• 6. May 2022
It is time for international trade and business practices to move beyond extractive linear economic models and to reconnect resource use with social and environmental well-being. With a recent Call for Action an international group of experts propose solutions to overcome structural barriers and accelerate the circular economy transition.
The Call for Action was compiled by the Circular Economy Solutions Dialogues (CESD) Sounding Board, a platform of international experts working together to develop and advance a cross-sector circular economy agenda at a multilateral level, targeting international fora, such as the G20, T20 and ASEAN. The drafting of the Call for Action was steered by Nicolas Buchoud (Fellow of the Global Solutions Initiative and Co-Founder and President of the Grand Paris Alliance for Metropolitan Development) in a co-creative process with the Sounding Board members.
The members of the Circular Economy Solutions Dialogues (CESD) Sounding Board representing low-, middle- and high-income countries as well as international, local, public and private organizations, call for decisive action to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
‘The world economy is in need of transformation to reduce resources consumption and manage waste’ – they remark. Since 2012, the production of waste by cities has nearly doubled and is expected to double again in the next twenty years.
However, ‘despite the growing awareness of threats to global security linked to environmental imbalances, the growth of the linear economy currently far outweighs that of the circular economy.’- they highlight.
‘Available funds are insufficient to enable paradigmatic changes in the economy, even so, there is a lack of investments to facilitate wide-scale adoption of circular economy practices, including the development of digital solutions.’-they highlight.
The members of the Circular Economy Solutions Dialogues (CESD) Sounding Board believe that the transition from linear practices to circular ones could significantly reduce the social and environmental impacts of our production systems, and therefore, call for action in seven priority areas to steer the G20 discussions to a more circular global agenda.
The Call for Action for more sustainable circular practices can be supported online.
The Sounding Board meetings are organized in cooperation between the Global Solutions Initiative (GSI) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), within the GIZ Global Project Support of the Export Initiative for Green Technologies. This GIZ Global Project runs on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).