Policies aimed at supporting the bio-based economy have so far centered on biomass use for electricity and fuels. But using biomass for the production of materials offers higher greenhouse gas savings than bioenergy per kg feedstock as well as per hectare. This has received comparatively little attention from policy-makers; analyses of either existing or potential policy measures are almost entirely missing in this fi eld. This paper by Barbara Hermann, M Carus, M Patel and K Blok, provides an overview of policy measures which are currently in place and investigates how they affect market penetration of biomaterials.