Online Roundtable Circular Economy Levers for climate protection

How the transformation to a circular economy can make a decisive contribution to climate neutrality: According to the EU Commission, around half of all greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the extraction and processing of resources. Increasing resource efficiency through the circular economy is therefore also a key lever for climate protection.

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel energy consumption in the production of goods must be reduced. The production of steel, cement, plastic, paper and aluminium alone is responsible for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, material resource consumption as a whole must also be greatly reduced and decoupled from the growth in prosperity.

The experts from business, science and politics and 129 participants of the Circular Economy Forum Austria online roundtable on 1 February 2022 discussed how the transformation to a circular economy can make a decisive contribution to climate neutrality.

Expert:innen-Roundtable:

• Nina Eisenmenger, Institute for Social Ecology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciencesresearch focuses on sustainable resource use and resource efficiency, material flow analyses and material footprint
• Wolfgang Anzengruber, CEOs FOR FUTURE2009-2020 Chairman of the Managing Board of Verbund AG, previously Chairman of the Managing Boards of the Palfinger Group, Salzburg AG, ABB and Simmering Graz Pauker
• Peter GiffingerCEO Saint-Gobain Austria GmbHPresident of respACT - austrian business council for sustainable development
• Karl Kienzlresponsible for the circular economy and bioenergy in the Cabinet of the Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, previously Deputy Managing Director of the Federal Environment Agency

moderated by Manfred Mühlberger, Circular Economy Forum Austria, Managing Partner of ETA Umweltmanagement GmbH, and Chairman of the Board ECOPRENEUR.EU - European Sustainable Business Federation