Climate crisis: Look to circular economies

Producing cement, plastic, steel, aluminium and food causes greenhouse gases, but a circular economy can reduce emissions

- Helen Grange

Cutting greenhouse gases from energy production and transport tends to take centre stage when we talk about fighting climate change, but circular economies — keeping materials in use for as long as possible through reuse, recycling, repair and design innovation — is just as important.

Roughly 45% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the way we produce and use materials, according to a 2019 report titled Completing the Picture: How the Circular Economy Tackles Climate Change, by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Material Economics.

The paper illustrates how prevent-ing and reducing waste, regenerating farmland and keeping materials in use can reduce carbon emissions by 9.3 billion tonnes. “That is equivalent to eliminating current emissions from all forms of transport globally,” it states.

Non-energy or transport-related emissions are primarily from the production of materials such as cement, steel, plastic and aluminium, as well as from agriculture and food production. It also includes emissions from organic waste in landfills that emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas that has a much stronger warming effect than carbon dioxide emitted by cars, for instance.

These fall under huge, fast-growing economic sectors, so reducing their effect is essential in the battle against climate change, says Good Governance Africa’s director of research, Ross Harvey.

“We have overstepped six of our nine planetary boundaries (thresholds for Earth’s stability). The six are: climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, plastics, chemicals, synthetic pollution and freshwater change. The remaining boundaries, some close to being crossed, are: ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading and stratospheric ozone depletion.