"In recent decades economic growth and increased human wellbeing around the globe have come at the cost of fast growing natural resource use (including materials and energy) and carbon emissions, leading to converging pressures of declining resource security, rising and increasingly volatile natural resource prices, and climate change. We ask whether well-designed policies can reduce global material and energy use, and carbon emissions, with only minimal impacts on improvements in living standards. We use a novel approach of combined economic and environmental modelling to assess the...

The work by Hu et al. (2015) was conducted within the same project as modelling by Meyer et al. (2015) and it examines the same set of scenarios. However, there are some major differences between the two exercises, including modelling principles, policy implementation and reference scenarios, which results in discrepancies in results. The GDP trajectory until 2050 estimated by Hu et al. (2015) is almost the same in the baseline as well as in the “Global cooperation” and “EU goes ahead” cases. Implementation of policies under both scenarios, however, appears to yield optimistic results in...

Meyer et al. examine a combined policy consisting in resource use and CO₂ emissions reduction targets using the GINFORS model. Specifically, they analyze different ways of achieving environmental targets, which relate to CO₂ emissions, cropland footprint, raw material consumption and water exploitation index. In the first case (“Global cooperation”), the authors assume that all countries in the world share the environmental targets and a global policy mix is adopted, which includes measures to reduce climate impacts and to enhance biotic and abiotic material...

"Addressing climate change and natural resource depletion has been key to the international and national sustainability agenda for almost 30 years. Despite existing efforts, global CO2 emissions and raw material use levels continue to grow. This seems to suggest the need for more systemic approaches in environmental policy. Our paper contributes modelling results to assess the potential of efficiency improvements to achieve absolute decoupling of global raw material use and environmental impacts from economic growth. We apply the global, dynamic MRIO model GINFORS to simulate potential...

"The extensive use of natural resources threatens to exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth. The concept of a circular economy offers an avenue to sustainable growth, good health and decent jobs, while saving the environment and its natural resources. Further, the change from a linear economy (take, make, dispose) to a circular economy (renew, remake, share) is expected to support significantly the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production. So far, however, the coverage of the health implications of a transition...

"In its report “Recycling Concrete” the CSI argues that the recycling of concrete can reduce natural resource exploitation and waste going to landfill. The report asks for an ultimate goal of “zero landfill” of concrete. The recovery of concrete falls between standard definitions of reuse and recycling: concrete is broken down into aggregates (granular material), generally to be used in road works, but also as aggregates in new concrete. Recovering concrete has two main advantages: it reduces the use of new virgin aggregate and the associated environmental costs of exploitation and...

"CEC is thrilled by the participation, knowledge and network built through the Circular Economy Mapping Week held in over 65 cities worldwide during this past week [5th – 11th February 2018]. During this week, CEC Organizers voluntarily set up group sessions to map the circular initiatives in their cities. Workshops took place in 65+ cities, including Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Madrid, Montreal, New York, London, São Paulo, Singapore and Taipei.

The CEC Mapping Week had two objectives:

1. To bring together circular enthusiasts to discuss and learn
...

"The report makes a thorough revision of the use of nitrogen and phosphorus in European agriculture and assesses the scope for increased nutrient recovery and reuse and the actions needed to make it possible.

Exponential growth in the flow of nutrients is causing serious environmental and public health impacts, posing the greatest threat to European food and environmental security. The study identifies three main levers to contain the growing damage: dietary change goals, improved crop and animal nutrient use efficiency and a reduction of waste. The study acknowledges that while ...

"The focus of this paper is to review the literature on the [...] macroeconomic implications of the transition to a more circular economy and increased efficiency in the use of material resources. Addressing this issue is complex. Any such transition will involve multiple interactions between different sectors and countries, and will take place parallel with other trends like digitalisation and automation. Ex ante, economy-wide quantatitve models apppear to be best suited to analysing this transition as they capture the major drivers of economic consequences. Furthermore, there is...

"What happens when low-carbon electricity supply technologies are deployed alongside energy efficiency technologies? The International Resource Panel's assessment looks at the impacts and benefits for people and the environment." (http://www.resourcepanel.org/reports/green-technology-choices)