Eurostat has released the revised EU circular economy monitoring framework which includes a new dimension on global sustainability and resilience.
The new dimension adds to the already existing four dimensions of the previous monitoring framework, which are production and consumption, waste management, secondary raw materials, competitiveness and innovation.
Eurostat says the new monitoring framework includes new indicators, in particular: material footprint, resource productivity, consumption footprint, greenhouse gas emissions from production activities and material dependency.
In January 2018, the European Commission adopted the first EU monitoring framework for the circular economy, aimed at tracking the progress of the EU and the Member States.
Following the launch of the new circular economy action plan, a revised framework has just been adopted to capture the circular economy focus areas and the interlinkages between circularity, climate neutrality and the “zero pollution” ambition.
Eurostat says the revised monitoring framework is based on the circular economy priorities in the context of the European Green Deal, the 8th environment action programme, the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the EU’s security of supply and resilience objectives.
Eurostat highlights that the new framework shows the number of EU-registered patents on recycling and secondary raw materials increased by 14% between 2000 and 2019.
As well as that in 2021 there were 4.3 million jobs in the economic sectors relevant to the circular economy, an increase of 11% compared with 2015, and EU GHG emissions from production activities decreased by around 25% between 2008 and 2021.