Kingspan promises net zero carbon manufacturing by 2030

As the European Union seeks to transition to a ‘circular economy’, the policy focus in 2021 will turn to products: how they are designed, and why so many seem to be made to throw away. The European Commission wants to transform the way we produce and consume products. And when an initial strategy to do so wasn’t delivering as much as hoped, the EU executive gave it another shot earlier this year. The ‘Circular Economy action plan 2.0’, unveiled in March, is a renewed attempt to change the way we produce, use and dispose of goods. Like its predecessor launched five years ago, it doesn’t contain hard legislation yet but instead sets a series of goals, like halving municipal waste by 2030, some of which will be translated later on in hard legal requirements. Main ideas include giving consumers a new “right to repair” for computers and smartphones, establishing green criteria for construction products, updating existing resource use indicators, and planning a Sustainable Product Policy Framework.

In many ways, the seaside resort town of Sharm El Sheikh is a compelling backdrop for a global climate change conference. Perched on the south-eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula, it is bordered by pristine coral reefs on one side and arid desert on the other – a perfect reminder of the delicate equilibrium that keeps our planet’s ecosystems alive and an eloquent portrait of everything that we stand to lose to climate change.  But the setting for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP27, was the only thing that stood out in what was otherwise an unremarkable affair, contoured by the usual parade of delegates, an increased presence of industry lobbyists, and the growing certainty that the climate targets set in the Paris Agreement will not be achieved. If anything, COP27 produced one concrete outcome: our planet will be a much hotter place in the coming decade.