The European Green Deal is a cornerstone of efforts to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and deliver the Sustainable Development Goals in the EU. Many policy targets are dependent on action by local and regional authorities.
The current Commission's mandate is coming to an end, and so this is a good time to kick-start discussion on the "future" Green Deal and the role of local and regional authorities in implementing it.
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre is therefore launching a stakeholder consultation for urban policy experts and policy makers, in order to get a better understanding of policy and target priorities for EU cities.
Changes in consumption behaviours and dominant lifestyles are increasingly recognised among the critical levers for the transition to a circular economy. At the same time, public engagement still needs improvement in some areas, and people's role in the process is largely overlooked.
Join us on 8 May (10:30-12:00 CEST)for an #EUCircularTalks event. Panellists will discuss key evidence about what works best to achieve circular engagement and advance the circular behaviours that make a difference in Europe. The event will be the final rendez-vous of the series of podcasts.
The 8th World Circular Economy Forum hits Brussels from 15 to 18 April 2024 to turn circular visions into actions. The world’s leading event for circular economy thinkers, doers and leaders will showcase the most impactful circular solutions from Europe and around the world. Online participation is open to everyone.
The Climate Chance Europe 2024 Wallonia Summit will take place on 8 and 9 February 2024 in Liège, Belgium, and organisers are calling for contributions from across the European Union!
Promoters of selected climate actions will be able to present them at the Pitch Corner. These actions will also be published on the Cartography for action, which lists good practices and innovative climate initiatives that can be replicated on a larger scale. Circular economy projects as covered as part of the economic transition.
On 17–26 November 2023, the #FoodWasteWarriors campaign under the FOODRUS project hosts multiple events in various European countries. The diverse activities include stands at canteens in Brussels, a food upcycling meeting at the University of Copenhagen, a replication workshop in Hungary, and awareness campaigns in Spain, Denmark and Bulgaria.
The FOODRUS Day and all its events are part of the European Week of Waste Reduction 2023 (EWWR).
ECO-FUTURE is a 24-month school education cooperation partnership aiming to create an effective programme for teachers to educate children on the circular economy. The project was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the need to re-evaluate and redesign current methods and systems.
The project seeks to get students, schools and communities interested in sustainability, encouraging them to act responsibly at individual, community and global level, now and in the future.
A training course is being organised in Vantaa, Finland from 30 October to 3 November. It's designed for over 15 teachers from Finland, Italy and The Republic of North Macedonia.
Eco Repair Score NV and VITO have developed the Eco Repair Score® to assess the environmental impact of a specific car repair job. It does this using a single score, with categories from A to E and associated colour coding.
The European Commission has worked on a web-based calculator to increase the awareness of EU citizens on their environmental impact as consumers. The Consumer Footprint Calculator allows EU citizens to calculate the environmental impacts of their consumption pattern, as well as to evaluate how changes in their lifestyle may affect their personal footprint. This tool is available in English, Spanish and Italian.
On 12 October, World Ecolabel Day, the European Commission released statistics showing that the EU Ecolabel – the official voluntary ecolabel of the European Union – is flourishing, with almost 90 000 certified goods and services in 25 different product groups available on the EU market.
Europe and the world face unprecedented sustainability challenges, largely as a result of unsustainable consumption. Since similar consumption patterns are expected to continue, technological and efficiency gains are likely to be insufficient to keep environmental and climate pressures within sustainable limits.
A more circular economy in Europe has the potential to reduce environmental and climate pressures and impacts from our consumption, but will require reshaping our consumption and production systems. This report presents trends in European household consumption and its environmental and climate pressures, and explores conditions for and pathways to a transition towards more sustainable and circular consumption patterns in Europe.
