Education for sustainability: IIEP at CIES 2019!

Their goal is an ambitious one: make the world more prosperous by transitioning it from a linear economy that only works from inputs to outputs to a circular economy that loops both together. Instead of designing clothing to be cast off and ultimately end up in a landfill, for example, reuse those old garments in the creation of something new.  While it’s a noble vision from the nonprofit organization Circle Economy, as Marijana Novak, the organization’s data strategist explained during the Daring Cities conference, “unless we explicitly include employment and wellness into the circular economy metrics, we may not get the just transition that we’re working towards.” This challenge is particularly relevant in the global south, she said, where there are many unemployed youth and large informal economies.

A regional coalition, led by UNEP, will support access to financing by the public and private sector, with special emphasis on SMEs — to foster innovation and the implementation of specific projects in the region. The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has launched a regional coalition that aims to support Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) transition to a circular economy. As the region continues to grapple with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a circular economy transition offers new and better growth opportunities to build a resilient and low-carbon economic recovery.

Climate concerns have already been placing pressure on traditional ‘take, make, dispose’ economic and business models. In contrast to these linear approaches, circularity decouples economic activity from the consumption of materials and energy by creating closed-loop cycles in which waste is…