Mobilising the circular economy: faster transition to fossil-free, energy-efficient and independent industrial production

Accelerating the phase down of fossils fuels, increasing energy savings and reducing over-dependencies on foreign material inputs is now critical for the EU. The Commission has released some proposals as part of its new Circular Economy Action Plan last December with further elements expected for 30 March and 20 July 2022. Will this package live up to what is required from an industrial decarbonisation perspective? A renewed focus on fossil fuel savings combined with climate neutrality by mid-century means the EU’s green industrial transition must increasingly harness the enormous greenhouse gas abatement potentials offered by both enhanced circularity and material efficiency.   

With the launch of the new study “Mobilising the circular economy for energy-intensive materials: How Europe can accelerate its transition to fossil-free, energy-efficient and independent industrial production”, produced with the support of Material Economics, Agora quantifies the very large potentials for more circular and efficient use of CO₂-intensive materials like steel, cement, aluminium and plastics to reduce associated energy use and emissions in these sectors. The study argues that a more material-efficient and circular economy is essential to making the scale of the industrial transition to clean technologies feasible by 2050.

This event brought  together EU policy makers and key stakeholders from industry and recycling value chains to discuss, together with civil society representatives and the wider public, what is needed from the CEAP 2.0 legislation for the most CO₂-intensive materials and products.

Key questions to be addressed:

• Why do we need to boost our circular economy policies for CO2-intensive industry?
• What are the different circular economy levers to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions? By how much could they reduce energy consumption and emissions?
• What policies should we prioritise under EU legislation? What policy should be prioritised by Member States for fast action on the ground?

PROGRAMME
You can find the detailed programme of this webinar in the download section further down.

PRESENTATIONS
The slides shown during the webinar can be found in the download section below.

RECORDING
The recording can be found above.