- Client: European Commission
- Implementation period: May, 2020 - April, 2022 (Ongoing)
- Geographic coverage: European Union
- Theme: Climate Change
- Topic: Adaptation and Resilience, Climate Agreements and Policies, Emission Reduction Pathways
- Experts: Koen Rademaekers, Laurent Zibell, Jeroen Oomkens
The European Commission, DG GROW and CLIMA, mandated Trinomics, TNO and VITO to develop a tool enabling the quantitative assessment of the impacts of Circular Economy measures on the mitigation of, and the adaptation to, climate change.
The methodology consisted in: (1) creating a complete list of Circular Economy measures, applicable to any economic sector; (2) translating each measure into a change in the product’s lifecycle impact (Greenhouse Gases emissions, water use, land use), using the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology for Life-Cycle Assessments; (3) scaling up this impact to a complete sector and to the whole economy, including potential rebound effects.
This led to a publicly-available spreadsheet modelling tool and a complete guidance document, usable to assess the climate impacts of any Circular Economy measure
