The impact of circular economy strategies in urban areas on global climate change

Climate policies call for producers and consumers to drastically reduce their climate change impact. In the climate agreement of the Paris 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, governments agreed a long-term goal of... [ view full abstract ]

Climate policies call for producers and consumers to drastically reduce their climate change impact. In the climate agreement of the Paris 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, governments agreed a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and aim to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Energy consumption is a high contributor to GHG-emissions, so evidently society strives for solutions like low carbon-intensive energy sources and energy-efficiency improvements both on the production and consumption side. However, it is unlikely that energy-related improvements will be sufficient to reach these climate change goals. In fact, while a share of energy use is directly caused by consumption activities such as heating, lighting, cooking, etc., a more significant share is caused by production activities transforming materials from extraction to manufacture and distribution. This observation is particularly relevant for cities which are mainly consumption nodes. Cities are home to more than half of the world population and are responsible for three quarters of global energy consumption (IPCC, 2014). Also, the high density areas of cities are centres of wealth and innovation that provide good opportunities to apply the concepts of a circular economy (EC, 2014). Cities are complex systems dependent on and linked to the rest of the world through global supply chains that embody an array of environmental flows. To assess the environmental sustainability of cities in a comprehensive manner, it is not only necessary to measure its local and direct environmental performance, but also to understand and take into account its global and indirect environmental counterparts (Chen, et al. 2016). For example, the carbon footprint of Brussels (Belgium) consumption is 4.4 times higher than the territorial GHG-emissions in Brussels (Athanassiadis, et al., 2016). Circular economy promotes new production and consumption patterns and redefines the way of fulfilling consumer needs. It actively promotes extended lifetimes of products, maximize their repair and reuse, servitisation of products and sharing economy strategies. A general guide to achieve circular economy is the reduction in material use and material losses per unit of functionality. By implementing measures that affect consumption and production simultaneously, it is possible for urban areas to make a significant contribution to global climate objectives.  

This presentation will quantitatively asses the primary material and carbon footprint of consumption domains and production activities in urban areas, using input-output analysis supplemented with urban metabolism. A matrix is analysed, crossing the information of material and carbon footprints to identify overlapping hotspots. Both footprints are decomposed in a local city-level and global hinterland impact (Lenzen, et al. 2010). These hotspots, at detailed level of consumption domains or production activities, are linked to circular economy strategies to derive their emissions reduction potential. What opportunities do the application of circular economy strategies in cities give to reduce local and global impacts? Can those city-level initiatives be a leverage to the regional and national level consumption and production activities (Rosenzweig, 2010)? The presentation gives insight by elaborating a case study on Brussels.