The concept of ‘bioeconomy’ is receiving increased attention in policy and business circles. The European Commission (EC) has initiated the Bioeconomy Strategy which is a signal of intent that the EU seeks to meet the challenge of reconciling responsible-resource usage respecting...

Despite growing interest in biomass over the last number of years, bio-energy derived from biomass currently contributes to a very small share of the total Spanish energy market. How individual farmers choose to respond to the opportunities presented by these relatively novel crops has still...

Currently an industrial perspective dominates the EU policy framework for a European bio-economy. The Commission’s proposal on the bio-economy emphasises greater resource-efficiency, largely within an industrial perspective on global economic competitiveness, benefiting capital-intensive...

A survey was administered to determine Kansas farmers’ willingness to grow crops for biofuel. The primary purpose of the survey was to assess farmers’ willingness to produce biomass for cellulosic bioenergy in the forms of a value added crop, an annual energy crop, and a perennial...

Energy consumption in the United Sates has been increasing and the cost of fossil fuels has been unstable in recent years. Expanding investment in renewable energy is one way to reduce the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. However, the Not-In-My-Back- Yard (NIMBY) opposition and...

This paper highlights the role that Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) can play in the development of place umbrella brands in a rural area of Italy. Place branding in rural areas is considered a wicked problem, since it must be managed by many stakeholders who often have diverse and...

In Hungary difficulties in the utilisation of bio-fuels are mainly caused by problems of economy and not by technical problems. Currently, the key factor in development – according to the authors of this article – would be a new version of the relevant legal provisions, which would...

The accelerating consumption of natural resources has caused significant economic growth and improved financial conditions in industrial countries, but destroys the forests, soil, air, water and the biological diversity of the Earth. By ecologically overloading our planet, economic development...

As oil and gas wells age, they become unproductive. Proper abandonment of wells is an important process for both public safety and environmental health. However, well abandonment represents an opportunity cost to resource companies, as abandoned wells are more expensive to apply new production...

Indirect land use change, an agricultural market leakage, has been a major controversy over the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) requirement for corn-ethanol to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20 percent relative to gasoline it is assumed to replace. This paper shows that...