About the EU Circular Talks

The EU Circular Talks is a new exchange concept of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform. It aims to encourage stakeholders to interact and discuss the circular economy topics in the platform.

Stakeholders initiate the topics themselves. These can take multiple forms of online events; workshops, seminars, debates or Q&As. 

The webinar

In 2017, the material requirement for trade was three times the direct trade, as more than 35 billion tons of material resources were extracted globally to produce 11 billion tons of directly traded goods. When considering the whole life cycle of traded products, trade is responsible for much larger amounts of material extraction than direct trade flows indicate.

OVAM, EEB, UNEP International Resource Panel, UNEP Environment and Trade Hub and ECESP are organising a webinar on trade, resource extraction and circular economy.

The event will bring together the trade and circular economy communities to increase awareness of the issues raised in the UNEP-IRP report Sustainable Trade in Resources and to feed into the upcoming discussion on the EU’s trade policy review and the future of the WTO. It will also present the findings of the UNEP-IRP report.

Ahead of the event, participants are invited to engage in an online discussion and provide feedback on the policy recommendations mentioned in the report.

 

Draft programme

• Welcome and introduction
  
  Sofie Bouteligier (OVAM)
  
  Francesca Carlsson (EEB)
• Presentation of the UNEP-IRP report Sustainable Trade in Resources
  
  Christina Bodouroglou (IRP Secretariat, UNEP)
  
  Colette van der Ven (UNEP Consultant, International trade lawyer, Founder & Director of TULIP Consulting)
• The EU’s trade initiative
  
  speaker from the European Commission (tbc)
• Greening trade
  
  Tanja Buzek, Chair of the EESC's International Trade Follow-up Committee
• Q&A and discussion
  
  Wrap-up and next steps
  
  Sofie Bouteligier (OVAM)
  
  Francesca Carlsson (EEB)