The European Environment Agency (EEA) takes stock of progress made in the transition to a circular economy and outlines the many challenges remaining in Europe and beyond in its latest report, entitled Accelerating the Circular Economy in Europe – State and Outlook 2024.
Following a period of steep growth, resource consumption has at least stabilised in recent years, according to the EEA. The report identified a modest decoupling of resource consumption within the EU from economic growth, with total consumption of materials decreasing slightly as EU gross domestic product (GDP) increased.
However, the EEA felt that this improvement was not enough to offset resource extraction elsewhere due to EU consumption....
