News facts
In the last years, the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region has been very active in the promotion of circular economy. Many countries are interested in, are developing, or have already developed their national circularity strategies, plans and/or roadmaps. As a result, the region is establishing a regional coalition on circular economy, which aims to develop a common regional vision and strategy on circular economy in order to have a bigger impact, to build cooperation and have a regional platform to exchange best practices and provide technical support. UNEP was requested to build the coalition in close cooperation with international and regional partners. Strategic partners include UNEP, Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS-EKLA), the World Economic Forum (WEF), PACE (hosted by World Resources Institute), UNIDO and the CTCN.
The coalition will be governed by a Steering Committee, supported by Strategic Partners and a Secretariat. The coalition will be an open platform where all governments, private sector, institutions, non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental and international/regional organizations working on circular economy can participate and contribute to.
The Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) is already supporting 11 countries in the region to determine their long-term vision on circular economy. There are two multi-country technical assistance projects: one in Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay, and the second one in Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Cuba, El Salvador and Paraguay. The CTCN is also assisting Costa Rica to develop a circular economy at the local level. All projects focus on the climate benefits originating from a circular economy model and help to identify the advantages that circularity would produce towards the implementation of the NDCs and the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement.
CTCN technical assistance on circular economy is instrumental in three ways:
- Richness of information: Allowing participating countries to have a national assessment that goes beyond major cities, covering different regions with specific sectors.
- Baseline: Establishment of a strong baseline to know the current country status on circular economy, and to measure what is going to happen in the future.
- Lessons learned: To compare and share information between countries, their activities in circular economy, learn from them, and transfer learnings from successes and failures.
More about the CTCN work on circular economy, please read here.