Through its recommendations and studies, the ACDV is very active in dealings with national and European authorities. It also draws on a network of partners concerned by plant-based chemistry.

The ACDV has close relations with all French institutional and industrial players in the plant-based chemistry value chain.

The Association is also represented at European Commission level in European working groups such as the “Lead Market Initiative” (see inset), and the “Bio-Based Industries” Public-Private Partnership.

In addition, the ACDV represents French industry in EUROPABIO and ERRMA (the European Renewable Raw Materials Association), the goal of which is to promote the use of plant-based raw materials in the chemicals, materials and energy sectors.

The ACDV also supports the memorandum on “Industrial use of renewable resources in the European Union”, a French initiative signed by five other member states, which calls for the implementation of a legislative system favouring plant-based chemistry.

Focus: the Lead Market Initiative and the “Bio-Based Industries” Public-Private Partnership: French chemical industry and agro-industrial players are represented by the President of the ACDV in the steering group for plant-sourced products, one of the six lead markets selected by the European Commission (in the Lead Market Initiative) with the aim of:

• fostering the emergence of a lead market with high economic and social value
• encouraging market conditions conducive to innovation
• reducing the marketing time for new products or services enabling rapid growth of the sector

The ACDV is represented in the Public-Private Partnership dedicated to the development of biobased products (Bio-Based Initiatives PPP) as part of Horizon 2020, a research support programme for the 2014-2020 period. This PPP should speed up the emergence and consolidation of competitive and innovative biobased sectors by providing priority funding for demonstrators and initial industrial deployments, which European industries currently lack. The principle is as follows: the European Commission contributes one Euro of aid for every two Euros of private contribution (the total envelope announced for this PPP is 3.7 billion Euros, consisting of 1 billion Euros of support from the Commission and 2.7 billion in investments by industrial companies).

A key partner for public authorities in Europe and in France, the ACDV has helped or is currently helping to enrich projects conducted on a European or national scale, such as: the Lead Market Initiative (European Commission); the study for the Haut Conseil de Coopération Agricole (Higher Council for Agricultural Co-operation) (HCCA, 2009), “Plant-based chemistry, a priority for France”; the “Strategic plan for plant-based chemistry and biomaterials” of the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry (known as the “Forrissier report”, original report in 2007, updated in 2012); the 2010 PIPAME study with the Ministry of Industry, “Economic changes in the chemicals sector”; the ADEME plant-based chemistry roadmap (2011), the Industry Strategic Committee (CSF, in progress since 2012), the National Biomass Resources Observatory (MAAP, FranceAgrimer 2012), the August 2014 ADEME study on the development of plant-based chemistry.