The European Green Deal states that moving from a linear to a circular economy is a key strategy to reduce resource consumption by repairing, reusing, remanufacturing, and recycling materials and products. Yet, the establishment of a circular economy in the European Union (EU) is still in an early stage. This report thus outlines how digitalisation can support the implementation of a circular economy and discusses the key role that governance for circularity can play in this context. The overall aim is to formulate recommendations for priorities for action, which the German government can link to the activities of the European Commission. The recommendations are based on an analysis of the role of Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the EU regarding topics related to digitalisation and sustainability (REPORT 1), an expert workshop on digital circular economy (DCE) carried out in April 2022 and a literature review that deepened some of the workshop discussions. The analysis found that the potentials of a DCE are manifold and relate to improving products and business models along the entire circular value chain. Underlying these potentials is often the use of digital technologies for product tracking and monitoring as well as for a transparent digital data exchange. Further, it is argued that governance for circularity can be a key issue to empower stakeholders to move towards a DCE. Based on these findings, recommendations for EU and national policy makers are outlined to support the development of a systemic and coherent strategy for a DCE within the EU.
Wie können Städte und ihr Umland bei ihrer Transformation in Richtung Nachhaltigkeit unterstützt werden? Quelle: DUT – Driving Urban Transitions DUT Call 2022 opens in 21 September 2022. About the Call The purpose of this Call is to support transnational research and/or innovation projects addressing urban challenges to help cities in their transition towards a more sustainable economy and functioning. The challenges are grouped into three themes called Transition Pathways: Positive Energy Districts (PED), the 15-Minute City (15mC) and Circular Urban Economies (CUE). The projects selected within this Call will be funded directly by national/regional Funding Agencies from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United-Kingdom. Each proposal must involve, at least, three partners from three countries of this list and eligible for funding by their respective national/regional Funding Agency. The added value of transnational collaboration should be clearly stated. The Call is opened to a wide range of scientific disciplines and welcomes interdisciplinary approaches. It intends to support a large range of activities, from research to innovation and implementation. It also asks to engage explicitly stakeholders (companies, public authorities, NGOs…) in the projects and to consider users’ needs in the identification of the project goals. DUT Call 2022 is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe Partnership scheme. Call topics The basis of the call topics description are the three Transition Pathways (TP): Positive Energy Districts (PED), 15-minute City (15mC), and Circular Urban Economies (CUE). For each TP, several topics are defined. The context, issues and opportunities that define each topic are first presented first, in terms that aim to inspire research and innovation ideas, along with examples of expected results and outcomes that may be addressed either through the research-oriented approach or through the innovation-oriented approach. Furthermore, since urban transition issues are intrinsically interconnected, it is possible to address several topics, either from the same or from different TPs, within the same proposal. All projects should choose as their main TP the TP that is the closest to the subject they would like to address and may indicate the other TP involved if needed. Though the proposal will be evaluated within its principal main TP, crosscutting characteristics will also be taken into account in the assessment. Positive Energy Districts Pathway (PED) PED topic 1: Energy communities – energy transition driven by civil society PED topic 2: Energy flexibility strategies – technological, legal, societal challenges PED topic 3: Energy efficiency in existing urban structures 15-minutes City Pathway (15mC) 15mC topic 1: Strengthen the mix of urban functions and services 15mC topic 2: Foster sustainable options for personal mobility and logistics in urban outskirts (and beyond) 15mC topic 3: (Re)imagine urban public spaces and streets for vibrant, sustainable neighbourhoods Circular Urban Economies Pathway (CUE) CUE topic 1: Urban Resource Sharing and Circularity CUE topic 2: Nature-based solutions (NBS) CUE topic 3: Urban food systems Tentative Call Calendar DUT Call 2022 Info Day 1 (online): 20 September 2022 9:30 – 14:00 CET Call opening: 21 September 2022, 13:00 CET DUT Call 2022 Info Day 2 (online): October 2022 Pre-proposal submission deadline: 21 November 2022, 13:00 CET Invitate applicants to submit full-proposals: March 2023 Full proposals submission deadline: 3 May 2023, 13:00 CEST Funding decisisions announced: July 2023 Start of the projects: September 2023 – January 2024 Kick-off meeting: 2024
Human life requires materials. Currently, the amount of used materials increases with the level of wealth. However, to mitigate climate change, the fossil-based economies have to change towards a post-fossil, circular, sustainable economy. This chapter analyses different strategies to decline resource consumption in the scenarios GreenEe, GreenLate, GreenMe, GreenLife and GreenSupreme. It presents the resulting primary and secondary resource consumption (RMC) and the demand of selected metals during the transformation process and in 2050. The chapter demonstrates that recycling, substitution and increasing efficiency are valuable measures to minimise material consumption. The consequence of the low ambitious level in GreenLate is a low decrease in material and metal consumption and a low degree of circularity of the economy. In contrast, ambitious technological changes as shown in GreenMe and particularly combined with lifestyle changes in GreenSupreme make it possible to achieve a strong decline of primary material demand. The resulting value of 5.7 tons per person (RMC) in GreenSupreme are clearly below the global average of 11.98 tons (in 2015) and in line with material consumption targets as discussed, for example, by Stefan Bringezu. A degree of 30% circularity in the physical economy and more is feasible with existing technologies. Quelle: www.taylorfrancis.com
The concept of a circular economy (CE) is gaining increasing attention from policy makers, industry, and academia. There is a rapidly evolving debate on definitions, limitations, the contribution to a wider sustainability agenda, and a need for indicators to assess the effectiveness of circular economy measures at larger scales. Herein, we present a framework for a comprehensive and economy-wide biophysical assessment of a CE, utilizing and systematically linking official statistics on resource extraction and use and waste flows in a mass-balanced approach. This framework builds on the widely applied framework of economy-wide material flow accounting and expands it by integrating waste flows, recycling, and downcycled materials. We propose a comprehensive set of indicators that measure the scale and circularity of total material and waste flows and their socioeconomic and ecological loop closing. We applied this framework in the context of monitoring efforts for a CE in the European Union (EU28) for the year 2014. We found that 7.4 gigatons (Gt) of materials were processed in the EU and only 0.71 Gt of them were secondary materials. The derived input socioeconomic cycling rate of materials was therefore 9.6%. Further, of the 4.8 Gt of interim output flows, 14.8% were recycled or downcycled. Based on these findings and our first efforts in assessing sensitivity of the framework, a number of improvements are deemed necessary: improved reporting of wastes, explicit modeling of societal in-use stocks, introduction of criteria for ecological cycling, and disaggregated mass-based indicators to evaluate environmental impacts of different materials and circularity initiatives. © 2019 The Authors
Modern processes for recycling components and materials are an important part for improving the circularity of products. However, a resource-efficient circular economy requires the cooperation of all stakeholders. For this reason, VDI ZRE's brief analysis no. 33 "Resource efficiency through innovative recycling technologies and processes" provides an insight into the current status of the development of innovative recycling technologies and utilisation processes for plastics, batteries and accumulators, old electrical appliances and precious and special metals as well as PV modules. In addition, SMEs in the processing industry in particular will gain an insight into the processes and current opportunities and challenges the waste disposal and recycling industry are facing currently.
Modern processes for recycling components and materials are an important part for improving the circularity of products. However, a resource-efficient circular economy requires the cooperation of all stakeholders. For this reason, VDI ZRE's brief analysis no. 33 "Resource efficiency through innovative recycling technologies and processes" provides an insight into the current status of the development of innovative recycling technologies and utilisation processes for plastics, batteries and accumulators, old electrical appliances and precious and special metals as well as PV modules. In addition, SMEs in the processing industry in particular will gain an insight into the processes and current opportunities and challenges the waste disposal and recycling industry are facing currently.
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