Circular Economy Action Plan – Status of implementation and outlook

 

 

The European Commission adopted the new circular economy action plan (CEAP) in March 2020. It is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth. The EU’s transition to a circular economy will reduce pressure on natural resources and will create sustainable growth and jobs. It is also a prerequisite to achieve the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality target and to halt biodiversity loss. The new action plan announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of products. The presentation gives an overview about the status and implementation of planned initiatives as well as what further measures can be expected in the near future.

 

The world faces many challenges and without countermeasures the world will be consuming as if there were three planets by 2050. The EU needs to accelerate the transition towards a regenerative growth model that gives back to the planet more than it takes, advance towards keeping its resource consumption within planetary boundaries. Scaling up the circular economy from front-runners to the mainstream economic players will make a decisive contribution to tackle the climate crises, the biodiversity loss and environmental pollution.

In March 2020, the European Commission adopted the new circular economy action plan (CEAP). It is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth. The CEAP proposes a model to reduce our consumption footprint and double Europe’s circular material use rate in this decade. Increasing energy, resource and material efficiency is vital to reaching our environmental and climate goals.

The circular economy can also help companies reduce operational costs and foster high competitiveness, in line with the EU’s green recovery goals. To achieve these various objectives, the action plan identifies actions along the entire lifecycle of products to change how we produce and consume.

The specific objectives and initiatives under the CEAP should set best-practice examples and be applied beyond the borders of the European Union. Thus, the CEAP sets out an ambitious agenda for international progress. For example, in February 2021, the Commission launched the Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency (GACERE) and is now actively engaging in discussions to draft a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution within the intergovernmental negotiating committee on the UN level.

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