APPG: ‘Bold leadership’ needed for circular economy

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the environment – chaired by Labour’s Andrew Pakes MP – has launched a six-step plan to make better use of resources.

Key asks from the cross-party group include giving consumers a real “right to repair” to ensure products can be fixed when they break, embedding reuse of critical minerals into the Clean Energy Mission to boost energy security and setting a goal to bring the UK’s resource use within global limits by 2050.

Politicians are said to have publicly endorsed the asks, from Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay, Conservative Dame Caroline Dinenage, Labour’s Uma Kumaran and Wera Hobhouse from the Liberal Democrats.

The report is said to be backed by Suez Recycling and Recovery UK and Mura Technology, as well as organisations like the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), Zero Waste Scotland and Green Alliance.

The report is being launched on Tuesday 17th June at a parliamentary reception featuring a keynote speech from Environment Secretary Steve Reed MP.

The Environment APPG’s six steps towards a circular economy include:

1. Take a whole economy approach
2. Direct investment in circular business and innovation
3. Cut the cost of living with a real right to repair
4. Enhance clean energy security with circularity
5. Build the skills needed to get there
6. Set a long-term goal to bring UK resource use within planetary boundaries

Pakes said: “For many of the questions facing us, the circular economy provides some answers. How do we make the UK more resilient in a fractured world? How do we bring skilled jobs to our high streets and industrial heartlands? How do we clean up our streets, rivers and seas? Making better use of precious resources holds a key to all of these.”

Adrian Ramsay, vice chair of the Environment APPG, said: “We must make better use of resources to tackle the dual nature and climate crisis. Now is the time to think big, galvanising action across the economy to bring resource demand within global limits.”

Afzal Khan said: “We need bold and comprehensive leadership to tackle the waste crisis. The government has come in with the right ambition and now needs to support circular business to grow.”

Uma Kumaran said: “Too often the burden of excess resource use falls on the Global South or developing economies, driving nature loss and pollution from the waste the UK exports. The government has set out a path to end the throwaway society and protect nature not just in the UK but globally – this is more vital than ever to protect our planet and our natural world.”

Dame Caroline Dinenage said: “The circular economy has the potential to boost regional growth and leave Britain cleaner and greener for our children. Increasing the size of the repair and reuse economy and promoting these skills at a local level, must be central to reforms.”

Wera Hobhouse MP, vice chair of the Environment APPG, said: “The Clean Power 2030 Mission is a crucial measure to reduce our exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets, and it needs to go hand in hand with a strategy to keep critical minerals in use. Reducing our demand will help countries around the world get the minerals they need to decarbonise.”