The World Circular Economy Forum 2022 presents circular economy game-changers. Hosted in Kigali and online on 6-8 December 2022, WCEF2022 is co-organised by the African Circular Economy Alliance, the Republic of Rwanda, the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN) and The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, with international partners. The title for this year's event is 'From Africa to the World'.
The European Commission is launching a call for applications for members for the new mandate of the Platform on Sustainable Finance. The next Platform’s mandate will run from Q1 2023 to Q4 2024. The future Platform will consist of maximum 35 members, up to 28 of whom will be selected through this call for applications.
The framework for inclusive circular trade is designed to help guide trade and trade-related circular economy and development policies, practices and agreements to ensure these all work towards a shared goal of an inclusive circular economy.
This paper sets out a framework for inclusive circular trade, intended to enable a pathway in which circular trade helps to promote fair, inclusive and circular societies. The framework was developed through the work of an alliance of organizations spanning Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.
Chatham House does not express opinions of its own. The opinions expressed in this publication are the responsibility of the authors. A Spanish translation of the paper is also available as a PDF.
The EU Green Deal includes a commitment to shift the tax burden from labour to pollution. EU companies seek to adopt circular practices, but financial incentives in their tax systems curb circular growth.
This study presents a roadmap for a rebalancing of the tax mix, both at national and EU levels. It assesses the impact of 20 taxshift measures significantly decreasing the tax burden on labour while increasing taxation of resource use and pollution.
The analysis shows that a well-considered, broad-based tax reform could lead to more jobs, higher economic growth, fewer emissions and less dependence on imports. It also shows that it is possible to design policy measures addressing environmental issues (Polluter Pays Principle) and social issues (leaving no-one behind) simultaneously.
The European Commission has published a call for proposals on “Social innovations for a fair green and digital transition”, under the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) strand of the European Social Fund+.
Many actors see the EU’s circular economy (CE) as a promising narrative which steps outside dominant end-of-pipe solutions towards an encompassing vision for strategies across the supply chain. However, this study finds that the EU CE Action Plan maintains the status quo narrative instead of suggesting radical changes.
By focusing on stakeholder narratives, this analysis shows that the inertia is primarily due to CE proponents’ self-perception of being in a legitimacy crisis and their strategic arguments that have:
concealed social conflict and potential trade-offs
strengthened the agency of ‘status quo’ agents
excluded alternative voices questioning the proposed CE narrative.
The paper discusses how to develop new environmental narratives outside the status quo.
Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability? This question is a matter of political debate between green growth and post-growth advocates. Considering what is at stake, a careful assessment to determine whether the scientific foundations behind this decoupling hypothesis are robust or not is needed.
This report reviews the empirical and theoretical literature to assess the validity of this hypothesis. The conclusion is both overwhelmingly clear and sobering: not only is there no empirical evidence supporting the existence of a decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures on anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown, but also, and perhaps more importantly, such decoupling appears unlikely to happen in the future.
