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This report provides an overview of the main findings from the different research tasks in the CIRCTER project and delivers selected policy messages with European coverage. The report provides: (Sec. 2) a territorial definition of the circular economy; (Sec. 3) insights into the available statistics on material and waste patterns and flows and their interpretation, alongside new territorial evidence on both aspects; (Sec. 4) a sectoral characterisation of the circular economy at regional level (NUTS-2), including data on turnover and jobs; (Sec. 5) key findings from the CIRCTER case studies; (Sec. 6) a systemic interpretation of the circular economy that works as a knowledge-integration mechanism for the entire report; (Sec. 7 and 8) an analysis of the most relevant circular economy policies and strategies at various territorial levels; (Sec. 8) a subset of policy recommendations focusing in particular on territorial and cohesion policies, and; (Sec. 9) suggestions for further research.
On the basis of a literature research, this subtask develops a conceptional framework for a common understanding of CE within the project team and for the following work packages and tasks. After a brief introduction into the objectives and the context of a circular economy, a more elaborated look into the necessity of an explicit understanding of CE, the objectives, the spatial perspective of CE and the specific challenges within the CICERONE context will be done, in order to develop a basis for a common understanding within the project context. Circular economy can and has to be understood as an (eco-)innovation agenda. Therefore, the paper investigates the role policy has to play to support innovation for a CE transition, for creating the framework conditions and why CE has also to be build from the ground up. Finally, the paper looks from two perspectives at emerging trends and business models in a CE to sketch next steps towards the transition in a selection of central sectors. Conclusions are drawn on the basis of the insights gained by the preceding chapters.
The key objective of this deliverable is to gain insights on and assess how CE is being implemented and R&I is being funded at regional level, e.g., via the RIS3 strategy and Structural Funds. As such it sets the scope for the project and provides the background against which programmes and measures can be understood, assessed, developed and recommended in succinct tasks and work packages. The objective of this report is to provide a concise overview of the current R&I priorities, as expressed in running and newly introduced funding and legislative measures with respect to Circular Economy in European countries and regions.
Digitalisation is disrupting business practices worldwide and transforming consumption patterns. While a global increase in wealth is leading to higher consumption rates, consumption-related decisions are increasingly based on digital information and marketing; furthermore, shopping increasingly takes place online and products and services are more and more digitalised.
The transformative character of digitalisation calls for political action in order to ensure sustainable consumption in a new and dynamically changing context. Focusing on consumption is imperative in combatting many global challenges. Take climate change: consumption-based emissions (i.e. emissions from domestic final consumption and emissions caused by the production of imported goods) are rising more rapidly than production-based emissions in high-income countries. Meanwhile most political measures target production-based emissions (i.e. territorial emissions).
The German council for sustainable development (Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung) has called for the §principle of sustainable development [to] serve as the political framework for digital transformation" as "digitalisation has the potential to engender disruptive developments in the business world as well as society as a whole that carry both great opportunities and significant risks". Thus, to implement the 2030 Agenda, in particular SDG 12, and the National Program Sustainable Consumption, it is key to seize the opportunities that digitalisation presents for sustainable consumption and tackle the challenges. This assessment report thus examines the following key question: "What are the implications of the digital transformation of consumption patterns for the implementation of the German sustainability strategy in, by and with Germany?"
Biofuels and electrification are potential ways to reduce CO2 emissions from the transport sector, although not without limitations or associated problems. This paper describes a life-cycle analysis (LCA) of the Brazilian urban passenger transport system. The LCA considers various scenarios of a wholesale conversion of car and urban bus fleets to 100% electric or biofuel (bioethanol and biodiesel) use by 2050 compared to a business as usual (BAU) scenario. The LCA includes the following phases of vehicles and their life: fuel use and manufacturing (including electricity generation and land-use emissions), vehicle and battery manufacturing and end of life. The results are presented in terms of CO2, nitrous oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions, electricity consumption and the land required to grow the requisite biofuel feedstocks. Biofuels result in similar or higher CO2 and air pollutant emissions than BAU, while electrification resulted in significantly lower emissions of all types. Possible limitations found include the amount of electricity consumed by electric vehicles in the electrification scenarios.
Much of the current literature on climate clubs sees mitigation costs creating free rider incentives as the main problem of climate policy. Climate clubs are supposed to solve this problem by creating additional incentives for mitigation. Looking more in detail, one sees that the situation differs from sector to sector. Some industry sectors indeed have substantial cost and competitiveness issues. In others such as electricity and transport, there are costs at micro level but balance for economy and society as a whole is rather positive. International climate policy in general and clubs in particular should therefore be tailored to sectoral specifics.
The new mechanism defined under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement is supposed to allow for international cooperation with regard to climate change mitigation and thereby enable an increase in overall mitigation. Nevertheless, the design of the mechanism under Article 6.4 should also make sure that it is not be in conflict with the long-term goal of net-zero GHG emissions but even better foster national pathways leading to this objective. Building this into the mechanism requires to shift the focus from short- and mid-term considerations to the long-term perspective in one way or another.
This discussion paper explores three different approaches that may help to foster the long-term objective of net-zero GHG emissions in the operationalization of Article 6.4, namely positive and negative lists, additionality with regard to a baseline consistent with both, NDCs and long-term targets, as well as adaptation of existing instruments and criteria from climate finance. The detailed discussion of the ap-proaches shows that the approaches should not be seen as mutually exclusive but rather as comple-mentary to each other. From the analyses, two storylines emerge how to combine aspects of the differ-ent approaches in a reasonable way to foster the long-term objective of net-zero GHG emissions under Article 6.4.
Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement explicitly acknowledges the need to incentivize and facilitate the participation of private entities in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), private sector actors had already the opportunity to participate in a new and fast-growing market. However, they faced numerous challenging investment barriers. The study provides an overview on key factors and barriers determining private sector participation in Article 6 mechanisms. It distinguishes between the three topics demand side factors, rules and standards for market mechanisms, and supply side factors and provides for each of them options to mitigate or overcome barriers.
In a short analysis, it further explores three of the identified options:
- Improving the design and support of national systems and capacities is an important pre-requisite for the private sector to be able to generate and sell ITMOs
- The up-scaling of mitigation activities e. g. through (sub-) sector level crediting, and policy crediting helps private sector actors to benefit from economies of scale
- Exploring the potential of digitization of measuring, reporting and verification (MRV), e. g. the use of sensors, internet of things, artificial intelligence and blockchain to make the project cycle more efficient and reduce transaction costs.
Overall, the report stresses the importance of host country readiness to provide the private sector with a robust and trusted environment that allows for the adoption of Article 6 mechanisms.
The earth as we know it can only continue to exist if humanity finds a way to switch to a sustainable use of energy and resources. This work contributes to the research carried out to achieve this goal by improving the coating of adsorptive materials. These are used in heat transformation and drying processes that allow for efficient temperature and humidity control in buildings. A central component of these adsorptive coatings is the binder that acts as "glue" in the manufacturing of the coating. In this work the methods to evaluate binder performance regarding their thermal stability under the process conditions, their mechanical stability and their influence on the adsorptive properties of the coating were established. The coatings have to meet special requirements due to the thermal stresses and low pressure atmosphere they experience in these applications. A selection of silicone binders was then characterized with the established tests according to these requirements. Additionally a selection of inorganic binders was investigated because they allow for the use of high desorption temperatures and thus a high energy efficiency of the process. Out of these binders Silres® MP50E emerged as the most promising one due to very good adsorptive properties of the coating, its good temperature stability and ease of use. While some of the inorganic binders showed very good adsorptive properties and temperature stability the mechanical stability of all inorganic binders was not sufficient for their use in adsorption heat transformation technology. This is the first time that a broad selection of binders was evaluated with regards to adsorptive coatings and the results published in literature. With a suitable binder identified, the next step was to optimize the coating of the heat exchangers in order to work out how to manufacture the most efficient and powerful heat exchangers. Samples with different coating thicknesses were manufactured in small scale and full scale and their adsorption behavior was characterized. It could be shown for the first time that it is possible to increase energy efficiency by improving the mass ration of adsorber to coating and increase the delivered power at the same time. This was shown for small and full scale samples. It was shown that under the corresponding conditions the heat transfer from the coating layer to the adsorber metal substrate is the limiting step in the process. These results can now be used for the planning and construction of adsorbers. With knowledge of a suitable binder and how to coat efficient, powerful adsorbers, the coating process itself was improved to allow for industrial scale manufacturing. A central point here is the ability to control slurry rheology. Out of many rheology additives those that are suited for the application in adsorption heat transformation were identified and their influence on the slurry rheology thoroughly characterized. Additionally the process of slurry preparation could be simplified for several different adsorbents. Here it was shown that the supersonic deagglomeration step is not necessary to prepare a slurry. Extending the possible coating techniques and in addition to the dip coating process used so far, the spray coating of adsorptive coatings was established for the first time in literature. This process is widely used in the industry and allows for easier plugin into existing coating processes. For the coating of high resolution patterns a proof of concept of the screen printing process was carried out.
Enhancing cross-functional integration in new product development becomes increasingly important for industrial players to keep up with shorter product life cycles in technological innovation dynamics. Abundant research reflects the topic's significance, yet ambiguity in empirical results persists and industrial adoption of existing methods remains incremental. This thesis employs a qualitative approach to build a case study at the design-manufacturing interface of new product development of electrified cars. Cross-functional coopetition, as the joint occurrence of cooperation and competition, is adopted to generate an in-depth understanding of integration dynamics. Socio-organizational and contextual aspects are found to shape integration in a new product development context substantially. A model of interface dynamics is developed which provides for analysis and prediction of these aspects' impact on effective integration. A grounded theory approach to enhance integration is explored that introduces constraints as stimuli to consider manufacturability aspects in the design process. Constraint introduction is found to positively impact both cross-functional integration and creativity, with eight characteristics of constraint quality identified as moderating factors. A theoretical model is contributed which outlines cause-effect relationships of constraints' impact on antecedents of new product development success. It substantiates constraints' role in innovation contexts and encourages application for design-manufacturing integration as well as for other interfaces or purposes.