The Circular Economy and Benefits for Society

The Club of Rome has released its latest study on the "Circular Economy & Benefits for Society" at the European Parliament, Brussels ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, (COP 21) in Paris at the end of November.

Its findings provide rigorous scientific new arguments for a swift move to a circular economy - an industrial system that is restorative by intention and design. Rather than discarding products before their value is fully utilized, we should design and produce them for continuous re-use.

It currently takes the Earth almost one and a half years to regenerate what we use each year, and the ecological footprints of developed countries are far larger than those of developing countries. If everyone lived at same living standards as America does today we would need more than four planet Earths. The status quo cannot continue as the world develops and its population rises. Unless progress is achieved differently, economic growth will lead us towads a crisis, socially, environmentally and politically.

The main purpose of this study is to broadly explore the potential for a significant increase in resource efficiency and to specifically assess what the main benefits for society would be - looking at carbon emissions and employment in particular. We are using the Dutch, Finnish, French, Spanish and Swedish economies as test cases.

Voir la traduction française du rapport

Publié le 14/12/2015