Action needed for a successful National Circular Economy Strategy

Together with 28 other organizations from the extended environment of the Network resource transition We have established common requirements for the National Circular Economy Strategy.

We very much welcome the fact that the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection has set up a National Circular Economy Strategy (‘Circular Economy Strategy’) and has initiated a broad participation process. With the appropriate design, the strategy has the potential to advance the transformation from linear to circular economic activity and to come closer to reducing absolute primary raw material consumption. The latter is also a coalition goal of the traffic light government. Despite the now advanced participation process, we continue to see the danger that the final NKWS will not have this desired effect.

To realise its potential, the strategy must include binding targets and measures, as well as some cross-sectoral and cross-material instruments. In our view, it is also central that the NKWS is understood as a cross-departmental strategy and that all relevant ministries take responsibility for an ambitious design and implementation.

The joint claim paper can be found here.