Can the circular economy revive the SDGs?

With progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) badly off track, international policymakers have been scrambling for solutions that can both revitalize the current SDG agenda and drive more effective action on humanity’s big challenges in the future. The “circular economy” offers clear potential in this area to move beyond a siloed approach to SDG implementation. 

The wide-ranging concept (and its many real-world applications) involves making economies less wasteful and less resource-intensive. Through this, it supports climate change mitigation action in many industries while contributing to socio-economic development and human well-being. Indeed, it could hold the key to accelerating SDG delivery. A more formal role within the SDGs and any emerging post-2030 successor framework would also provide a catalyst for expansion of the circular economy itself.

To address these challenges, we launched a report, How the circular economy can revive the Sustainable Development Goals, during the recent UN Summit of the Future. It outlines priorities for immediate global action and a policy blueprint for the transition to 2050. It proposes solutions and ideas in two parts. The first part covers the period to 2030, the UN’s currently envisioned deadline for achieving the SDGs. The second focuses on 2030 to 2050, a period during which the SDGs may be extended (most likely in modified form) or replaced with new goals as part of a refreshed sustainable development agenda.

At the heart of our argument in our report is the idea that the circular economy and the SDGs are naturally complementary. Prominence in the SDG framework could help the circular economy to reach a critical scale and breadth, which in turn would improve prospects for achieving many of the SDGs’ targets. Linking the two offers mutual benefits. The circular economy needs the imprimatur of the UN system and other multilateral institutions to establish itself globally. At the same time, the circular economy offers the prospect of vastly more effective action on the triple planetary crisis of pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss – precisely the sort of catalyst the UN’s ailing 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development could use.

In terms of immediate action on the SDGs between now and 2030, we have identified five priority areas for international collaboration on the circular economy. These proposed actions draw on input from stakeholder workshops and consultations with participants from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. They are intended for a varied audience of multilateral institutions, governments, and businesses. With the 2030 SDG deadline fast approaching, work on implementing these recommendations would need to begin immediately. The five priorities are as follows:

1. Embed principles of justice and inclusivity in circular economy development

This is more than a moral imperative. It is a pragmatic necessity both for engagement with the UN system, where such values already underpin the SDGs, and for achieving political and popular support around the world for the economic reforms implied by the circular economy. Key tasks include rectifying environmental injustices such as illegal dumping of waste in low and middle-income countries and providing decent work and meaningful employment. 

2. Enhance global policy coordination on the circular economy

A multilateral or intergovernmental policy coordination mechanism is needed to help governments develop and implement national circular economy roadmaps. One option would be to establish a cross-sectoral circular economy alliance between UN development agencies. Such an alliance could work with national governments, multilateral development banks, the private sector, and civil society to offer guidelines, best-practice examples, and technical knowledge. One option would be to set up an international resource agency, akin to the International Energy Agency in some respects but with a mandate specific to material resources and the circular economy. Additionally, the G7 and G20 should be encouraged to increase their ambition on the circular economy and to align policy in areas such as product and producer standards.

3. Reform the global financial architecture

Scaling up the circular economy will require significant investment. At present, the circular economy is poorly integrated into the global financial architecture, and thus largely off the radar of many investors or perceived as too risky. Using the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, being held in Seville, Spain in mid-2025, could accelerate reform and develop innovative proposals for financing circular economy business models and the SDGs. Priorities should include creating new mechanisms to leverage private sector investment through risk-sharing mechanisms such as blended finance and government-backed loans.

4. Rewire the global trade system

Changes in policy and regulation are needed to support circular economy-enabling trade while preventing problems such as the trade in goods that inhibit the circular economy. Reconfiguring global supply chains to be circular in nature will require policies and regulations to streamline trade in many kinds of goods and services, including: 

• remanufacturing and recycling equipment
• second-hand goods
• secondary raw materials
• non-hazardous scrap and industrial residues
• design, rental, and repair services

“Trusted circular trader” schemes could be established to reduce red tape, pre-certifying circular economy-compliant exporters. “Resource recovery lanes” similar to customs green lanes could expedite documentation for shipments of secondary raw materials. 

5. Develop shared standards and metrics

Common standards and metrics will be crucial to expanding the circular economy worldwide, and to reducing policy and regulatory fragmentation. In addition to supporting disclosures by businesses and organizations, new metrics will be needed for monitoring and reporting the circular economy’s aggregate impact on other multilateral environmental agreements, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change and the upcoming binding instrument to end plastic pollution by 2040. A circular economy-specific taxonomy of standards will need to cover many different areas, including product design, procurement, cleaner production, supply-chain transparency and traceability, and financial performance.

After the SDGs – 2030 to 2050

Some prominent voices have proposed that, instead of abandoning or replacing the SDGs, the UN should revise the current set of targets and extend the SDG framework to 2050. To provide ideas in this area, our report presents an indicative, longer-term policy blueprint to be considered in the context of a possible extended or revised SDG framework post-2030. Specifically, we propose a set of circularity targets in 17 categories for 2050, and corresponding levers and actions for achieving them.

Each category of target is mapped to one of the 17 SDGs. For example, for SDG 1 (no poverty), our proposed targets envisage the circular economy providing affordable basic services to the poor, and sustaining local businesses that can help make communities resilient to economic shocks and environmental disasters. For SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), we propose actions that would enable societies to achieve full, affordable access to renewable and circular energy systems. Under this target, by 2050 most critical materials would be supplied through secondary sources or substituted with alternative materials – highlighting the importance of circularity in ensuring that the resource demands of the energy transition are reduced as much as possible.

Figure 1: suggested circular economy SDG targets for 2050 in a hypothetical extended and expanded SDG framework

To enshrine circular economy principles more prominently in the next set of goals post-2030, our report recommends several steps:

1. Introduce a specific high-level objective, within the extended post-2030 SDG framework, that recognizes the transformative potential of the circular economy for global development and for addressing the triple planetary crisis (pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss).
2. Explicitly outline ambitious but achievable global targets related to reducing unsustainable resource use, reducing global waste generation, and enhancing circularity rates for important resources and materials.
3. Ensure that circular economy targets are integrated across all SDGs, emphasizing the interconnectedness of sustainable resource management with economic, social, and environmental objectives.
4. Align the post-2030 framework and circular economy targets with the Beyond GDP initiative that forms part of the UN Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda vision.
5. Develop clear, measurable indicators for inclusive circular economy practices with specific relevant targets for 2050.

While we recognize that the circular economy has its limits and cannot single-handedly address all challenges of the 2030 Agenda, it offers a valuable framework that we can leverage now to make meaningful progress in the remaining years. One of the central challenges is ensuring inclusivity, to truly “leave no one behind” as we transition. Despite its constraints, the circular economy provides a structured, systemic approach that aligns economic activities with sustainable practices for human development. It has strong potential for paving the way for a more resilient and equitable future post-2030.