Paper reveals global approach to cutting emissions

The paper reveals the need for a fundamental shift in the global approach to cutting emissions.

Released in collaboration with Material Economics, the paper sets out that while moving to renewables can address 55% of global GHG emissions, to achieve UN climate goals it is imperative to tackle the remaining 45%.

Concentrating on five key areas (cement, plastics, steel, aluminium, and food) Completing the Picture: How the Circular Economy Tackles Climate Change illustrates how designing out waste, keeping materials in use, and regenerating farmland can reduce these emissions by 9.3 billion tonnes. That is equivalent to eliminating current emissions from all forms of transport globally.

The paper demonstrates how businesses, financial institutions, and policymakers can build a thriving and resilient economy while playing an essential role in reaching climate targets.

Adopting a circular economy framework in these areas can achieve a reduction totalling 9.3-billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2050. This is equivalent to eliminating current emissions from all forms of transport globally.

These examples provide a clear message to other industries – such as fashion, electronics, and packaging – of the value the circular economy can offer.

Diet shift, emerging innovations, and carbon capture and storage are the final pieces required to complete the picture of how the world can achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

By releasing the paper, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation said it sought to bring an important missing piece to climate change solutions, demonstrating how businesses, financial institutions, and policymakers can build a thriving and resilient economy while playing an essential role in combating climate change.

“Switching to renewable energy plays a vital role in addressing climate change, but this alone will not be enough. In order to achieve targets on climate, it is critical that we transform how we design, make, and use products, and food. Completing the picture through a transition to a circular economy can enable us to meet the needs of a growing global population, while creating a prosperous and resilient economy that can run in the long term,” said Dame Ellen MacArthur, founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The Paris Agreement calls for net zero emissions by 2050 to limit temperature increase to 1.5℃. Whilst the circular economy is underpinned by renewable energy, the paper also demonstrates the crucial role the food sector and key industry sectors can play in reducing emissions to meet that target.

“This paper shows that transitioning to a circular economy is not only an opportunity to tackle emissions across sectors, but to design an economy that is restorative and regenerative, creating benefits for society, businesses, and the environment,” Dame Ellen added.

Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and founding partner, Global Optimism, said, “Carbon constraints actually represent huge ingenuity opportunities. That is true for every company, for every city and any country. That is the direction in which we need to move, and this report offers compelling figures to give confidence in our ability to optimise decarbonisation and economic development in mutual support of each other.”

The circular economy is based on three principles: design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems.

In addition to reducing emissions, the paper shows that the circular economy has the potential to increase resilience to the effects of climate change and contribute to the meeting of numerous UN sustainable development goals.

Highlights

• Greenhouse gases are not falling quickly enough to achieve climate targets
• Switching to renewable energy will only lead to a 55% reduction in emissions
• The remaining 45% of emissions come from the way we make and use products, and how we produce food and manage land
• The paper illustrates how applying the circular economy in just five key areas (cement, plastics, steel, aluminium and food) can remove nearly half of these remaining emissions, a reduction of 9.3-billion tonnes in 2050. This is equivalent to eliminating all current emissions from transport worldwide 
• The Ellen MacArthur Foundation calls on government and business leaders to adopt the circular economy as a vital framework for achieving net zero emissions by 2050

You can read the complete paper here.