"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...

"In this paper we develop a global computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to evaluate the effects of illustrative circular economy scenarios for Denmark and the European Union using the GTAP 8 dataset. The goal of a circular economy is to minimize the use of virgin resources and the generation of residuals not re-used in production.  We simulate four circularity scenarios – two Denmark specific circularity scenarios and two scenarios that affect the European Union. The modeling results show that Denmark’s gross domestic product (GDP) could increase by 0.8% to 1.4% relative to 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  purpose  of  deliverable  D6.2  is  to  support  with  a  quantitative  economic  assessment  the evaluation  of  a  set  of  policies  scrutinized  within  the  DYNAMIX  project, aiming  to  promote decoupling of resources use from GDP and material efficiency within the EU. The  analytical  tools  used  for  the  investigation  are  three  macro- economic  models,  ICES,MEMO  and  MEWA,  all  belonging  to  the  category  of  Computable  General  Equilibrium modelling,  but  with  complementary  characteristics.  More  specifically:  they  all  provide  a sectoral  representation ...

"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...

"This is the third in a series of reports on the circular economy in support of the framing, implementation and evaluation of European circular economy policy from an environmental perspective. The two previous reports applied a systemic approach to framing a circular economy and to the products within it. This report on the bioeconomy addresses circularity aspects of bio-based products and the sustainable use of renewable natural resources." (https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/circular-economy-and-...

"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." (...