Support for the transition to a circular economy has been growing in global environmental governance and sustainable development. Prominent thinkers and organizations – such as Kate Raworth with her Doughnut Economics as well as the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Ellen MacArthur Foundation – advocate for this shift away from the traditional linear take-make-dispose economy to a restorative and regenerative model, which is ecologically safe and socially just.
Why is the world turning to a circular economy?
A circular economy is increasingly being recognized as an enabler for a low-carbon and resource-efficient transformation, mainly because of the sustainable consumption and production patterns that are at the heart of its retention loop.
A circular economic model not only promotes reduction through recycling end-of-life products, but also actively intervenes from the materials extraction stage by integrating product design that uses fewer virgin resources. It also promotes active sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing and refurbishing throughout an entire product life cycle, involving both businesses and users. As a result, a global circular economy transition could contribute to a reduction of primary material consumption by 32% by 2030.
A circular economy can also bring about a positive turn to the ongoing climate crisis. For instance, by integrating more circular approaches in just four key industrial materials (cement, steel, plastics and aluminum), global GHG emissions can be curbed by 40% by 2050. Circular economic strategies can also help build a society that harnesses economic competitiveness, including green job creation, and simultaneously a just transition.
Growing circular economy actions, but in silos?
The environmental, social and economic benefits of a circular economy have encouraged an uptake of the circular economy in policies and development strategies. Regional circular economy action plans (CEAP) – such as the EU CEAP and African Union CEAP – are good examples of holistic regional guides for a circular economy transition, which identify priority sectors and synergize with relevant legislation.
Stakeholder platforms that bring various groups of actors together, encompassing governments, industry representatives and civil society organizations, are also on the rise. This includes the Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency (GACERE), One Planet Network, African Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA), ASEAN CE Stakeholder Platform, EU CE Stakeholder Platform and Latin America and the Caribbean Circular Economy Coalition.
Despite the mainstreaming of the circular economy into policy actions – over 70 national circular economy roadmaps and strategies published worldwide since 2016 – a recent UNIDO and Chatham House study addresses its concern over a circularity divide due to a lack of recognition of the need to work collaboratively. Closer information-sharing and coordination are crucial not only to ensure alignment to the inevitable reconfiguration of the global value chains, but also to make sure global inequity is not exacerbated as the advanced economies enjoy competitive advantage.
At the same time, there is also a lack of support measures for collaboration among circular economy projects. While countless projects and initiatives are being introduced on local, regional and global levels, it is usually up to individual projects to explore the room to collaborate with other similar efforts. As a result, scalable solutions are often left unnoticed and projects end up duplicating existing work, rather than synergizing with them.
How can GGKP help circular economy ‘practitioners’ in working together and better?
To foster greater collaboration for a global circular economy transition, the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP) is strengthening its offering as a “knowledge broker” and a “matchmaker” for circular economy practitioners.
Since its inception in 2012, GGKP’s knowledge-sharing on green policy, industry and finance has been at the centre of its mission. In 2024, with the support of the European Union and in collaboration with its partners, including PAGE, the Green Economy Coalition and the EU-funded SWITCH-Asia Programme, GGKP is exploring solutions anchored in knowledge-sharing and digital transformation to bring circular economy practitioners ever closer together. By “practitioners”, GGKP not only means policymakers, but also businesses, intergovernmental organizations and non-government organizations, and financial institutions that operationalize a circular economy by implementing initiatives and/or projects.
To provide practitioners with a strategic overview of the existing efforts, GGKP has been conducting a mapping of circular economy initiatives. GGKP has been building a database of circular economy initiatives that are categorized and mapped under various components, such as the target audience, regional and sectoral focus, phases of a circular economy it engages in, and more. To eventually visualize and digitize this information, GGKP is developing an online tool that reposits the information as well as helps users retrieve specific initiative information they are looking for, using filter functions. For instance, a national government that aims to set up cleaner production strategies can consult information on other National Cleaner Production Centres (NCPC) within their region. Financiers who are looking to invest in a specific value chain can also use this tool to see what the existing projects are, and how visible the financial flows are in the value chain in certain regions.
In collaboration with the SWITCH-Asia Programme, GGKP is developing a common circular economy knowledge taxonomy. By consulting key circular economy knowledge hubs and stakeholder platforms across all regions, this taxonomy will perform as the “common language” that helps understand various circular economy topics, concepts and terminology. In turn, the end users of circular economy knowledge will be able to navigate and access circular economy knowledge products more easily. The end users include any individual or entity accessing circular economy knowledge for various purposes such as policymaking, research, financing and awareness raising, as well as the beneficiaries of the circular economy initiatives implemented by the practitioners.
At the heart of these activities will be the Circular Economy Leaders’ Community, which will convene circular economy practitioners from the mapped initiatives database. Gathered first from all backgrounds, the community will progressively devolve into sub-groups based on practitioners’ interests and needs. It will remain demand-driven and community ownership will be delegated to the practitioners.
The community’s regular workshops will help shape the directions of both the peer-to-peer exchanges (best practice, project experience) and digitally-supported knowledge-sharing, especially since the GGKP’s knowledge libraries will be connected to other knowledge hubs through application programming interfaces (API), thus speeding up the automated knowledge transfer between those platforms. In addition to the workshops, the Green Forum will remain the central platform that facilitates regular exchanges online.
All of these activities will be supported by GGKP’s introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) tools into its knowledge-management infrastructure. Based on a trained large language model and the common circular economy knowledge taxonomy, GGKP plans to provide tailored access to circular economy knowledge products based on individual end-user needs.
At this critical juncture for the global community to step up to address the triple planetary crises and materialize a just transition, GGKP recognizes a global circular economy transition as a crucial vehicle, but only when it is accompanied by strengthened collaboration and coordination. As it continues its journey to bring circular economy practitioners closer together through knowledge and digital solutions, diversity in ideas and perspectives will remain indispensable for its success.
Follow www.ggkp.org to learn more about GGKP’s activities on a global circular economy transition.
