Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CircoMod (Circular Economy Modelling for Climate Change Mitigation)
Período documentado: 2022-06-01 hasta 2023-11-30
CIRCOMOD aims to model and assess how circular economy (CE) strategies can contribute to climate change mitigation. While scenarios used to support climate policy so-far looked into decarbonizing industrial production and making it more efficient, CE strategies are typically not accounted for. For this, the project seeks to integrate insights from integrated assessment models, material flow analysis, and economic modelling.
In the first 18 months, the foundation has been laid for the more in-depth analysis further in the project, in accordance with the Description of Work. In WP1, the project focused on developing an analytical framework, drawing from three literature reviews, creating simplified models, and formulating the initial concept modelling protocol. This included defining key scenarios, input and output variables, and reporting templates. The simplified models that have been created are described in an open documentation. In WP2, the data infrastructure was established, involving key steps such as common data classifications, the development of a joint data model for consistent data collection and formatting, and the creation of the CIRCOMOD data hub for data sharing. The publicly available database and visualization tools make a major contribution to the dissemination of the project’s results. WP3 and WP4 have concentrated on describing CE options for demand and supply-side interventions based on existing literature that will be used in the model analysis further in the project. Simultaneously, WP5 has focused on enhancing current economic models within the context of CE strategies. Finally, WP7 has been an active workstream of CIRCOMOD focusing on communication, dissemination, and exploitation. CIRCOMOD's findings have been presented on its website and at various conferences. Additionally, CIRCOMOD has interacted with the European Environment Agency (EEA). The project has had as output 2 science-policy workshops, 4 papers published in academic journals, 26 presentations on scientific events, 12 news articles, 5 blog articles and 1 newsletter. Furthermore, the project was pitched at 2 social events/community festival. In addition, the project team members (CML) played a leading role in co-organising the international conference in industrial ecology (ISIE) in Leiden, where many of the consortium partners presented (UU, CML, CMCC, ALU) and had a keynote speech (CML)
The CIRCOMOD team was successful in laying the foundation of advanced modelling tools to assess how CE strategies contribute to climate change mitigation. The improved models will help to advance knowledge and contribute to a significant gap between the circular economy and climate change mitigation literature. So-far, critical results of the project are the deliverables reviewing the current knowledge on CE – as well as a contribution to IRP’s Global Environmental Outlook. Here, the IMAGE model was used to look into the impact of CE measures on emissions.