Completing the Picture - How the Circular Economy Tackles Climate Change

A step-change is needed to put the world on track to achieve zero emissions by 2050 to meet the 1.5˚C target set out in the Paris Agreement. To date, efforts to tackle the crisis have focused on a transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency. 

This paper demonstrates how applying circular economy strategies in just five key areas (cement, aluminium, steel, plastics, and food) can eliminate almost half of the remaining emissions from the production of goods – 9.3 billion tonnes of CO2e in 2050 – equivalent to cutting current emissions from all transport to zero. 

The report was published by Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2019. Material Economics provided analytics and technical guidance to the report.