The circular economy in the financing market is taking off, with a steep increase in various activities. Increasingly recognized as a crucial part of the solution to climate change, the circular economy also offers significant opportunities for business to grow and diversify. Now, it is the time for finance to capitalize on this industrial transformation and help scale the circular economy. However, a key ingredient is still very likely in the early stages of exploring the topic - the world of finance. Many industry leaders are recognizing the power to shift to the circular solutions through innovation, reinforced by changing consumers’ trends and supportive regulations. But given the size and urgency of the global issues, we now need to accelerate the circular economy shift and scale circular solutions rapidly. To do so, the finance sector needs to be on board to provide capital, services and engage with companies.
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The economic impact of Covid-19 on the global economy will be significant, particularly in Asia. In its latest assessment of the economies of Asia, the Asian Development Bank projects as a result of Covid-19 pandemic growth in the region’s developing countries to slow down to 2.2 percent and overall slowdown in the global economy. The decline in growth is broad-based, affecting the People's Republic of China and India, as well as the rest of developing Asia’s economies. Risks to the region's economies are extremely large due to the uncertain evolution and effects of the ongoing outbreak.
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A venture capital fund of almost S$150 million is now available to reduce plastic pollution in the region. Singapore-based Circulate Capital is behind this initiative that aims to tackle Asia's ocean plastics problem. The founder and CEO of Circulate Capital Rob Kablan urged world largest corporation to be part of the solution. The funds promote support to SME’s and startups focusing on recycling and waste management. It is supported by eight investors including some major plastic contributor like Pepsi and Coca Cola. However, experts believe the root level of plastic usage should be avoid at the first place. For example: - instead of using plastic we can promote other kinds like glass for packaging which can be recycled easily.
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The consequences of the terrible pandemic continue to affect the economy and international logistics. The Covid-19 outbreak in southern China and the major Yantian port terminal is causing further problems and delays in a container market already affected for several months, “significantly increasing” the risk of capacity problems in 2022.
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Indonesia is the fourth-most-populous country and one of the largest electronics consumers in the world. As a result, it has a sizeable share of used electronics and electrical equipment, known as e-waste. This e-waste ranges from end-of-life mobile phones, tablets, laptops, personal computers and batteries to televisions and white goods such as refrigerators and washing machines. Our new paper estimates Indonesia could produce about 2 million tonnes of e-waste in 2021, which is the most in Southeast Asia. By 2040, the economic potential of e-waste in Indonesia is predicted to reach US$14 billion.
READ MOREThe companies promoting circular economy must embrace new business model from selling products to selling services. Implementing circular business model requires significant financial investment at the same time. According to Accenture estimates, the transition towards a circular economy represents USD 4.5 trillion global growth opportunity by 2030. As the circular economy is based on eliminating waste and creating value for resources, it opens new avenues for many startup companies and for businesses such as waste recycling and resource recovery, and alternatives for products and services that have a higher ecological footprint. These new business ideas are oriented toward environmental and social values than being purely commercial.
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Grafren has developed a unique technology to extract metals from water with a graphene filter, called Filtrene. The metals can be harnessed from the filter so that both the metals and the filter can be used again, and the water is purified from metals. To develop the circular business to support the adoption of this technology, Grafren received coaching in service design and circular business model innovation by AFRY. This was part of the EU-funded project C-voucher.
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One of the biggest oil demand falls in history may be good news for emissions-watchers. But it's bad news for the business of plastic recycling. How will pricier post-consumer plastic affect corporate sustainable packaging commitments? The price of plastic is closely linked to the price of oil, and since the price of plastic has fallen in line with the oil price, the price of recycled plastic is now much higher than virgin plastic, squeezing demand for post-consumer polymers. Recycled plastic became more expensive than virgin plastic towards the end of last year, driven by growing demand from consumer goods companies to use recycled plastics in their products. But now it makes even more economic sense for manufacturers to use new plastic instead of recycled plastic.
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Thai energy firms should transition to a “circular economy” to address the adverse impact of non-renewable resources and join the global race to end emissions, audit company PwC Thailand said recently. Companies should also start trading in carbon credits, which would generate millions of baht in income yearly, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic is cutting down carbon emissions and diminishing demand for fossil fuels.
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Circular business model describes how companies can generate revenue or make profit, including the way it operates and finances its activities, within a circular economy process. In these business models, companies retain the property rights of products, which incentivises them to reduce environmental impact by designing for longevity. This video illustrates five circular business models that could support the transition to a more resource efficient and circular economy: circular supplies, product life extension, resource recovery, product as service and sharing platform models.
WATCH VIDEOThe current linear model policy promotes take, make and waste. We need to go upstream and go circular. A circular economy is an effective idea to promote better growth, preserve value and circulate value as well. Policy changes have a key role to play by in terms of setting a common direction of travel i.e., a resilient recovery with the circular economy. The new policy goals will enable governments and businesses to benefit from the circular economy which offers solutions to key global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
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The virtual event – organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Asian Institute of Technology, with the support of strategic partners UNESCAP, SWITCH Asia, SEED and the World Economic Forum – highlighted the importance of resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production for an inclusive and resilient recovery. Asia-Pacific is fast becoming one of the largest regional markets, displaying strong economic growth driven by increasing intra-regional trade, infrastructure development and household consumption. However, this growth remains largely founded on unsustainable consumption and production patterns that exacerbate inequality and environmental degradation, intensifying existing risks and vulnerabilities in a changing climate.
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Less than a century ago, most products in Asia were made mainly from natural materials and were built to last or to biodegrade easily. All this changed dramatically after World War II, when many parts of Asia underwent rapid industrialization and urbanization. Plastic has thus been the most popular and ubiquitous material in Asia for decades. More than half of the world's plastic is now produced here. But the increasing use of plastic is having adverse environmental effects that extend far beyond the vast quantities of it that litter land and clog bodies of water across the region. To gauge the nature and scale of this pollution crisis and identify possible solutions, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Break Free From Plastic Asia Pacific recently collaborated with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies Japan to produce the Plastic Atlas Asia Edition.
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The Asian and Pacific cities are now home to more than half of the region’s population. Along with rapid urbanization, the region’s cities are estimated to generate 1.8 billion tonnes of solid waste annually by 2025, increasing from 0.28 billion tonnes in 2012, contributing to one of the highest per capita waste projections. The main objectives of the regional workshop were to (i) share sustainability lessons from ESCAP’s normative, analytical and technical cooperation activities in enhancing urban resource efficiency through improved waste-to-resource recovery; (ii) identify the intersectoral linkages of various waste solutions, including IRRCs, to enhance urban resource efficiency and resilience, and promote broader circular economy policy approaches in the formal and informal sectors; and (iii) recommend policy actions to scale-up and replicate appropriate models for urban resource efficiency, waste management, and circular economy, among others.
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All developing regions of the globe are striving for rapid economic growth. The adoption of principles and practices to achieve greater resource efficiency can encourage economic growth and avoid adverse environmental impacts that have occurred in the more industrialized nations. Unfortunately, the intensity of natural resource use and degradation and of pollutants discharged into the environment is not yet falling as fast as production is rising. The result will be continuing rapid depletion of natural resources and degradation of the environment and increasing risk to human health, together with risks to the sustainability of natural systems (as witnessed by climate change impacts). Under these conditions, the faster that economic growth occurs, the worse the problem will become. Thus, much hoped for future economic growth may seem like economic success, but the present track is leading to an inherently unsustainable condition
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“It is time that we shift our mentality on a circular economy: it isn’t a ‘nice to have;’ it is a ‘need to have’ "- H.E. Stientje van Veldhoven-van der Meer, Minister for the Environment in the Netherlands. Could a circular economy aid the COVID-19 recovery?
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The landfill in Viet Nam’s Da Nang city represents a larger Asian story. With the city’s waste growing by 16% every year, the landfill capacity is being used up faster than city authorities imagined. This is a reality mirrored across many major cities in Asia. What can we do? React to the symptoms: build more landfills, bring in segregation bins, invest in recycling? Or we can go further and start challenging the current take-make-waste model by designing out waste and pollution, keeping products in use and seeking to regenerate natural systems – all the key elements of a circular economy. The question we grapple with is: How does one start working against the grain of what many institutions, systems and behaviors stand for?
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