CIRCEUS - A Circular Low Carbon EU and the Global South

The EU has launched numerous initiatives to transform Europe into a circular, low-carbon economy and make resource consumption more sustainable. However, the impacts of this transition on the future raw material needs of the EU, as well as on global supply chains and on raw material exporting countries in the Global South, have hardly been studied so far. The project CIRCEUS aims to fill this gap by linking debates and strategies for a low-carbon and circular economy in the EU with perspectives of resource-exporting countries. CIRCEUS seeks to create a deeper understanding of the impacts of the transition to a circular, low-carbon economy in the EU on resource-exporting countries in the Global South. CIRCEUS`s planned methodological approach encompasses a transdisciplinary research process. Using biophysical stock-flow modelling, environmentally extended input-output analysis, and scenario modelling, various pathways to a low-carbon and circular economy are developed, and the corresponding changes in raw material needs and associated greenhouse gas emissions are analysed. Subsequently, the impacts of changes in EU raw material imports on resource-exporting countries are examined, and potential conflicts of interest, as well as opportunities and possibilities for alternative development pathways in the Global South are discussed with actors in selected countries. The project team consists of researchers from the Austrian Foundation for Development Research, the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Two partners from civil society complement the research team: Dreikönigsaktion (DKA Austria) and Global 2000. The CIRCEUS project aims to bring together EU and international actors from academia, civil society, and politics to jointly develop new insights and innovative solutions. Linking the debates on a circular, low-carbon economy in the EU with discussions on alternative development pathways in resource-exporting countries aims to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 (Global Partnerships for Sustainable Development). In October 2024, a three-day workshop will be organised, during which the project team, supported by experts from the Global South, the EU, and Austria, will further refine the questions and methods for the full proposal.