Today, the world consumes natural resources at a rate 1.75 times faster than our planet can regenerate. As the global population continues to grow, by 2050 we will need the resources of 3 Earths to keep up with our current consumption habits. This is unsustainable. The circular economy is emerging as a powerful solution to tackle the pressing challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. The model emphasizes the design of products and processes that promote sustainable practices, offering a pathway to achieving progress on environment- and climate-related SDGs. These include reusing, remanufacturing, and recycling, but also practices that regenerate nature – and with it, the capacity of ecosystems to continue to provide services to society. Building a circular economy is an enormous challenge; it implies a systemic change and a fundamental rethink on how value chains operate, how individual activities within value chains connect, and how businesses decide to co-locate and cooperate.
Circular economy models can provide new opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs. They also require significant amounts of investment and patient finance to succeed. This session will showcase successful examples of circularity, as well as policy initiatives that have succeeded in catalyzing circular business models. The aim will be to identify effective policies and replicable initiatives that can help boost investment and enterprise development in the circular economy.
Session themes:
- What does it mean for businesses to adapt to a circular economy mindset and what are the challenges they face?
- What are best practices and industry examples that can serve as a model and what role can governments play?
- How can multinational enterprises support their suppliers in the transition to circularity and create a circular ecosystem?
Speaker(s)
