The ambassadors of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) approved, on Wednesday 3 February, the European Commission's intention to launch a ‘Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency’ in the margins of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5), which will take place on 22 and 23 February in Nairobi.
They also launched the written procedure that will lead to the formal approval by the EU Council of this initiative, which is part of the EU's second Circular Economy Action Plan. This written procedure runs until 8 February. If no delegation goes against it, the launch of the Alliance will be considered as approved by the EU Council.
The ambassadors' green light is based on a concept note that the Commission presented in mid-January to the EU Council's Working Party on the International Environment. The green light to open negotiations with non-Member States was given to the European Commission, without debate, on 21 September 2020, during a meeting of the ‘Agriculture’ Council of the EU.
Such an Alliance, which is already of interest to several non-Member States, is a non-binding instrument containing political commitments.
Its objectives, as set out by the Commission and approved by Coreper, will be as follows:
- advocate for the transition to a global circular economy and to achieve sustainable consumption and production, thus contributing to the Paris agreement goals, halting and reversing biodiversity loss and curbing pollution;
- undertake a mapping of domestic policies, fiscal and regulatory frameworks on the sustainable management of natural resources and the circular economy transition;
- identify barriers, knowledge and governance gaps that hinder circular and just transitions and are bottlenecks in decoupling economic growth from resources use, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions at the international and global level;
- identify research needs and possible global governance improvements that could help governments and stakeholders to address such barriers and bottlenecks, including concerning specific resources;
- take forward and support sectoral, bilateral and/or regional partnerships for the circular economy transition to disseminate best practices;
- work towards the establishment of a global resources efficiency forum for the sustainable management of natural resources through resource efficient and circular approaches that could initiate discussions on an international agreement.
Practical support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) for Alliance operations would be sought. Cooperation with other international organisations and UN agencies could be envisaged. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)