On Tuesday, May 14, BUILD UP hosted the second webinar, part of a series of six webinars organised by CircularB Action. The webinar, Stakeholder Webinar Series 2 – Policy Shapers and Regulators focused on shedding light on the policies, regulations, and initiatives introduced by the OECD, the EU, and local authorities to promote circularity in construction.
The webinar was structured into three sessions. It started with an introduction on the circular economy transition in the West Balkans, given by Jovana Pavlovic Djukic, Team Leader in the Green Economy and Sustainability at the OECD Southeast Europe Division. The OECD Southeast European work has been implemented for almost 25 years in the region of the Western Balkans, assessing structural reform, including environmental policy. Pavlovic Djukic highlighted that ‘the support given to the Wester Balkans region is twofold: support for design, through which Albania and north Macedonia have been aided in the development of their National Circular Economy (CE) Roadmaps. Secondly, support for implementation, which focuses on the entire region to foster the provision of expertise and regional knowledge exchange’.
During the second session, Philippe Moseley, Team Leader for the European Commission, DG GROW, gave an overview of the EU policies that support circularity in construction. Moseley explained that ‘an imperative of the EU is to shift from linear to circular economy, making the impacts of construction less harming for the environment. Related to this, the EU Transition Pathway was co-created with Industry representatives, Member States and relevant stakeholders, and it contains specific recommendations both at EU and national level, providing a vision for a green and digital future of the EU industry and its ecosystems’.
In the last panel, Tessa Devreese, Strategic Advisor for the Built Environment, at ReLondon, mentioned that ‘the city of London is facing a challenge in the construction sector, as the sector is currently responsible for 13% of the global emission and 64% of the UK waste’. To support the need of tailor-made policies, ReLondon has developed the London Plan, ‘a development strategy for the whole city informing planning decisions across the 33 local authorities’.
