GCR Connect: Sustainability and Cooperation: Greenwashing or Virtue-Signalling? | Cleary Gottlieb

A major research programme encompassing 34 universities and 200 industry partners has been launched to catalyse the UK’s shift to a circular economy. The National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (NICER) programme is supported by a £30 million UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) investment. The programme is delivered in partnership with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), to ensure research outcomes contribute to delivery of government policy.

The UN Economic Commission for Europe released a toolbox of instruments to support governments’ adoption of a more circular economy. The instruments include legal frameworks, policy analysis documents, and good practice guidance.
Among the instruments, the document highlights UN regulations that help create a “loop” to optimize the use of resources, such as regulating the reuse of vehicle tire carcasses by renewing the tire’s tread and enabling it to have a second or third life.
Harnessing trade for circularity, one initiative aims to reduce food loss and waste in agricultural trade and supply chains.
The toolbox points to several resources on people-first public-private partnerships (PPPs), including Guidelines on Promoting People-first PPP in Waste-to-Energy Projects for the Circular Economy. Another resource is a set of good practices on promoting innovation for sustainable consumption and production.
Read the full article at: sdg.iisd.org