NEWSLETTER by Alessia Falsarone. The author acknowledges the team at The University of Chicago Circular Economy and Sustainable Business Management Program and all participants of the innovation knowledge hub for their insights and collaboration.
As temperatures around the world continue to approach record-breaking levels this summer, I took a moment to reflect on how the circular economy would be implemented in arid and dry environments. The initial efforts from GCC countries give us a glimpse of the challenges ahead, as well as the need to fully understand how circularity can be achieved in regions where natural ecosystems already face water and bio-capacity limitations. Furthermore, these environments already experience harsh climate conditions, and their economies rely heavily on non-renewable resources.
| The Science of Impact
The 2023 Earthna Summit organized by the Qatar Foundation this past spring offered a unique opportunity to reflect on the issues surrounding the potential pathways for sustainability transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa’s drylands. Covering over 40% of the world’s land surface, drylands are considered the earth’s largest biome. Notwithstanding the limitations brought by water scarcity, drylands host some of the most resilient biodiversity, and account for nearly half of all cultivated systems, directly impacting the daily survival of 2 billion people, of which nearly 90% in developing economies. They have also been inhabited by many ancient civilizations and are therefore often the location of heritage sites of global importance, which adds a layer of complexity to conservation and restoration projects.
Specifically, in the case of countries that surround the Gulf, drylands merge into productive marine ecosystems and, due to the rapid urbanization of the region, they have become increasingly interspersed with urban landscapes. According to a recent study, a transition to a circular model by 2030 would result in US$138 billion savings. In the case of Qatar, already as far as 2010, the World Bank had estimated that the cost of environmental impacts would be in the range of 2 percent of country GDP. The study mentioned above estimates an additional 10 percent of Qatar’s current GDP to be generated by circularity.
Despite the low natural capital and the underlying economies built upon non-renewable natural resources, hot and arid climates offer unique opportunities to adopt circular economy frameworks, setting themselves on a clear sustainable development path while also preserving the cultural identity and values of local populations.
| Circularity Roadmaps Explained
The Center for Sustainable Future of non-profit policy research and advocacy center Earthna has actively leveraged its international network to define a methodology that could clearly assess sustainability impacts in hot and arid countries such as Qatar. In its recent circular economy series, the organization has identified a set of policy interventions and data-driven approaches to circularity implementation that would contribute to CO2 emission savings while developing the economic case for circularity growth in the country. Six sectors have made up most of the original scoping exercise: hospitality, water, plastics, food, the built environment, and energy transition and renewables.
>>click to zoom in | Credit to Earthna, a member of Qatar Foundation and Global Counsel
Through the second stage of its findings, the team at Earthna has prioritized socio-economic and environmental impacts of policy actions in light of the country’s development journey and in alignment of its cultural identity. By employing UK and EU impact assessments as reference tools for the calculation of, for example, a social cost of carbon, the most impactful interventions based on these findings are centered in the following sectors: hospitality, food and domestic waste, and the built environment. They range from smart metering, to methane capture at landfill, mandatory energy certificates of existing buildings, and extended producer responsibility to level off the cost of recycling, to name just a few.
Across the three sectors, each year Qatar could benefit from emissions reductions of 1.7MtCO2e, net economic benefits of nearly 1-2% of annual GDP alongside social well-being and biodiversity benefits – offsetting almost entirely the environmental impacts on the domestic economy that was estimated by the World Bank ten years ago. The first country-wide shift in the MENA region.
| Investing in the Circular Economy
Circularity investing continues to meet supportive policy tailwinds in the Gulf. During the regional Climate Tech Forum earlier this year, Abdulla Bin Touq, UAE Minister of Economy, highlighted the vision for the country to double its GDP by 2031, achieving its net zero target by 2050 (the first in the region) while focusing full steam on private sector opportunities that circularity-focused trade relationships can deliver as a way to directly boost natural ecosystems. With the country already attracting more than 60% of foreign direct investments of the GCC for a total of US$23bn* – a 10% yoy increase in 2022 alone, the push for building energy transition capabilities while also growing a circular economy asset base is only expected to strengthen.
Not surprisingly, the UAE is home to one of the early circularity investors in the region, Creek Capital Limited, co-founded in 2017 by Mohammed Abdulghaffar Hussain and David Auriauin Dubai. Last month, their Head of Circular Economy Investments, Aditya Shah also made the case for key industries that offer significant potential for investors looking to support and capitalize on the transition to a circular economy in the region as early-stage circularity technologies demonstrate the very first financial returns to capital allocators, encouraging businesses to explore the transition to the circular economy at a faster pace.
With a focus on two main verticals, the Energy Transition and the Circular Economy, the founders of Creek Capital are set to build an Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform that supports early stage innovators through patient capital while also managing exposures to the two verticals over the lifecycle of their assets. Last year already, concurrently to COP27, the firm launched Positive Zero, the largest decentralized clean energy provider in the UAE.
* Courtesy of UNCTAD
| You don’t want to miss this week
From New York, to Rome, and Newport (Wales), this week offers new opportunities to connect with fellow circularity practitioners both in person and in hybrid mode.
Discover, grow and leave your mark!
〉July 17th: PAGE at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (New York City). This moderated panel discussion is organized by the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) and will take place at the Scandinavia House as a side event to the HLPF 2023. Delegates will discuss strategies for accelerating the global green economic transformation, with a focus on circular economy approaches, innovative capacity and finance solutions, and stronger partnerships for social and environmental justice. Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Director of ILO Priority Action Programme, will give the opening remarks Note: the concept note of the event is available here. A reception will follow the event.
〉July 17-18th: International Conference on Sustainable Blue Economy (Rome, Hybrid). Scientists, and practitioner scholars will exchange their experiences and research results on various aspects of the blue economy. The conference provides a platform for discussing recent innovations, trends, challenges, and solutions in the field. Proceedings of the event will be featured in the Special Journey Issue of the Sustainable Blue Economy by the World Academy of Science, Engineering, and Technology (WASET ORG).
〉July 17th-21st: International Mine Water Association Conference (Newport, Wales). The congress will cover a wide array of topics: from mine closures and mine hydrogeology, to sustainability and circular economy approaches in mine water treatment and mine sites. The settings of the conference, Wales, brings to mind the early work of Kathleen Carpenter, an absolute champion of the use of science in environmental management.
Enjoy a brief extract of the audio preface by Catherine Duigan of the first English freshwater ecology textbook, “Life in Inland Waters,” authored by Prof. Carpenter in 1928.
Off to another impactful week!
| about
Alessia Falsarone is executive in residence, practitioner faculty at the University of Chicago, where she leads the Circular Economy and Sustainable Business program. The article is based on the author’s newsletter A Week of Circularity from the innovation knowledge hub.
| All opinions expressed are those of the author and/or quoted sources. investESG.eu is an independent and neutral platform dedicated to generating debate around ESG investing topics.
