According to a World Bank report released on 6th December 2022 entitled “ Squaring the Circle: Policies for a transition to a circular economy in Europe” today’s global economy consumes more than 100 billion tons of raw materials each year, while approximately 90 billion tons of materials are disposed of as waste. The number of new merchandise mobilized between 2000 and 2015 is already equivalent to more than half of the number of sales promotions between 1900 and 2000 with Global demand for new commodities expected to at least double again by 2050.
Our current linear “take-make-waste” model of economic expansion is unsustainable, not only from an environmental standpoint (up to two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, 90% of biodiversity loss and 2/3 of deaths due to air pollution) quality attributes it directly to material extraction, consumption and waste), but also in terms of economic security and inclusivity. While bearing the cost of global environmental degradation, developing countries — especially those with economies heavily reliant on commodity exports — are also disproportionately affected by commodity supply shocks and will face challenges due to recent resource efficiency policies and increased risks associated with investment and trade in high-income countries.
The report examines the EU’s experience in advancing the circular economy agenda to identify lessons that countries in Europe and beyond could benefit from, and shows that physical decoupling is possible through a broad range of actions designed to incentivize fair pricing of natural resources; Providing information that enables economic actors to make better decisions; enabling institutions to establish circularity as a national agenda; and unlocking investment to support adoption by producers and consumers.
This is the World Bank’s first comprehensive report to assess the problem and propose solutions to delink growth from material consumption.
You can download the report from: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eca/publication/squaring-circle-europe-circular-economy-transition