Why do cities struggle to transition to a Circular Economy? — Information

The paper discusses the urgent need for a transition to a circular economy (CE) to achieve climate neutrality and Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing the importance of cities in this transition as they generate 85% of global GDP and are responsible for 75% of resource consumption. Despite the potential, progress has been slow, with the OECD reporting only 10% of cities advanced in circular transition, while public procurement remains linear. Public entities, especially at a local and regional level, should lead by example given they account for a significant portion of procurement in Europe. The paper outlines the 10 R-strategies for implementing CE, such as refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle, ranking them by their circular impact. However, accessing information and applying these strategies is challenging due to information overload and lack of common language in CE practices. Local efforts may be fragmented and documented in various languages, making it difficult for widespread adoption. A mental exercise demonstrates how CE principles can be applied in re-equipping a public building by prioritizing the use of existing resources vs. new procurement. The paper underlines that despite the complexity, this practical approach is customary in Scandinavia, showing environmental and cost benefits. The paper concludes with a suggestion for AI as a partial solution to information challenges in implementing CE strategies. It highlights the start of an innovation procurement by eight organizations in Europe to address these challenges, inviting other public organizations to participate and announcing public testing in autumn 2025. The article acknowledges the funding and insights from the CircularPSP project under the European Union's Horizon Europe Programme.