions and, finally, they contribute to preserving the quality of our agricultural and food-producing activities. Let’s look at renewable gases differently. It is time to consider them as transdisciplinary solutions to our concerns about life and the future.