Opinion Article for Millioneyes Magazine, June Edition
Making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 is the grand challenge set by the European Green Deal.
Following its presentation in December 2019, the European Commission launched a series of legislative proposals to ensure that European policies on energy, climate, transport, and taxation could contribute to achieving a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. To this end, the European Parliament approved the European Climate Law in June 2021, making the emission reduction targets by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050 legally binding.
In this context, the European Commission committed to accelerating the transition from a linear to a circular economy, presenting a new Circular Economy Action Plan in March 2020. The focus on transitioning to a circular economy had already been adopted by the European Commission in 2015 when it presented the first action plan to achieve this goal.
Building on the actions developed since 2015, the new action plan presented by the European Commission aims to focus its intervention on sectors responsible for consuming a larger amount of resources and where the potential for circularity is considered highest, namely:
Electronics and ICT
Batteries and vehicles
Packaging
Plastics
Textiles
Construction and buildings
Food chain
The Circular Economy Action Plan, presented by the European Commission in March 2020, thus constitutes one of the main pillars of the European Green Deal, seeking to chart a course that promotes the transition to a circular economy with a climate-neutral impact, where economic growth is decoupled from intensive resource use.
Approximately half of greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90% of biodiversity loss and pressure on water resources result from the extraction and processing of resources. The transition to a circular economy thus aims to reduce pressure on natural resources and is a prerequisite for achieving the goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
Nuno Gama Pinto
University Professor. Ph.D. in Management.
Business manager and consultant. Member of the Advisory Board of AASO.
