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Amid the urgency of climate change and resource depletion, PAGE emerges as a leading contributor to the transition to a Circular Economy.
Through partnerships and collaborations, PAGE brings together governments, businesses, and civil society to drive the just transition to a circular, green, and equitable economy aligning with SDG 12, among other SDGs.
The Circular Economy is a framework and economic model that promises to sustainably redesign the way we produce, consume, and dispose of goods. The focus is to have products and consumer goods become fully circular and to reduce individuals, countries, and corporation’s carbon footprint.
Circular approaches are essential to delivering on every multilateral agreement, from the Sustainable Development Goals to the Paris Agreement to the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. That is why we must look beyond the linear economic model that we use today and forward towards a more Circular and Green Economy.
Traditionally, our global economy and society has followed a linear model. Resources are extracted, transformed into products, consumed, and then discarded as waste. This linear approach not only depletes finite resources but also is a key contributing factor to pollution and environmental degradation. However, the Circular Economy sets forth a restorative system wherein resources are preserved for as long as possible, their use is maximized, and waste is decreased.
Designing products for longevity, optimizing material utilization, promoting repair and refurbishing, supporting shared consumption, and assuring responsible recycling are some of the core tenets of the Circular Economy. By generating new industries and green jobs, the transition towards the Circular Economy not only reduces the strain on our planet’s resources but also opens up new opportunities for growth especially for developing countries.
The circular economy is a central piece of puzzle to address triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
The transition from a linear to a circular economy requires a coordinated and coherent effort to leverage systemic action across the whole of government, international and UN organizations, economic sectors, and stakeholder groups from private sector and civil society.
PAGE takes a holistic approach and provides demand-driven, technical assistance and capacity-building to support nations in placing sustainability at the heart of economies policies and development planning.
As circular economy agenda cuts across traditional silos of government ministries and PAGE is uniquely positioned to accelerate circular economy actions as it works in 22 countries with Ministries of Environment and Climate Change, Ministries of Economies and Finance, Ministries of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Ministries of Industry, Energy and Mining, ministries of National Development Planning, and Ministries of Public Infrastructure along with stakeholders from civil society, private sector, youth and marginalized groups.
THEMATIC BRIEF ON CIRCULAR ECONOMY
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