Change is now crucial

For politicians, economists, NGOs and policymakers, one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century is how to deal with the fact that we live on a planet with finite resources.

“In light of the fact that there are a couple of billion people still struggling with poverty and trying to achieve a decent quality of life, the current model, which is spreading across the world, is unsustainable in its most fundamental elements.”

So said professor Hans Bruyninckx, the executive director of the European Environment Agency [EEA] at the launch of its European Environment State and Outlook report last week.

As Mr Bruyninckx points out, one of the key findings of the document that will inform the European Union’s environmental policy over the next five years is that current development patterns cannot be sustained.

“We are using too much energy and too many resources [and] it is quite clear that we cannot continue in our linear model of getting resources out of the ground and, in the end, throwing them away.”

What is required, says the EEA, is a “paradigm shift” towards the development of a ‘circular economy’ where resources are extracted and used efficiently and where waste is eradicated thanks to reuse, recycling and good design.

The concept of the circular economy, which has grown steadily since the 1970s, is normally associated with industrial economies but for Jim Coleman, the head of economics with the London-based BuroHappold Engineering, it should also be considered in the developing world.

“Wherever you are the question remains the same. How do you create economic activities which are circular?” he asks.

“You begin with a natural resource, you create a product, you reuse and recycle and you create training and income opportunities and new business activity.

“The challenge in developing countries is that as development progresses and societies become more prosperous, there’s a tendency to try to westernise and to become a consumer-based society that imports lots of products rather than maintaining your own strength in local products and the skills associated with them,” Mr Coleman says.

For him, the value of circular economic models in the developing world lies in their ability to identify the unique strengths and opportunities in local economies, materials, skills and techniques.

While he may spend most of his time considering the economic and industrial strategies required by large-scale infrastructure and new cities, he insists that it is necessary for governments to take into account economic activity at all levels.

“You have to think about everything from the very large-scale industrial activity that can absorb lots of people and create a lot of employment, right down to the micro-scale which will allow local entrepreneurship,” Mr Coleman says.

“Yes, it’s about reusing and recycling materials and using them more effectively and creating a new skills base, but it’s also about looking inside communities to see how they become more resilient and more capable of doing things for themselves.”

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