As part of its Green Deal strategy to reach climate neutrality by 2050, the European Union recently unveiled a new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP).
The CEAP aims to redesign the way Europe’s economy works by transitioning from the traditional linear take-make-dispose model to a more circular system which would maximise the world’s finite resources.
Business Planet speaks to Cillian Lohan, EESC vice-president and head of the Green Economy Foundation to see what a future Circular Economy might look like and asks what the EU’s strategy is likely to mean for both business and consumers.
A new Circular Economy Action Plan for a Cleaner and More Competitive Europe
The European Commission has adopted a new Circular Economy Action Plan – one of the main blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth.
The new Action Plan announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of products, targeting for example their design, promoting circular economy processes, fostering sustainable consumption, and aiming to ensure that the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible.
It introduces legislative and non-legislative measures targeting areas where action at the EU level brings real added value.
Actions
The new Circular Economy Action presents measures to:
- Make sustainable products the norm in the EU;
- Empower consumers and public buyers;
- Focus on the sectors that use most resources and where the potential for circularity is high such as: electronics and ICT; batteries and vehicles; packaging; plastics; textiles; construction and buildings; food; water and nutrients;
- Ensure less waste;
- Make circularity work for people, regions and cities,
- Lead global efforts on circular economy.