EIT Climate-KIC selected to become a member of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform

EIT Climate-KIC circular economy expert, Cliona Howie, will join 23 other experts at the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform Coordination Group and represent EIT Climate-KIC and the Circular Economy Cross-KIC Initiative.

The transition from a linear to a circular economic model is an essential contribution to Europe’s efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource-efficient and resilient economy. In addition to the 2015 EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee created the European Circular Economy (ECES) Platform in March 2017 with the aim to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

The ECES Platform brings together a broad spectrum of organisations active in the field of the circular economy in Europe. The 24 members of the Coordination Group come from civil society organisations, business and trade union representatives, think-tanks, research centres and public bodies that have a stake in the circular economy.

The aim of the ECES is to drive the circular economy in the Member States, in regional and local governments, and among civil society organisations and businesses. It also serves to strengthen cooperation among stakeholder networks to facilitate the exchange of expertise, good practices, knowledge and lessons learnt in the circular economy, and to identify social, economic and cultural barriers to the transition towards a circular economy with the intention of informing policy at all level of governance.

The Platform provides a meeting place for stakeholders to share and scale up effective solutions and address specific challenges. It bridges existing initiatives at the local, regional and national level, and supports the implementation of the circular economy in Europe.

Cliona Howie is Head of Circular Economy development and transition for EIT Climate-KIC. She advocates for a systemic design and approach for a regenerative, low carbon, circular transition across multiple levers of change.

“I am delighted to represent not only EIT Climate-KIC but also the five other KICs of the pan-European, Cross-KIC Circular Economy Group that actively fosters an enormous amount of circular economy research and innovation,” Howie said. “In particular, I look forward to sharing insights and learnings from EIT Climate-KIC´s systems approach design to circular economy transition. We are making progress in building active demonstration on the ground, working with city, regional and national governments to tackle challenges across multiple levers of change. Yet, much stronger collaboration and knowledge sharing is needed to reinforce interaction between all actors of circular economy and to drive target-based activity on how to accelerate and replicate best practices across Europe via policy, technology and community dialogues.”

See the full list of members here.