Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISIQuantification Methodology for, and Analysis of, the Decarbonisation Benefits of Sectoral Circular Economy Actions
Previous analyses have shown that for the industry sector today’s available technologies with a reasonable economic performance are not sufficient for deep decarbonisation. Therefore, turning the EU economy and in particular the production and consumption of CO2-intensive materials into a material-efficient circular economy could substantially contribute to the objective of a CO2-neutral economy as set out in the long-term vision proposed by the European Commission. As the concept of circular economy gains momentum in the political debate across all stakeholders, synergies exist between the decarbonisation and the circular economy policy agendas. Consequently, circular material uses and their connection to the energy system through resource, material, and energy flows have to be taken into account in integrated policymaking, integrated energy-material modelling and the analysis of ambitious GHG mitigation pathways. The project developed a generic approach to allocate GHG emissions savings to various circular actions and lifecycle stages for a sector. This approach has been applied to quantify the decarbonisation benefits of circular economy actions within the construction industry and the buildings sector.