Better links between waste management, circular economy and climate change mitigation measures can boost greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, according to the new European Environment Agency (EEA).

The report has found that while European countries are already undertaking many initiatives on waste management and circular economy, they can do more to account for these actions and their potential emissions savings, when reporting on climate policies and measures. This will provide a fuller account of climate change mitigation efforts and make more transparent the mitigation opportunities that can be delivered by bolstering circular economy actions.

Achieving the European Union’s 2050 net-zero climate target will demand greater actions across all economic sectors. This includes actions related to materials and how to produce, use, re-circulate and dispose of them.

The study looks at how European countries can better include circular economy actions (in general) and waste management actions (more specifically) to speed up reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

Waste management and circular economy hold considerable potential for mitigating climate change. Countries can benefit from linking these two areas as part of their climate policy mix, according to the briefing which is based on two technical reports prepared for the EEA. The studies analyse how European countries include circular economy and waste actions in their official EU reporting on climate change mitigation policies and measures, and how the introduction of such measures can help accelerate future reductions of emissions. 

Circular economy actions are generally underrepresented in the reported national climate policies and measures, often due to their cross-sectoral complexity and the absence of specific guidelines to consider them in climate reporting. Some form of circular economy policies and measures are included in 6 per cent of the climate policies reported by European countries (with a strong focus on waste). Impacts on emission reductions that these actions would deliver are however rarely quantified. 

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