Circomod

Circular Economy (CE) principles are geared to help to reduce ever increasing amounts of waste, pollutions and exploitation of natural resources harming our environment. Current massive extraction of raw materials, manufacturing and consumption of products are also associated with the extensive use of energy and pose a major challenge for meeting climate targets. Can the circular economic system by reducing dependence on raw materials, improving efficiency in production and changing consumption patterns help in reducing Greenhous Gas emissions (GHG)s? While the answer is likely to be yes, we have no good understanding of the impact, its magnitude, synergetic and rebound effects. The current GHG mitigation models and scenarios that inform climate policymakers do not generally include CE options. They also do not cover the possible synergies of the CE with other societal goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), nor the challenges involved in rearranging value chains and consumer behavior. CIRCOMOD project addresses these challenges by developing a new generation of advanced models and scenarios that will assess how CE can reduce future GHGs and material use. It aims for a breakthrough in integrating CE and GHG mitigation assessments by: a) developing an analytical framework that maps CE strategies to existing influential climate scenarios; b) providing robust and timely CE data in an open repository; and c) improving the representation of the CE in leading models used by European and global institutions, while strengthening links between the models.