Ep 164: Can the circular economy help bridge the climate adaptation gap?

Emma Elobeid 00:00

Lou, welcome to the third and final episode in our three part season for the circular curious. We've been talking around the edges, peeling off some layers and unraveling some common misconceptions around the circular economy. I'm Emma Elobeid.

Lou Waldegrave 00:17

Hi, I'm Lou.

Emma Elobeid 00:19

And in this episode of the circular economy show we'll be asking, how can the circular economy not only help us to tackle climate change, but adapt to it too? Okay, here's the thing, the circular economy transition is a crucial part of climate action. Bear with me, because this is where I'm going to paraphrase, hopefully not, Bucha, 70 odd pages of our 2019 report, completing the picture, and the headlines from that report basically told us that one, global greenhouse gas emissions weren't falling fast enough. And spoiler, they still aren't. Two, switching to renewable energy alone wouldn't be enough. And spoiler, it's still not and three, to address those remaining emissions, we need to look at the rest of the picture, and spoiler we still do.

Lou Waldegrave 01:10

And by the rest of the picture, we mean if you put the energy transition to one side, the way we make and use products and how we produce and manage food. Yeah,

Emma Elobeid 01:20

yeah. So the circular economy basically tackles the emissions in that everything else bucket.

Lou Waldegrave 01:26

And it's a really big bucket. I actually caught up with Miranda schnitger Our climate lead earlier in the year, and so I just want to share a little clip of that conversation here, as I think the way she explains this key emissions and action gap really helps to hammer that message home.

Miranda Schnitger 01:45

I think a lot of us think a lot, all the time about the energy transition, and rightly so, it's a huge part of where the focus needs to be, where the action needs to be. But there are emissions that arise across the system that aren't just driven by the fuel that we're burning. So there's emissions in industry from like super high temperatures that are required that the renewable energy can't necessarily meet. There are emissions from processes that happen. So when you're making cements, there are emissions that arise during that process that irrespective of what fuel has been used, there are emissions that arise from land use. So when we're changing land use, when we're cutting down trees, again, emissions arise from that. That affects, obviously, the whole agricultural sector as well. But also, like land use is important to the built environment. And then, of course, there are also emissions that come from just how we manage all these products that we've put on the market when they're when they're put into landfill, when they're incinerated. That's another source of emissions. So for those, we also need an answer. It's about 45% of emissions in this category of not being tackled by the energy transition. And that is where the circular economy comes into play. Because to tackle those, we need to change how we're producing and consuming. And that's what the sector economy is about it's about rethinking, how do we how do we produce? What do we produce? What do we put on the market? And when it's on the market, how do we use it? How do we keep it in use? And through doing that, we can try and reduce the emissions that are coming from that side. So that's about 45% of the emissions. Sector economy has a really important role to play there.

Emma Elobeid 03:19

Thanks, Lou. So the types of climate actions that Miranda was just describing there that can help us avoid, reduce and sequester greenhouse gas emissions. Collectively, they're called mitigation strategies. And most often, we'll hear about mitigation in the context of trying to keep within that all important 1.5 degree temperature rise.

Lou Waldegrave 03:40

That's the Paris Agreement pledge.

Emma Elobeid 03:42

Yeah, but, but other mitigation targets, for example, include halving emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050.

Lou Waldegrave 03:52

It's super important that we tackle climate change its source, and we know that the circular economy is a big part of helping us to do that. But we've also got to consider the impacts of climate change that are already here, right?

Emma Elobeid 04:06

Absolutely. And it's this side of climate action which, if the title of the episode and my rather long run up hasn't given it away already, is called climate adaptation, that's coming into increasingly sharp focus for businesses and policy makers.

Lou Waldegrave 04:21

We don't tend to hear too much about adaptation and our work now, because a circular economy prioritizes upstream interventions over downstream symptoms.

Emma Elobeid 04:31

Precisely. And it's this gap that really speaks to that core philosophical and actually practical climate question, should we focus our efforts on helping to solve I mitigate climate change by cutting emissions, or on preparing for or adapting to its current and coming impacts.

Lou Waldegrave 04:51

Broadly speaking, then mitigation deals with the cause and adaptation deals with the consequences.

Emma Elobeid 04:58

Yeah, so it's. Very binary way of looking at things, but historically, that's how mitigation and adaptation approaches have been viewed in terms of policy, investment and business action. But here's the thing, whether we manage to successfully transition the entire global economic system to run on renewables and follow the principles of a circular economy by tomorrow morning or not? Let's face it, likely not by tomorrow morning. Certain Legacy Effects of the linear economic model are baked in.

Lou Waldegrave 05:31

Well, that's an absolute sort.

Emma Elobeid 05:33

Yeah, which is why, while adaptation has sometimes been overshadowed by mitigation, it's crucial to consider as these climate impacts continue to increase.

Lou Waldegrave 05:44

And although I know it's not always easy to say which storm was made more likely by climate change in real time, let's not forget that the studio we're recording this episode in right now was not so long ago damaged by flood water.

Emma Elobeid 05:59

Yeah, I remember it well, and based on the Isle of Wight, we fall into that coastal community risk group.

Lou Waldegrave 06:06

But that's nothing compared to the global picture. The IPCC estimates that 3.5 billion people worldwide are highly vulnerable to multi factor climate impacts.

Emma Elobeid 06:17

And obviously that's a huge human cost, but the disruptive impacts of climate change also fall on global trade and supply chains, food security, access to water, biodiversity and all these things create a kind of really unstable future for business and public services to operate in, and ultimately that, in turn, threatens Our capacity to deliver a better future for society and the natural world in the long term.

Lou Waldegrave 06:44

So not just our capacity to make another podcast.

Emma Elobeid 06:47

No. So what's increasingly clear is that we need to act on both mitigation and adaptation urgently and at the same time, rather than somehow see them as differentiated approaches.

Lou Waldegrave 07:01

And actually that need to look at climate action systemically as something else that came up in my conversation with Miranda in this clip, she stresses the importance of understanding the interconnections between all the different climate problems we face and using that same systems perspective to help us design our solutions.

Miranda Schnitger 07:23

What's interesting is that sector economy is anyway a systems change solution. And for good reasons, we often look at things in silos. So the climate change challenge over here, in the biodiversity loss challenge over here, and waste and pollution over here, but actually they are also interconnected. They're sort of springing from the same problem of like, when you look at it from a circular economy lens, the over extraction of virgin materials constantly, and then the like loss and waste of them throughout the system, the linear system that we have. And I think there is growing understanding of the interconnection of these challenges. Cop 28 the focus on how nature can be part of the solution of climate change, and also that nature is threatened by climate change, that sort of symbiotic relationship between the two, that was much more in focus. And I think that should stay like that. And I think it will stay like that. Cop 29 I think it will be even stronger when it gets to cop 30 when it gets to cop 30, when it's being held in Brazil. So I think there's a connection there. And you know, I was citing figures at the beginning of 45% of emissions coming from how we produce and consume. Others have also said that the material extraction is leading sort of 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress. So it's clear that there's a real like circular economy. Solutions can help on both of these fronts.

Emma Elobeid 08:48

And I'm really glad that you made that connection, because thinking about the whole system is a central part of the circular economy, and really helps us understand how important it is that we mitigate against climate change and adapt to it in parallel?

Lou Waldegrave 09:03

Yeah, I was wondering, are there any demonstrations of that kind of two birds, one stone approach that we can already see? Where are the overlaps in these two approaches?

Emma Elobeid 09:14

So it's true that today, the relationship between a circular economy and climate adaptation has been less well mapped, but there are a few examples we can point to to show how Circular Economy actions can support climate adaptation at the same time as mitigation. So there are certain sectors, like food, for example, where this link is already more present. Conventional agriculture in a linear economic model kind of sits on both sides of that villain victim fence, basically because the linear food system has a a very high emissions profile, and B relies so heavily on climate stability, it really is a system that is both climate culpable and climate vulnerable. So. And yet regenerating natural systems through agriculture has tended to be presented mainly as a mitigation strategy.

Lou Waldegrave 10:07

Okay, I'm plucking all these wisps of knowledge from the regeneration vaults about how by eliminating pesticides and fertilizer, we reduce sector emissions, and how using cover crops helps keep carbon in the ground, all that kind of thing.

Emma Elobeid 10:24

Yeah, absolutely all that is completely true. The global food system currently accounts for a third of greenhouse gas emissions, and the circular economy for food could almost halve these like you Lou, that stat is baked into my brain like a little circular economy ear worm. But the benefits go beyond emissions reduction and into adaptation territory too. Well.

Lou Waldegrave 10:47

I happen to have the perfect person to illustrate this exact point on the food side. Isn't that fortuitous? Indeed, it is Vincent mahoro, having seen his community impacted by climate change, induced drought and flash flooding, started his company Donia Bora to help local farmers find economic and environmental resilience from a regenerative model in the form of the spiky yet surprisingly versatile cactus plant.

Vincent Muhoro 11:16

Numerous parts of the world are actually suffering from the same situation that you're facing, and that was climate change. You know, the seasons are becoming more erratic, and this was affecting most, especially the small scale farmers who really depend on this natural season, what really can be the long term solution to this? So for me, I was like, what is the solution that you can put forward that can be able to initiate systemic change? Because you're talking about the food sector, we need one, a plant that can really be resilient to the drought. And when I was thinking about this, it took me back to the days I used to graze when I was young, when I used to graze as a young boy, I used to be sent to the pasture lands. And I remember because we could go for many kilometers away. And at times you could really calculate, do we go back home for lunch, or do we find something we can eat in the bushes? And I was like, we used to eat the cactus plant. And you know, something really unique about the cactus plant is that regardless of what came be it floods, be it drought, the cactus was always there. And I was like, What? What really are we doing with the plant?

Lou Waldegrave 12:18

Clearly, the cactus plant is overlooked, overabundant and undemanding in cultivation terms, they need very little cultivation or water. Thrive in arid soils and draw carbon from the atmosphere, storing it in the soil and helping to fortify the land against extreme conditions. So Vincent began to ask himself how it might be commercialized in ways that would help reduce the local community's reliance on increasingly volatile traditional farming methods.

Vincent Muhoro 12:50

All other plants aren't doing well. What is doing well is the characters, rather than eradicate it. How do we devalue addition for it? How do we make it be a food that will not only sustain us during the dry period, sustain our livestock, but also get on the shelves of Globus for markets.

Lou Waldegrave 13:07

Today, Dunia Bora commercializes almost every part of the cactus plant nectar into juice, flowers, into flower pods, into vegan leather and what's left over into livestock feed.

Emma Elobeid 13:23

Do you know what? I really adore Vincent's story, because it helps illustrate the multiple benefits of low impact, climate resilient crops, all of which are a cornerstone of circular design for food, thinking about what and how we grow can help us not only tackle mitigate climate change, but also adapt to changing weather patterns, Safeguard future yields and address food insecurity, but also build diversified revenue streams at the same time.

Lou Waldegrave 13:52

And those spinner foots are as true of cacti in Kenya as they are of hemp and Cornwall.

Emma Elobeid 13:58

For even more inspiration, of how businesses and farmers are collaborating to make circular design for food a reality, check out the case studies over on our website.

Lou Waldegrave 14:09

The food sector is a really great visual demonstration of how a circular economy approach can mitigate climate change at the same time as helping us to adapt. But there are other synergies as well.

Emma Elobeid 14:22

Yeah, absolutely. So the built environment is a big one, and it's an area where we've often considered as having large amounts of hard to abate emissions. So we've known it has huge mitigation potential for a while now, but actually, there are some really awesome examples of climate adaptation in action, too.

Lou Waldegrave 14:42

Cool. And I think the publication of our recent report building prosperity really took our understanding of just what can be achieved, and we unlock the potential of a nature positive circular economy right up a notch.

Emma Elobeid 14:57

Definitely, especially because when people think about adaptation, they often think of kind of concrete structures or technological features, but there are so many nature positive and nature enhancing strategies that cities can consider which help to protect against things like the urban heat island effect or flash flooding.

Lou Waldegrave 15:18

And as well as having an array of environmental and economic benefits also just seem endlessly actionable.

Emma Elobeid 15:26

And there's tons of examples in the report, things like increasing tree canopies can reduce urban peak temperature and reduce flooding intensity, things like permeable pavements, living walls, green roofs, all these things that are not only more cost effective than hard infrastructure solutions, but are also just way more effective at building resilience to the intensifying impacts of climate change. So simple but so effective, yeah, and I think what really struck me about those examples is that so many business and policy heads are all about risk avoidance right now, so employing these kind of nature based adaptation strategies can really help safeguard properties and businesses from significant loss and damage.

Lou Waldegrave 16:11

So let's forget the sandbags. We need some of this going on outside the studio before the storm season really gets going.

Emma Elobeid 16:19

I think it's also good to remember that adaptation isn't just about physical measures. It's not just about holding back the floods. It's about learning to do things differently. So in the same way, for example, that regional repair cafes or community gardens can help strengthen local systems when a disaster strikes, circular economy approaches can help businesses shore up operations amid a volatile environment.

Lou Waldegrave 16:45

Yeah, we hear a lot from the businesses we speak to about vulnerability to global shocks, many of which are linked to the effects both here and on the horizon climate change.

Emma Elobeid 16:57

Yeah, and I think that supply chain resilience is an especially hot topic for businesses looking to increase operational stability. We know that climate events are really exposing structural weaknesses in linear supply chains, and I realize this is very top line. So please do go ahead and read our white paper for more depth. But circular supply chains, on the other hand, are inherently more resilient and at the same time, they can help businesses reduce costs and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Lou Waldegrave 17:28

Would it be fair to say that some of these adaptation benefits of the circular economy sound like they are consequential rather than intentional?

Emma Elobeid 17:37

I think that is fair to an extent, because we know that it's not always easy to kind of neatly define the differences between individual adaptation actions and their resulting resilience markers. They're kind of more like happy co benefits,

Lou Waldegrave 17:52

So, almost mitigation motivated, yet adaptation enabling. I like that, yes, but I suppose there are scenarios in which, without proper consideration of these co benefits and contradictions, unintended consequences are also possible, leading to maladaptation.

Emma Elobeid 18:12

Yeah, 100%. The reverse can absolutely be true, which is why it's so important that adaptation isn't considered in isolation. So just to give one example, the if we're going to construct a concrete Sea Defense wall or kind of install air conditioning units, both of those things could, via their significant material and energy emissions, actively contribute to the worsening of climate change.

Lou Waldegrave 18:39

So what we're saying is that it's essential that adaptation responses support those mitigation efforts and vice versa. We're coming up to climate conference season, aren't we?

Emma Elobeid 18:51

Big time! So we've got New York climate week behind us, and now looking ahead to cop 29 one of the big priorities in Baku will be securing the necessary resources for climate adaptation, not that mitigation is exactly off the table. I mean, mitigation will never be off the table, because tackling climate change at source is vital.

Lou Waldegrave 19:12

And we know that the circular economy is critical to that. It's been reflected by its first ever inclusion in the negotiated outcomes ticks at COP 28 in Dubai last year.

Emma Elobeid 19:23

Yeah, it was really great to finally see that kind of realization on the global climate stage, that if we are to bend the emissions curve and have a fighting chance of staying within that crucial 1.5 degree temperature rise, we need to urgently implement both the energy system transition, and the systems transition from a linear to a circular economy. But if this episode has taught us anything, it's certainly taught me a lot. It's that mitigation and adaptation should no longer be considered in isolation, but hand in hand, so that we can address root causes. And locked in consequences together. Hear, hear All for one and one for all. And on that note, Lou, thank you so much for joining me in this season of the Circular Economy Show.

Lou Waldegrave 20:11

And thank you for inviting me to be here. It's been brilliant.

Emma Elobeid 20:16

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Circular Economy Show. As always, we'd love to know what you think. So drop us a review, and if you haven't yet listened to the first two podcasts in this circular, curious season, in which we ask: Is there a difference between sustainability and the circular economy? and what is durability even? make sure to check those out too. We'll be back soon for a new season. So join us then you.