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Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e.V.

WHH

Die Welthungerhilfe ist eine der größten privaten Hilfsorganisationen in Deutschland; politisch und konfessionell unabhängig.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Francesca Pessina (Acting Head of Unit Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf) and Alliance2015 and

20 May 2025 · Situation in occupied Palestinian territory

Meeting with Hildegard Bentele (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Sept 2024 · Sustainable Development Goals

Meeting with Maria Noichl (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

21 Jun 2022 · Food Security

Meeting with Erik Marquardt (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Jun 2022 · Global Food Security

Meeting with Diana Montero Melis (Cabinet of Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen) and World Vision Brussels & EU Representation ivzw/aisbl and

27 Oct 2021 · UN Food System Summit and Nutrition for Growth Summit

Response to Update of the 2012 Bioeconomy Strategy

16 Mar 2018

The Food Security Standard (FSS) Project, a cooperation between the Center for Development Research (University of Bonn, Germany) and the NGOs Welthungerhilfe (Bonn, Germany) and WWF (Berlin, Germany) welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to update the 2012 Bioeconomy Strategy and opportunity to provide comments. The Food Security Standard (FSS) takes up the Human Right to Adequate Food as a new element for sustainability standards and certification schemes for all kind of biomass. In brief, we have the following recommendations for the roadmap: • The roadmap lacks a clear reference to that fact that Europe currently is using more resources and having a larger ecological footprint than it would be sustainable given planetary boundaries. A detailed strategy how to reduce current consumption levels in Europe is urgently needed as part of the bioeconomy strategy as the conversion to only a circular economy is insufficient. • The roadmap needs to more explicitly address the planetary boundaries, respects the global needs for biomass and provide details how of food security shall be prioritized. It has to be clearly determined how much biomass Europe can maximal use for food, energy and industry in the future given that resources need to be used fair on a global level to avoid resource conflicts, wars and migration. This calls also for an ex-ante impact assessment about the global and local food security effects of Europe’s bioeconomy strategy and biomass use. From the estimated biomass amount, a European policy and instruments are needed to prioritize the sectors to determine where technological investments are best placed. • An implementation strategy at European level, which highlights the measures and pathways to be pursued when global food security is threatened by intensive biomass use, needs still to be developed; this cannot be done at member state level. Currently, there are no ideas, rules nor gremials in place which determine which industrial sector in which country has to reduce its biomass use to ensure global food security in case of emergencies. • Human rights, labour and environmental standards for all imported biomass for all uses – and not only for bioenergy uses – need to be integrated in the roadmap to create a level market playing field, which also considers the due diligence requested by the OCED and international UN organizations. • The change of the economy towards a bioeconomy should also address urging social issues such as income inequality and other objectives of the SDGs. The above mentioned points actually call for the consideration of the SDGs as a guiding framework for the bioeconomy and should be integrated in the roadmap and strategy. • The further development of Bioeconomy must go in harmony with the implementation of the UN Guidelines on the Human Right to adequate Food and the UN Guidelines on Land Tenure. The respect of extraterritorial duties is essential for a peaceful global development of Bioeconomies. In this regard, research and establishment of adequate monitoring and guiding instruments and organizations are essential. Dr. Tina Beuchelt and Dr. Rafaël Schneider (FSS@welthungerhilfe.de)
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