THE CONTRIBUTION OF CIRCULARITY TO CLIMATE MITIGATION

Description

The transition towards a carbon-neutral society is essential. In the last years we have seen obvious changes in climate with e.g. major forest fires in Australia, unusual heatwaves in Europe, and so on. The window we have to realise a world where warming is limited to 1.5 - 2 C is rapidly closing and major mitigation efforts are required to realise net zero emissions by 2050. Obvious elements of this transition are a change to a carbon-neutral energy system, transport based on electric vehicles, low-meat diets, and reducing drastically energy end-use for homes, appliances, etc.

An often overlooked point is however that this transition is one the one hand material-intensive, and that on the other hand material production and -use is responsible for 20-25% of all energy use and carbon emissions (40-50% if food is included). Reducing current and future material requirements by circular use of resources is hence an important contributor to climate mitigation. To achieve a circular economy, the further development of circular, service-oriented business is especially promising. This links product and service design, supply chain management, manufacturing technologies, product and service use, product treatment at end-of-life, and business models and strategies such as portfolio management and branding. There are however various hindrances for implementing such models, next to the fact that the expansion of e.g. the build environment as happens in Asia simply requires new primary materials. Overall the talk will highlight the link between material use, the circular economy and climate mitigation and how a resource-efficient, carbon neutral society may be realized.

Outcome