OECD - Nordic Innovation webinar on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions

1. oe.cd/circ-eco｜www.oecd.org/cfe/｜@OECD_local
Elís Benediktsson
Senior Advisor
Nordic Innovation

2. Nordic circularity - a helicopter view
- Nordic countries among global leaders in climate change for many years
- Strict emission targets, decarbonization incentives, and other initiatives
- Historically mostly focused on energy emissions
- Material production is getting an increased focus (e.g. food, steel, cement, plastics)
- Industrial symbiosis, water-smart CE, green construction, public procurement
- Carbon-neutrality will play a major role moving forward
- Most product regulation is European, whereas waste regulation is largely national
- National carbon/fossil-free goals and net-zero emission targets set for 2040-50
- Growing interest from both public and private sectors over the last few years
- A clearly visible shift in understanding and actions during the last couple of years
- Commitment to green financing has increased from all funding/investing actors

3. Some key national initiatives
- A front-runner in the Nordics and globally
- Driven by Sitra, the Finnish innovation fund
- Resulted in the well-established World Circular Economy Forum
- Important milestones:
2014: The opportunities of a circular economy for Finland (Sitra)
2016: Leading the cycle – Finnish roadmap to a circular economy 2016-2025 (Sitra) – The world‘s 1st!
2018: Economic instruments in value chains of circular economy (Government + key national institutions)
2019: 2nd version of the roadmap, The critical move – Finland´s roadmap to the circular economy 2.0 (Sitra)
- Second country to release their Strategy for circular economy in 2018
- Later that year, the government launched the financing of 11 special initiatives related to the
strategy towards more circular businesses and society
- The GreenTransition task-force (part of the Danish BusinessAuthority) has done a number of analyses on
increased resource efficiency (2014-)
- EMF case study: Potential for Denmark as a circular economy (2015)

4. Some key national initiatives
- National CE strategy to be launched in September 2020
- Other strategies available on e.g. sustainability, consumption, and cities
- The government established the Delegation for circular economy in 2018
- A public-private advisory body focusing on plastics, public procurement, and design
- Vinnova (Swedish innovation agency) is currently financing over 100 circular transition projects
- Developing its CE strategy, to be launched in December 2020
- National cross-sectoral strategy for biogas in 2014
- Roadmap for CE by the waste- and recycling industry in 2016, waste as a resource
- Klimakur 2020: An investigation, leading to 160 defined public measures for the main NO sectors
- Circularity Gap Report Norway (2020): 13 public and private actors, lead by Circular Norway
- Currently no national strategy for CE
- Leading strategies on green energy (hydro and geothermal)
- Iceland carbon capture project (2012-): CO2 turned into rock
- The National programme for the prevention of waste 2016-2027 is being implemented

5. The Nordic Co-operation
- The Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) has published several freely available reports over
the years, together with various key actors, on circularity in the Nordics
- Several have resulted in impactful projects run by sector-specific NCM organisations
- NCM has included circularity in recommendations for a common Nordic public
procurement policy, instrumental for on-going projects among and in the countries
- The NCE (Nordic public working group for CE, part of NCM) focuses on:
- Plastics, construction and buildings, mobility, food waste, waste management and
prevention, transport across borders, Nordic indicators for CE
- Nordic Innovation has a programme on Nordic Sustainable BusinessTransformation
- Four modules: Competence, New Solutions, Ecosystems, and Cities
- Challenging industries, focus on circular business models and innovative solutions

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www.nordicinnovation.org/circularnordic
@nordicinno #CircularNordic
www.linkedin.com/company/nordic-innovation
eb@nordicinnovation.org
@elisbenedikts
www.linkedin.com/in/elisbenediktsson