Ever since, the United Nations General Assembly set the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 and intended to achieve them by 2030, the efforts toward a circular economy both in totality and in individual sector and country, has caught momentum. The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all by 2030.
In circular economy, 6Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, redesign and remanufacture are followed. In this way this concept strives to minimize the consumption of natural resources by reusing waste back into the production cycle to produce new products and uses, instead of wasting such materials. In such an economy, all forms of waste return to the economy and are used more efficiently and repeatedly.
Inspired by the UN’s commitment, various national and international agencies are making good headway towards achieving the goals of the circular economy. For example, UNCTAD’s work on the circular economy started in 2015 itself like activities on tackling fossil fuel. Multilateral organizations encourage discussions and activities around this concept by seeking to bring value out of the waste. They also promote collaborative economic activities, innovative business models, consumer awareness and intended behavioural shifts.
A circular economy also entails a market that gives incentives to reusing products, rather than scrapping them, which provides a way to not only protect the environment, but also use natural resources more judiciously, develop new sectors & new capabilities with newer technologies and create jobs. With 45% of global greenhouse gas emitting from manufacturing cars, clothes, food and other products being used daily, the circular economy has huge potential to reduce greenhouse emissions and mitigate the climate crisis, which is fast engulfing the globe and causing severe food crisis in over 20 countries.
India is also working vigorously on this concept with an estimation that its policy could bring in annual benefits of 40 lakh crores in 2050, besides reducing the greenhouse emission by 44% along with significant reduction in congestion and pollution, which would significantly contribute to health and economic benefits also. The Centre is actively formulating policies and promoting projects that are leveraging advanced IT and OT solutions to drive the country towards a circular economy system in critical areas like electricity from recyclable resources, waste management and others. Majority of the countries across the globe are also working on this model of economic development. For example, UAE has very recently approved 22 policies aimed to accelerate the country’s transition towards a circular economy.
Owing to devastating consequences of climate change, the concept of sustainable development has gained much traction among governments, policymakers, economists, environmentalists and business people in recent years. The circular economy has borne out of this concept only, which refers to a model of production and consumption and involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as they are possible. By raising the life cycle of products, this economic concept implies reducing waste to a minimum, thereby protecting the fast degrading environment. This concept does have rich prospects of creating wealth worth trillions of dollars besides generating jobs for millions. According to the Global Commission on Economy and Climate, adopting circular economy principles could deliver 26 trillion dollar in economic benefits by 2030.
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