On the occasion of the 29th UN Climate Summit, which begins on 11 November in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, the BDE Federal Association of the German Waste, Water and Recycling Industry is calling for greater focus to be placed on the contribution of recyclates to climate protection.
BDE President Anja Siegesmund emphasises: „With their national climate plans, the UN member states are a long way from a path that will lead them to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees. Without a functioning circular economy, we will not achieve the climate targets. That is why world climate conferences are places where ways to circular economy are explored internationally can.“
„At the last UN climate summit in Dubai („COP 28“) in 2023, the circular economy was included in the final declaration for the first time. The task now is to translate the importance of the circular economy for international climate protection into concrete measures.“
Anja Siegesmund, BDE President
Siegesmund recalls Germany's ambitious goal of being climate-neutral by 2045. She emphasises that action must be taken much faster on climate protection and, above all the potential of recycled raw materials in products should be utilised. „The circular economy needs to be unleashed both in the EU and globally as the economy becomes increasingly interconnected. In fact the economy will still be too linear in 2024.“ One example of this is the landfilling of untreated municipal waste, which leads to significant emissions of methane gas, which is harmful to the climate. It is incomprehensible that this easily achievable contribution to climate protection is not being realised even in neighbouring EU countries.
Siegesmund emphasises that the so-called ‚tipping points‘ - critical threshold values which, if exceeded, lead to significant and irreversible changes - must not be exceeded. That is why every CO2 saving now counts. In particular, the CCU potential, i.e. the material utilisation and storage of CO2 in products, should be researched further and the framework conditions for economic realisation should be created in order to replace fossil resources in the future. „To avoid reaching the tipping point, we need to utilise all instruments now. The topic of the circular economy and the associated climate protection potential should no longer be absent from any climate conference.“
Source: BDE
