"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...

"Collaborative platforms, such as Airbnb, Blablacar and Peerby, have changed the ways in which goods and services are offered and consumed in the economy. There has been a recent growth in studies analysing the drivers, impacts and scope of the collaborative economy. Some of them point to positive environmental impacts of such platforms. However, none of the studies so far have provided a systematic, qualitative and quantitative analysis of the impacts. This study fills this gap by answering two questions: (1) What is the environmental impact of the collaborative economy today and in the...

"The study looked at trends of circular economy activities across different sectors and quantified these activities as modelling inputs to provide employment changes for different sectors. Furthermore, the analysis provide estimates of the occupational shifts and skills requirements that a shift to a more circular economy could entail. The aim of this report is to develop an understanding of how a transition towards a more circular and resource efficient economy in Europe will affect labour markets across the Member States." (...

"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
...

In this case study paper, phosphorus recycling from manure is discussed, with a special focus on the recycling process developed by the BioEcoSIM consortium. We analysed phosphorus flows globally, at a European level and on a national level, with a focus on the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, as in some other regions in Western Europe, there is excess supply of manure due to intensive livestock production. The oversupply, combined with legislation, generates a negative manure price. This negative manure price creates the business case for BioEcoSIM and other manure processing techniques....

"Sustainable development is firmly anchored in the European Treaties and has been at the heart of European policy for a long time. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, gives a new impetus to global efforts for achieving sustainable development. The EU is fully committed to playing an active role to maximise progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This publication marks the beginning of Eurostat’s regular monitoring of progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. The...

This report seeks to answer five questions:

1. Is Europe’s current resource model effective?
2. Will the technology revolution solve Europe’s resource issues?
3. What would a circular economy in Europe look like?
4. What economic outcomes could a circular model achieve in Europe?
5. If Europe decided to shift towards a circular model, how could policy-makers and business leaders accelerate the transition?

Three of Europe’s most resource-intensive basic needs are discussed; food, mobility and the built environment, all together comprising 60% of...

This report wants to provide countries and their policy makers who are interested in a transition to the circular economy with a toolkit. To test this toolkit, a case study was performed for Denmark. It focused on opportunities in several sectors; food and beverage, construction and real estate, machinery, plastic packaging and hospitals. Eight important conclusions were drawn:

• The transition to a circular economy can deliver the expected lasting benefits of a more innovative, resilient and productive economy.
• The circular economy provides many opportunities that are...