What are the policies and approaches that facilitate the transition to a circular economy and what are the main barriers to implementation, using the example of China and EU policies.

I need to write a dissertation, the topic is What are the policies and approaches that facilitate the transition to a circular economy and what are the main barriers to implementation, using the example of China and EU policies.

It should be legal analizes, dissertation for LLM in Environmental energy and Law.

Total length is 15000 words, including references/ excluding bibliography and appendices.

The dissertations are mostly based on analysis of current legislation, policies and scholars’ opinions.

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I already wrote 7000 words (half), so I would like to have a service to write the remaining part + proofreading and proper referencing.

please check in the attachment the DRAFT for dissertation.

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Reference type: OSCOLA 4th edition

Requirements: 7500

Topic: What are the policies and approaches that facilitate the transition to a circular economy and what are the main barriers to implementation, using the example of China and EU policies.

Introduction

Global development over the past century has been characterised by rapid growth, general improvements in social welfare, levels of education, access to health care and improved sanitation. Global average life expectancy has risen from 46.5 years in 1950 to 72 years in 2022. However, resource use has increased significantly, reaching 101.4 billion tonnes of virgin materials consumed in 2021, it quadrupled since 1972. Only 9% of disposed materials are recycled. Under the business-as-usual model, material extraction is projected to reach 184 Gt by 2050, and population to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and planet may run out of resources. As a result, the growth of resource consumption, the environmental consequences of linear consumption, the growth of waste will jeopardise gains in well-being, therefore the move to a circular economy, balanced consumption, decoupling economic growth from resource-based growth is very relevant. It is not only the material thing, but biodiversity has substantial loss due to pollution. Business model and economic growth paradigm need urgent transition. This dissertation aims to assess what tools and policies can support the transition to a circular economy, what are the barriers to this transition and what are the existing gaps.

Recent United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Report reveals that China is the leader in the world in material consumption, but it is also the most successful in improving resource efficiency. China was also the first one to integrate circular economy concept to its legislation. Therefore, its experience is very relevant. EU recently implemented policies, such as Green deal, which were progressive and somewhat “iconic” in time of its introduction. EU policies became model examples for the rest of the world, for example, Energy efficiency labelling standard.

A search carried out in web of Science to identify the countries, which published the most about circular economy in period between 2012 to 2021 revealed following results: Spain (1580), Italy (1427), China (1249), England (1091), Germany (790), Netherlands (628), Poland (538), Portugal (486), Sweden (481), France (479), Brazil (417), Australia (384), and Finland (377). Therefore, highest academic interest to circularity is located in EU and China.

However, there are also substantial differences in implementation approaches in EU and China, as well as there are serous implementation gaps. In subsequent chapters this dissertation aims to explore current policies and literature publications related to that topic, extracting main concept and approaches. Chapter 1 gives and overview of general approaches to circular economy among different scholars, explores different definitions, business models and criteria, which could evaluate move to the circularity. Chapter 2 covers approaches in China, Chapter 3 analyses current policies in EU. Section 3 provide a discussion of related consequences in both region, reveals implementation gaps. Section 4 concludes, lists possible limitations and future research suggestions.

1. Circular economy general overview

Global development and growth, which is mostly attributed developing countries (mainly China and India) has led to two major concerns: rapid increase in virgin resource consumption and its limitedness and larger extractions inevitably lead to larger externalities (during extraction, processing, disposal) .

What is circular economy? There are contrasting views in academic fields to view this issue and there is no common standard or definition of circular economy. J. Kircher et al. analysed 114 definitions of circular economy. The work concludes, that some definitions just narrow circular economy to recycling only, as a result, variety of understanding can end up in conceptual deadlock.

However, the work outlines main attributes of CE:

Explicit linkage to sustainable development;

Main aim is economic prosperity followed by environmental quality.

Social equity;

Business models and consumers are drivers of systematic shift;

Long -term perspective (future generations consideration).

Aldo Alvarez-Risco et al suggests, that another way of understanding the circular economy is to avoid unnecessary consumption, waste, and the use of fossil fuels by reusing, repairing, and recycling existing materials and products throughout the value chain: extraction and use of resources, as well as production, distribution, use, and waste disposal. Some authors extend 4R concept to 10Rs which represent following: refuse, reduce, resell/re-use, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle, recover energy, and re-mine. Ghisellini et al., 2016 argues, that recycling benefits diminish over time in an industrial system as material recovery cannot realistically occur indefinitely. In Addition, CE is operationalised at multiple levels, the micro level (products, companies, customers), meso level (eco-industrial parks, economic sectors) and macro level (region, nation and beyond). The aim of this dissertation is to reveal main principles of CE and evaluate how they are aligned or misaligned with circular business model, shaped by policies interventions.

Circular economy about value preservation, so societies need to get transition to new process of value creation.

Another quest for policymakers is that how to quantify circular initiatives, how to measure the result with current linear situation and circular alternative opportunities. Quantification will allow to access economic, environmental and social benefits and will support decision-making process. There are several macro circular economy business models (CBM), which can be found in the literature. Business models show how the organizations create, deliver and capture value. Interestingly, in linear economy business models creating waste from economic perspective, inputs to GDP growth, as waste disposal, recycling activities generate economic activity, create job. However, initiatives, which create bigger consumption, and even bigger recycling are not sustainable, as each production has externalities.

CBM designed under circular economy concept characterized by new approaches to creating value, main features are:

Minimize materials use for product and services;

Extend product life;

Close loop with recovery of waste value.

The most famous CMB s the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMA Foundation) diagram, shown in Figure 1 . According to this model, the circular economy concept is based on natural principles: it takes insights from living systems, characterized by adaptability and resilience, and follows the cascading of materials. The model suggests to design out waste (what is output in one process, can be input in another), production systems should have flexible design, energy sources should be renewable, and adopt cascade thinking.

Figure 1.

Disadvantage of EMA foundation BM, is that it does not integrate measurable criteria to estimate how effective the transition is and different initiatives cannot be compared. These quantifying parameters are also very useful for potential investors to measure the risk and estimate ROI.

Indicators, suggested by Bianchini at al are:

Energy efficiency – to use maximum power from minimum input, it is measured in kW/$, and shows the ability of company/economy to conserve energy consumption in product and services that generate revenue;

Renewable energy indicator, which is % renewable energy in total energy consumption;

Carbon footprint – measures total amount of greenhouse gases, produced by the process. It is measured in tonnes of CO2 equivalent to company/economy turnover.

Social impact – the effect on people and communities that happens as a result of an action or inaction, an activity, project, programme or policy. However, there is no specific parameter to measure this indicator.

Bianchini at al suggest visual tool to evaluate CBM effectiveness by integrating above indicators, as shown on the Figure 2. Appendix 1 shows more detailed figure for the whole supply chain. Further in this work will assess how China and EU circular policies initiatives might be aligned with this model.

Figure 2. CBM representation tool with integrated quantitative indicators.

It is both of academic and practical relevance to have comprehensive understanding of CE to be able to move forward in policies formulations and implementation.

OECDE report outlines socioeconomic and technological trends, which will drive future materials use. Detailed understanding of future evolution of global economy and how different economic activities link to future resource use, consumption habits are essential for an understanding and shaping future policies to facilitate circularity. Main trends outlined in the report:

As economies mature and develop infrastructure, the use of non-metallic minerals and metals increases strongly. After construction boom has passed, demand for construction minerals stabilizes (projected to stabilize in China by 2025).

Economy servitization. Service sector projected to reach 54% on total GDP. It characterized by high growth rate and low material intensity.

Electronics development (low total material intensity, but relatively large uses of metal, especially rare earth metals).

Technology improvements (higher efficiency material use).

Decoupling of material use from economic growth.

Evolution of recycling and secondary materials use.

From business perspective, the transition involves entire supply chain change from production to consumption, repair, remanufacturing, waste management and secondary raw materials re-introduction to supply chain. As a results, the way businesses generate revenue needs to be completely changed, new innovative business models should be introduced. Michael Søgaard Jørgensen et al. argues, that in order to make a “journey” in shift to circular business model, it is necessary to understand dynamics of present linear economy by answering following questions:

-why we produce and what?

-what are the challenges in changing and closing materials flaws, when production is outsourced to cheaper destination?

– when and why products lose value to their users and become waste.

Om Macro level based on classical economic theory, economic wealth is linked to use of natural resources and their transformation into goods, so called value creation. Externalities arise within each step of value creation, from raw materials extraction to final product disposal. Sustainability and green growth in this perspective are seen as reducing of externalities at each stage and increasing resource efficiency. In such case, well-being and economic growth will not be jeopardized. In this perspective, green growth means deintensification or, more appropriately, dematerialization . This paper will discuss and evaluate selected mix of policies in EU and China in order to access its effectiveness to decouple economic growth from increased resource consumption. Andrea Bigiano et al suggested dimensions to asses capabilities of policies to foster economy dematerialization.

These are:

Green tax reform (including material tax);

Policies of funding research and development in the area of research efficiency;

Information policies (targeted skills enhancement programs to support companies shift to more resource efficient production, consumer awareness, community engagement, community business models).

Command-and-control measures (setting minimum quality standards, limit emission quotas, re-distributing infrastructure investments funds to sustainable energy resources, definition of waste, when it cease to be waste and becomes input).

The aim is to analyses policies against four basic criteria – effectiveness, efficiency, equity and feasibility.

Analyses of China and EU policies will be conducted by analysing existing government strategies, such is EU Green Deal, European Industrial Strategy, Chemical strategy, Textile strategy, Sustainability action plan, EU Action Plan: ‘Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil’ and relevant documents in China. Academic literature review were conducted via Google scholar, by typing key words “circular economy”, “sustainability criteria”, “circular economy business models”, “circular economy implementation gaps”, most relevant pieces of literature were chosen, which are referenced in this paper. A comparative analyses is conducted to understand which polices may improve resource efficiency, however, countries have different levels of development and that is also must be well understood. The objectives of resource efficiency and circular economy policies are manifold: increasing recycling, increasing the share of secondary resources, reducing waste streams, boosting economic growth, boosting employment, avoiding environmental impacts, et cetera. This multitude of policy objectives requires a carefully balanced policy mix.

. The OECD Policy Guidance on Resource Efficiency (OECD, 2016), provides some generic recommendations.

2. China approaches

Many examples of CE in China started in the 1990s with the eco-industrial park model, which was furthered by top-down policy aiming to address environmental and human health problems (Ghisellini et al., 2016; Winans et al., 2017). “The Circular Economy Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China” formalized the commitment to CE with a strategy in 2002 and law in 2009 (Lieder & Rashid, 2016; Yuan et al., 2006). China is one of the first countries, which embedded circular economy concept in to social and economic development of the country. Circular economy promotion law came into force in 2009, also previous and current Five-Year Plans for Social and Economic Development (FYPs) worth careful study. The circular economy is defined in legislation as a generic term for reducing, reusing, and recycling activities conducted in production, circulation, and consumption.

Main legislation, which were introduced at that time:

The Cleaner Production Promotion Law (passed on June 29, 2002, and put into effect on January 1, 2003)

The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Appraising Environmental Impacts (passed on October 28, 2002, and put into effect on September 1, 2003)

The Law on Pollution Prevention and Control of Solid Waste (April 2005).

The Ministry of Environmental Protection was in charge to initiate eco-industrial parks (EIPs) in 2002, releasing an EIP standard. Currently. As of Augast 2022, there are 52 existing EIPs with another 52 under development. China uses top down command -and-control approach and promulgated several legislation acts to foster move towards CE.

These are:

– People’s Republic of China Law on Renewable Energy (2006);

– Energy Conservation Law of the People’s Republic of China (2008);

– Law for the Promotion of the Circular Economy (2009).

– “Zero-waste City” Pilot Program

Five -year development plans play important role on focusing of government attention and define fund distribution to support targeted initiatives. China introduced system indicators to monitor the CE progress. There are macro-level indicators, which show progress on national and regional levels, meso-level indicators measure progress at industrial parks levels. There are also eco-city indicators evaluate ecosystem value, greening land rate, and biodiversity. Finally, CO 2indicators provide feedback on climate mitigation policies.

Eco-industrial parks (EIPs)

After opening reforms, China has established over 15 000 IP (as of December 2019), and they contribute over 50% of the gross industrial output value. However, IP represent great environmental social and environmental risk, therefore, management polices are worth considering in this work. Nearly 70 per cent of China’s industrial energy use is concentrated in industrial parks, and accounts for about one third of the country’s carbon emissions. IP also play important role to help suppliers to adjust business models and supplied chains to comply with requirements of product final destination. For Example, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), adopted by EU. From 2023, export to EU might face carbon tariffs to offset the extra costs for locally-based entities to be compliant with EU carbon regulations. The sectors covered so far include cement, electricity, fertilizer, steel and aluminium, with future extensions to other energy-intensive sectors being assessed.

Eco industrial parks are created by Commission group in accordance with The Guideline for National Demonstration Eco-Industrial Parks, 2015. It defines Eco-Industrial park creation procedure, government agencies responsibilities. The procedure is initiated by the local government, application form requires compliance with national environmental standards. There is no requirement about type of technology used or circularity requirements, however environmental impact assessment should be prepared on the planning stage, after approval, management body of industrial part will have to produce self-evaluation annual reports regarding performance of eco-industrial parks. Also special fund are set up and tax incentives to encourage innovation and development of circular economy. According to policies such as the “Guide for the Establishment of Eco-Industrial Parks Planning” and the “Administrative Measures on National Demonstrative Eco-Industrial Parks” , EIPs should utilise a mix of technological, economic and managerial actions to minimise waste production. Laws, regulating establishment of EIPs in China are presented in Appendix 1. Businesses within EIP should upgrade technology to reduce resource consumption, pollution and waste generations. Factories also should cooperate with each other, in a way as processing waste from one supplier should become material for other technological process. Thirdly, communities in proximity should provide waste as a resource for EIPs or benefit EIP’s byproduct, for example, industrial heat.

One of the features of IPs is a large number of industrial enterprises are co-located in a relatively small geographical space associated with intensive resource-energy consumption and high levels of pollutant emissions. Literature review by Y. Lyu et al. revealed several profound challenges for Chinese EIP. These are:

Lack of knowledge of green development practice, especially on provincial government level, lack of human resources, more focus on “recycle” rather then “reduce “ level, lack of knowledge base platform for different EIP to share BAT.

Contradiction of interests (especially for small non -flagship IP) with due to lack of finance and access to technology. National government sets economic goals to local governments, and very often such targets become fall in contradiction with circular goals in short and mid term.

Evaluation-based guidelines are very general, without considering social and economic differences in development for norther China and Middle and South parts. (fit it all approach).

Lack of flexibility and adaptability in management systems, laws, polices, very rigid bureaucratic structure, which decelerate innovation. Government -led eco-industrial models could be transformed to include elements of market -driven model, as markets quite often are more efficient in adaptability and bring more variety of choices.

Construction of EIPs requires significant amount of land, and land is already very scarce in coastal populated areas. It also initiates more construction for auxiliary infrastructure (road, building for workers). Land conservation practises and biodiversity loss are rarely documented.

Social impact – such peer reviewed literature is very scarce. Probably the reason is, that such indicators are not included in EIPs government assessment frameworks. However, overall industrial activity and resource use increase in EIPs and might have negative impact on health.

Lack of incentives for private capitals to invest in EIPs, not special corridor for “green finance”.

The most successful EIPs developed due to FID and foreign technology transfer, which, later, disseminates to all other industrial parks. Current de-globalization trends and restrictions to modern technology transfers, incentives for “local” production in EU and USA may substantially slow down circularity move to in EIPs.

Absence of follow- up implementation actions. Based on UNEP report, key issues of weak implementation are:

Weak implementation and policy enforcement;

Pure monitoring due to lack of technical and financial resources;

Lack of human capital;

Lack of national indicator system.

Green taxes

There are both environmental and green growth taxes, which can promote circularity in the economy. Environmental tax is related to “polluter pays” principle. China does not have a carbon tax at this time. Although a 40 yuan/ton CO2 carbon tax on production sector energy consumption is assumed, there is no carbon tax on residential sector energy emissions. In 2021 China has also introduced marked based carbon trading mechanism (China ETS), which, in theory, should stimulate energy producers to use resources more efficiently and phase out inefficient resource consuming enterprises. Up to today, only energy sector in partially covered and emissions allowances are allocated for free, which does not make renewables more competitive by such scheme.

Guo et al. argue, that green taxes bring positive effects in China, however, the affect is correlated to local tax revenue. If the proportion green tax revenue/local tax revenue exceeds the number of 0,2524, the positive effect is not very efficient and the effect of “green paradox” arise. Regions with different income levels should apply distinct policies.

In China, green tax is narrowly defined as environmental taxes and sewage charges. The green tax consists of an urban land use tax, resource tax, vehicle purchase tax, urban maintenance and construction tax, vehicle and vessel tax, consumption tax, and cultivated land occupation tax. China’s current green tax policy has not yet matured, they still not tuned to target waste hierarchy.

Investment in R&D

As mentioned above, Bigiano et al points out, that industrial R&D investment play important role in transition to economy dematerialization. This subchapter below will explore particulars of innovation fostering mechanisms in China.

China’s overall R&D spending increased 11 fold from year 2000 and reached US 464 billion in 2018. Importantly, the government provided substantial funding in the form of R&D grants to incentivise R&D by firms. Philipp Boeing Argues, that the effects of China’s R&D subsidies remain unclear. According to Arrow (1962), if government subsidies fail to increase company’s own R&D investment, the economic effectiveness if such investments is very questionable. The most critical question at micro level, if the government is capable to detect and allocate funds in those projects, which will potentially have social and “green” benefit, and private funds could not be attracted due to low returns. In general, two policy instruments exist: tax incentives and subsidies. Moreover, if governments funds exceed public funds in a project, it might led to crowding out of private funds. Another indicator, which worth introducing is amount of R&D is transformed in economic value (quality of R&D). Global Innovation Index (GII), published by WIPO, ranked China 11th among 132 compared economies,

Sources of technology: foreign technology source have been the primary driver of technology developments in China, and later, its diffusion through the industry. …et Al describes stages of China policies after opening up reform. This work does not aim to repeat it, however, starting from 2006, it was radical shift in policies, focusing from external acquisition of knowledge to its internal creation. China also started to fund its companies to participate to international cooperation abroad and stimulate companies to acquire foreign technology companies. In 2016, State Council announced Outlines of the National Strategy on Innovation-Driven Development, which set out clear goals and pathway to achieve them. In general, China was very successful in adopting and diffusing foreign technologies domestically, combing government stimulus, such as subsidies for high tech enterprises, returning and retaining Chinese students, which studied abroad. Such success can be seen in photovoltaic business, in transistors and chips development, crystals growing, battery cells production. For example, technological development of battery production was in form of grants to all successful start-ups with big upfront loans, guaranteed by the government. However, there are several bottlenecks in China’s capabilities to foster innovation:

Creativity, which closely related to China education system.

Inequality to access innovation resources. Private sector access (especially SME) still has limited access and incentive to access innovations. In China, state-owned companies are major recipients of R&D funds.

Financial sector further liberalization to attract private venture funds.

Limited access to internet (firewall), which heavily reduces access to critical knowledge, innovations and trends.

Government interference with marked -led activities, such as commercialization process. For example, local government over support of solar panel industries has led to serious surplus in production capacity.

To overcome it, educational system should be substantially revised, and this paper moves to information polices, which presently exist in China.

Information policies

There is no specific legal definition in China for Environmental Information (EI) policy in China. For the purpose of this study, EI is information that would inform the public about matters affecting the environment or enable them to participate in decision-making is likely to be environmental information, even if the information does not directly mention the environment. Survey, conducted by John Chung suggests, that Chinese people have a fairly high awareness about climate change, even air pollution is in priority to be solved. Interestingly, majority of respondents consider that the government is the most responsible to tackle the issue, moreover, it is the central government, which needs to implement the change. Even though, most respondents agreed, that change should be initiated by individual actions (as refuse overconsumption, changing lifestyle),however, people are less certain, that such changes will have any impacts.

Public participation in environmental management is very limited. Most frequent methods are facilitated in top-down manner, which does not guarantee public real involvement and moving towards circularity (reduce, reuse, repair). There is no understanding of individual input. Study by F. Dong et al showed, that ecological civilization performance in China is low, and there are great fluctuation within provinces. Paper introduced weighted index of 9 variables, namely industrial structure and degree of marketization (Economic perspective), government environmental risk awareness and government green actions (Political perspective), residents’ happiness and corporate environmental responsibility (Social perspective), culture education investment (Cultural perspective), and green travel and ecological construction (Ecological perspective) However, learning from China’s pandemic experience, it is evident, that communities are very engaging and responsive, and could play a very important role towards circularity shift. “Zero waste city” work plan promotes education in schools, enhance publicity of solid waste management and develop “beneficial-to-community” mentality. However, future regulations are required regarding implementation of this policy.

Waste management

Urban waste is growing twice as fast as the population in China. Only 9% of plastics are actually recycled, while 50% of plastics are used just once and then thrown away. in 2019, China has launched “Zero waste city” policy, where ten cities were selected as “Zero waste city” pilots to implement regulations to stop growth of waste. It is top-down regulation. Targets are: full utilization of agricultural waste, decrease in municipal solid waste generation and increase in their recycling, establishment of solid waste recycling enterprises. Main focus in building recycling capacity (local government should provide land), green supply chain promotion (cultivating demonstration enterprises, which produce minimum amount of solid waste). Regulation also introduces implementation of extended producer responsibility (EPR) for lead-acid batteries, power batteries, electrical and electronic products, and automobiles.

One of novelties, is that the regulation introduces utilization standard system, by defining technical standards for industrial by-products and utilization products. It also promotes waste reduction and re-use in agriculture, agricultural by -product utilization. In cities, there is an emphases on sharing economy, with specific emphasis on banning of single-use plastic shopping bags and tableware, hotels will be restricted to use single-use toiletries, green shopping malls are promoted (use green-saving technologies, selling green products). Preferential tax policies are also introduced for comprehensive utilization of product and subsidies for agriculture to increase organic waste utilization rates. Local governments are obliged to formulate policy implementation guidelines and develop indicators, which they need to achieve. Local governments are to provide financial support for construction of relevant facilities, such as solid waste disposal. However, this might be very heavy burden for some municipalities, especially after COVID-19 measure has drained up city’s budgets.

Example of the policy implementation. In July 2019 Shanghai municipality introduced compulsory segregation waste policy with fines for non-compliance. Official data shows, that quantity of recycled and wet waste increased 5 and 4 times respectively, while quantity unsorted waste decreased. However, such policy did not lead to overall number of waste reduction. Moreover, there are signs of many residents giving up waste sorting once the monitoring efforts are eased, which was the pattern that preceded the failures of earlier implementations (). Even government in Shanghai faced capacity problem, as solid waste processing plants could was not able to process all the garbage, and finally it was send to incinerators. Pandemic and lockdown shift government focus, and nowadays, even when pandemic is gone, household, supermarket wastes are rarely sorted, in many hotels there are still one-use toiletries, which automatically offered during check-in process. So, at least in Shanghai, the policy is not strictly enforced at the time of writing this paper.

Energy sector

Energy sector and improvement of energy efficiency are governed by command-and control types of environmental regulations in China. According to China National Bureau of Statistics, total energy consumption in China reached 5.41 billion tonnes of standard coal, with 63% of energy produced coming from coal. Economic development is still characterized by high energy consumption and relatively low energy efficiency to compare with EU. Regulations for green and low carbon energy transformation include:

–

3. EU

In 2002, European Union (EU) circular economy laws started with a top-down approach with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive (Directive 2002/96/EC), requiring producers to pay for a collection system for consumers to return their WEEE to be recycled (EC, 2021). The EU adopted the Circular Economy Action Plan in 2015 to provide a systematic approach to improving circularity across the value chains, such as setting ambitious recycling targets, closing the loop on recovered materials, and integrating circular principles into plastic production and consumption, water management, and food systems (EC, 2019).

EU main documents is Green Deal policy, which further uses fork strategy to cover each area in economy and human life to develop Strategy in specific area, then action plan, public debates, development of norms and standards, information exchange platforms and implementing Directive with regulations in relevant field.

Main defining policy documents, which examined in this work are European Green Deal, EU circular economy action plan (2020) and Ecodesign directive and ESRP.

EU circular economy action plan was adopted in CEAP were adopted in 2020. It is one of the main building blocks of European Green Deal. Commission intends to implement 35 actions listed in the action plan. Plan presents product policy framework, which aims to make sustainable product, policies as a norm and transform consumption patterns.

Key elements:

Revision of consumer law for better transparency (against green washing, premature obsolescence);

“right to repair”;

Extension of Ecolabel criteria;

GPP – green public procurement.

Ecodesign directive and ESRP initiative a represented in image 1 below:

Source: Image 1. Green Deal policy framework around ESPR (green) and the ESPR’s relationship to the Ecodesign directive (blue).

Action plan 2022-2024 for ESRP development broaden product range under coverage, it will contain new product-specific requirements on material efficiency (durability, reparability, upgradability and recycling) and possible requirements on carbon footprint. Some products will include recycle content requirements and content of Scarce, environmentally relevant and critical raw materials. Current directive covers about 30 ErPs (energy-related products groups), which regulated through 50 measures. About half of the EU total final energy use is consumed in products that are subject to this legislation. 31 more product groups are explored by the Commission to be included in new directive.

Implementation gaps:

Diversity of technology and user behaviour brings difficulty in implementing harmonized standard;

Critical role of technical standardization;

Product policy implementation is slow, might take 5-6 years, during which period technology might completely change.

European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL) requires all suppliers (manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives) to register all products, which fall under energy label rule, in in EPREL before placing them on the European market. Information and Communication system on market surveillance is set up to share information on non-compliance products with further introduction of digital passport of the product.

EU adopted environmental norms for chemical and textile industry, regulation adopted under EU Industrial emission directive, this directive goes together with EU Chemical strategy for sustainability and EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles. New norms are command -and control approach and briefly they include:

stricter binding levels for volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

New target emissions for waste gas (34 key air pollutants emitted from the chemical industry sector )

New management system for preventing, reducing and quantifying diffuse emissions.

Phase out use of most harmful chemicals.

The new norm for the textile sector has a particular emphasis on emissions to air and to water and targets over 20 air and water pollutants, focus on water consumption, chemical consumption and waste generation. They also promote substitution of hazardous and toxic chemicals by introducing chemical management system approach.

EU Action Plan: ‘Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil’ promises, that commission will introduce stricter requirements to tackle air pollution at source, such as from agriculture, industry, transport, buildings and energy, including through a number of European Green Deal measures and strategies. Commissions also plans to asses, if further regulation is needed to cap ammonia emission (eliminate at source, sustainable agriculture).

Ambient Air Quality Directives

EU Strategy on Standardisation

The sustainable and smart mobility strategy

New European Bauhaus initiatives, recovery and reuse of construction waste

Revised Drinking Water Directive, which provides more stringent water quality standards

Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive

EU biodiversity strategy for 2030

EU waste laws

EU soil strategy (upcoming)

Discussion

Both EU and Chinse legislation does not cover general product sustainability standard (products, intended to EU only produced in China under targeted standard), product produced to China internal market, covered by China standard requirements. Anyway, such standards, even partially, penetrate in overall product design, however, the progress in slow. Another factor – the cost of products, produced under Ecolabel standard is double to the similar product, produced without such a standard. As a result, export-oriented enterprise is becoming more specialized on the specific market. The government in China might implement common minimum requirements for product durability and energy consumption, minimum recycled material use, however, local governments have pressure, that businesses, when facing growing costs, will be less competitive, businesses might migrate to the countries, which are not implementing such measures, and social tensions might arise with low skilled operators, losing their job. Study on Impacts of the EU’s Ecodesign and Energy/Tyre Labelling Legislation on Third Jurisdictions, Waide et al, reveals that European Energy Efficiency label was adopted in numerous jurisdiction and had positive effect in reduction of energy consumption. Interesting, attempts by some governments to reach consensus on international global cooperation level were not successful, however, the experts who formulate domestic polices and standards take great inspiration in successful policy implementations of other countries, thus, learning from abroad brings results. Information access and exchange become of vital importance.

A key objective for international exchange is to promote greater international harmonisation to:

 Facilitate free trade with minimum additional cost to manufacturers

 Identify and foster deployment of best practice policies and technologies

 Allow resource-constrained governments to gain maximum benefit from policy research and technology assessment carried out by regions that lead on such issues.

International cooperation in circular economy move. Variety of international agencies, such as IEA provide toolkits for governments to accelerate energy transition, to develop harmonizes standards and share international experiences for domestic policies and standards implementation. IAE 2022 report of 4E suggests, that greatest efficiency gains are archived through combination of mechanisms, such as regulation, information and incentives.

How to boost practical implementation in industry. Even though CE concept is not new, in fact there is a big gap between CE business design and implementation, which means policies and promising ideas are not further implemented and innovative business models do not survive in the market. Various challenges, both internal and external, influence this situation. Main barriers are shown in the Table below.

Conclusions

Appendix 1. Whole supply chain of technical material through CBM approach and indicators.

Source: Overcoming the Main Barriers of Circular Economy Implementation through a New Visualization Tool for Circular Business Models.

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