Supporting circularity in South Africa-EU food trade
15-03-2021 Jeske van Seters, Tlale Matseke and Sean Woolfrey, ECDPM commentary, 15 March 2021
South African wine is well known in Europe, but Europeans consume many more South African products, often without knowing. The European Union (EU) is the second largest market for South African exports, and food and beverages represent a particularly important category – think for instance of citrus fruits, fish and seafood, grapes, avocados, macadamia nuts, fruit juices and sugar. Meanwhile, many European companies have invested in South Africa (SA) to serve the local market.
South African and European companies have introduced environmentally-friendly approaches to produce, process and market South African food and beverages, some of which end up in Europe. For instance, the amount of plastic used in grape punnets has been reduced considerably and organic fru
Embracing technology as a service will fuel the circular economy. Here’s how
With Earth Day coming up on Thursday (22 April), and President Biden poised to host a Leaders’ Climate Summit on the same day, I lean towards optimism.
The flag has been planted. In her 2020 State of the Union speech, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen proposed an increase in the EU’s 2030 emissions reduction target from 40% to 55%. It is a target that is necessary if the EU is to meet its Paris Agreement commitments and its goal of reducing EU carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
Moving towards a more circular economy in which economic growth is decoupled from intensive resource use and waste generation will, according to the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan, make a marked contribution towards achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
1. Introduction
Metals, minerals and natural materials are part of our daily lives. Those raw materials that are most important economically and have a high supply risk are called critical raw materials. Critical raw materials are essential to the functioning and integrity of a wide range of industrial ecosystems. Tungsten makes phones vibrate. Gallium and indium are part of lightemitting diode (LED) technology in lamps. Semiconductors need silicon metal. Hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers need platinum group metals.
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Access to resources is a strategic security question for Europe’s ambition to deliver the Green Deal. The new industrial strategy for Europe proposes to reinforce Europe’s open strategic autonomy, warning that Europe’s transition to climate neutrality could replace today’s reliance on fossil fuels with one on raw materials, many of which we
Photo Credit: Aerocircular
Horizon 2020 project SUSTAINair, a collaboration of 11 European research organizations and industrial partners, was recently launched in January 2021 to research and develop solutions to achieve a circular aviation economy. This includes increasing resource efficiency and aircraft performance while cutting down on waste and material costs throughout the aircraft life cycle. Consortium partners note that despite the aerospace sector’s plunge into uncertainty, boosting the post-pandemic aviation industry’s green transition remains a strategic objective of governments providing a path to recovery.
More specifically, the EU-funded research aims to make the entire aviation supply chain ecosystem greener in line with the Circular Economy Action Plan, setting new standards for aerospace manufacturing and enabling an increase in cross-sector synergies. The SUSTAINair project is expected to provide the aviation sector with a runway to a more cost-effective,
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