The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have developed a set of common guidelines to measure the circular economy and support national and international policymaking. The guidelines propose a framework with concepts, terms, and definitions, as well as a set of 19 core statistical indicators, to be further refined through pilot testing by countries.
According to UNECE, a shift to a more circular economy “is increasingly recognized as vital to sustainable development, decarbonization, resource efficiency, and competitiveness,” with more and more countries adopting policies that are linked to the “sustainable management of natural resources and the establishment of a circular life-cycle of materials.” Therefore, there is a strong need for reliable information on a circular economy, with reliable statistics and indicators, to “effectively support[] national policies and international work.”
Bringing together the statistics and policy perspectives, the UNECE Task Force on Measuring Circular Economy and the OECD Expert Group on a new generation of information for a resource efficient and circular economy issued the ‘Conference of European Statisticians Guidelines for Measuring Circular Economy’ in February 2024.
A 15 March 2024 press release notes that according to the “headline definition” used in the report, a circular economy is an economy where:
- the value of materials in the economy is maximized and maintained for as long as possible;
- the input of materials and their consumption is minimized; and
- the generation of waste is prevented and negative environmental impacts are reduced throughout the life cycle of materials.
The guidelines’ conceptual framework has four main components: material life cycle and value chain; interactions with the environment; socioeconomic opportunities; and responses and actions. An initial set of indicators seeks to support monitoring progress towards a circular economy, and a monitoring framework outlines measurement considerations such as the use of the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) for measuring the circular economy. The report also includes examples of measurement frameworks used by countries, along with other regional and national examples of measuring the circular economy.
The guidelines include contributions from national experts from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, India, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden, as well as from Eurostat, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), OECD, the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE), UNECE, the UN Statistics Division (UNSD), the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Statistics Finland chaired the UNECE Task Force on Measuring Circular Economy.
The Conference of European Statisticians endorsed the guidelines at its 71st plenary session, held from 22-23 June 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland. A forthcoming complementary report will provide practical guidance for producing and using statistics to produce the core indicators, describe the required institutional collaboration, and offer national case examples. [Publication: Conference of European Statisticians Guidelines for Measuring Circular Economy, Part A: Conceptual Framework, Indicators and Measurement Framework] [Publication Landing Page] [UNECE Press Release]