Making the global bioeconomy mainstream is the theme at this year’s Scaling Up conference being held in Ottawa. “The world is talking about the transformation to a new bioeconomy… And Canada has every opportunity to lead,” Canada’s minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr told the audience on Tuesday. Biomass is the only renewable resource that can substitute carbon for fossil fuels. Canada has nine per cent of the world’s forests, more than 40 per cent of the world’s certified forests, and those forests are the world’s largest reserves of biomass, Carr said. “For Canada, the bioeconomy is here, it’s driving innovation.” …There’s nothing like a softwood lumber dispute and a drop in the market to spur the move to innovation, Forest Products Association of Canada chief executive officer Derek Nighbor said.