Circular economy, carbon neutrality and net zero

By Dr Paul Jensen, Senior Decarbonisation Officer at Hull City Council

Why is circular economy important in the fight against climate change?

There are many benefits to developing a circular economy, both locally and globally. These benefits include the creation of new skills and jobs, a reduction in waste management costs for businesses alongside opportunities for resource innovation and new sales, and a significant reduction in our use of natural resources, including the energy and water used to process many of them. In our efforts to slow and limit the impact of climate change, this last benefit is particularly important because the extraction and processing of many natural resources, and turning them into products, produces significant amounts of greenhouse gases. In fact, greenhouse gases and the rate at which they are being produced to enable our consumption of energy intensive products, is one of the main causes of climate change.

The policies and practices of circular economy that aim to break the direct connection between energy use, resource use and consumption, starts with the innovative reduction of materials used in as many of our everyday products and services as possible, before promoting the extended use of products, their reuse and repurposing, and, eventually, their recycling back into useful materials that can be used again in a way that does not have a negative environmental impact. This ‘narrowing’, ‘slowing’  and ‘closing’ of the use and flow of resources, within our communities and wider society, will lead to a reduction in the production of greenhouse gases that are driving climate change, thus contributing to personal, organisational and national ambitions to reach ‘net zero’.

What do we mean by net zero?

Net zero is a point at which greenhouse gas emissions created from the burning of fossil fuels for power, heating and transportation, and the production of goods and products, such as food, electronic devices and many construction materials, are eliminated or minimised as much as possible. Any remaining greenhouse gas emissions are, in simple terms, offset, or balanced, by measures that actively capture and remove greenhouse gases from the environment. For example, such balancing can be achieved through the planting of trees, the restoration of existing woodlands, hedgerows and peatlands, or through other innovative measures such as creating new seagrass meadows and restoring saltmarsh.

Net zero is achieved when our greenhouse gas emissions are eliminated wherever possible and any remaining hard to decarbonise emissions are offset by activities that remove carbon dioxide from the environment at (at least) the same rate that we emit them. Many organisations are aiming to be net zero by 2030, or earlier. This is an ambitious ‘science based target’ and twenty years earlier than the UK government’s own net zero target.

What are ‘science based targets’ and how is net zero different from being carbon neutral?

A science based greenhouse gas reduction target is one that is based on international agreements aimed at ensuring that the global average temperature increases this century remain well below 2°C. For some, being carbon neutral and achieving net zero are the same thing. There are, however, subtle but very important differences. Carbon neutrality is something that everyone can aspire to and is simply based on balancing carbon emissions with carbon offsets, regardless of science based carbon removal targets. This means that, technically, one could be carbon neutral whilst not actually reducing their overall rate of carbon emissions. Of course, it is impossible, however, for all us to do this and still tackle climate change.

It should also be remembered that although we talk about carbon and carbon dioxide when referring to neutrality, we are actually referring to the collection of gases that contribute to global warming. These are what we call the ‘greenhouse gases’, which includes methane, nitrous oxide and even water vapour. The effect of some of these gases on climate change is greater than others. For instance, the global warming effect of methane, which is closely related to food production and waste, is 25 times greater than that of carbon dioxide. Hence the need to incorporate the impact of this and other gases on our net zero activities. As such, though we tend to measure and monitor progress toward net zero and, as the name suggests, carbon neutrality in terms of carbon dioxide, we are actually referring to a range of gases. This is why you regularly see a lower case or small letter ‘e’ after the chemical symbol for carbon dioxide within stories and news articles referring to net zero, carbon neutrality and climate change (i.e., CO₂e). The ‘e’ means equivalent and refers to the equivalent effect of all your greenhouse gas emissions if they were all converted to carbon dioxide.

Achieving net zero will not be easy and will involve many changes to the ways in which we all ‘work, rest and play’. As such, it is important that we all work together to meet net zero and are aware of the many ways we will need to adapt to a world that is actively working toward limiting climate change. This includes adopting a circular economy and limiting our demands on energy intensive natural resources and raw materials. A net zero target will require a significant reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases we emit, with more effort needed in some areas than others. Some changes will be easy for us all to adopt, and will involve small changes to what we do. For example, many of us can buy clothes less often and wear them for longer before donating to others. Similarly, we can all extend the time we own functional mobile phones and other electronic devices. We can also think about hiring rather than buying many of these same items or arrange for many larger electrical items to be repaired when faulty. Some of the biggest areas where we will see societal change, however, is in how we generate heat, and how we and the products we use are transported from one place to another. The cost of making some of these changes will be significant. However, the long term social, economic and environmental benefits of adopting circular economy practices, and achieving net zero, will be far greater.

Some of the potential changes, that we will see in our community, can be seen in the Government’s interactive 2050 net zero ambition calculator. Please take a look at the calculator and see what changes you would make to how energy is produced and used in your community, what impact the changes would have and whether they would help to meet a 2050 net zero target.

Dr Paul Jensen is a globally leading pioneer in business support and strategic regional planning for industrial symbiosis, also known as waste-to-resource innovation, and circular economy. He is joining the University of Leeds as a Lecturer in Business, Environment and Development in September 2021.