Webinar: Trade, Resource Extraction & Circular Economy

• EVENT: Trade, Resource Extraction & Circular Economy

• DATE: Friday 19^th March 2021

• TIME: 10:00am-11:45am Central European Time

• REGISTER HERE (Please register in advance for this webinar)

On 19 March, the International Resource Panel, OVAM, the European Environmental Bureau (EBB), UNEP Environment and Trade Hub and the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP) are organising a #EUCircularTalks on Trade, Resource Extraction and Circular Economy.

The event will bring together the trade and circular economy communities to increase awareness of the issues raised in the UNEP-IRP report Sustainable Trade in Resources and to feed into the upcoming discussions on the EU’s trade policy review and the future of the WTO. The webinar will also present the findings of the UNEP-IRP report.

Ahead of the event, participants are invited to engage in an online discussion and provide feedback on the policy recommendations mentioned in the report. 

Register for the webinar and join the online discussion on the ECESP Discussion Forum or on this Linkedin Group. 

Programme

• Welcome and Introduction – Sofie Bouteligier (OVAM) and Francesca Carlsson (EEB)

• Presentation of the UNEP-IRP report Sustainable Trade in Resources – Christina Bodouroglou (IRP Secretariat, UNEP) and Colette van der Ven (UNEP Consultant, International trade lawyer, Founder & Director of TULIP Consulting)

• The European Union’s Trade Initiative – Speaker from the European Commission (tbc)

• Greening Trade – Tanja Buzek (Chair of the EESC's International Trade Follow-up Committee)

• Q&A and Discussion

• Wrap-up and Next Steps – Sofie Bouteligier (OVAM) and Francesca Carlsson (EEB) 

Background

In 2017, the material requirement for trade was three times the direct trade, as more than 35 billion tons of material resources were extracted globally to produce 11 billion tons of directly traded goods. When considering the whole life cycle of traded products, trade is responsible for much larger amounts of material extraction than direct trade flows indicate.

Resource

• IRP Sustainable Trade in Resources report