The Circular Economy in Cities and Regions of the European Union

Acknowledgements

This report was prepared by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the of the Programme of Work and Budget of the OECD Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC), with the financial support and co-operation of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), led by Marc Lemaitre, Director-General of DG RTD.

The report was led by Oriana Romano, Head of the Water Governance, Blue and Circular Economy Unit, and co-authored with Ander Eizaguirre, María Ferrer Estevez, Georges Laimé, Juliette Lassman and Sho Yamasaki, Policy Analysts, under the supervision of Aziza Akhmouch, Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division in the CFE. Mariam Fofana, Danijel Sudarevic and Doros Voulgaridis, interns, contributed to the literature review.

Authors are grateful to Nadim Ahmad, Deputy Director, Andres Fuentes Hutfilter, Head of the Environmental and Land Use Economics Unit, and Soo-Jin Kim, Deputy Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division, all in the CFE, as well as to Peter Borkey, Principal Administrator, and Frithjof Laubinger, Policy Analyst in the OECD Environment Directorate (ENV), for their comments on the draft report.

Thanks are extended to Astrid Ladefoged, Head of Unit (DG RTD, European Commission), Lucie Blondel and Marta Andreoni, Policy Officers (DG RTD, European Commission) and Andrea Accorigi, Project Manager (CCRI-CSO) for the excellent collaboration throughout the project, as well as to Pavel Misiga, former Head of Unit (DG RTD, European Commission) for his pivotal role at the early stages of the process.

Special thanks are expressed to the 64 cities and regions (see the list in Annex A) who responded to the OECD Survey: The Circular Economy in Cities and Regions in the European Union (EU), which was disseminated in collaboration with the OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth Initiative, the ASSET Interreg project, the EC Circular Cities and Regions Initiative - Coordination and Support Office (CCRI-CSO), the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), ICLEI and the UK Circular Cities Network.

Thanks are also conveyed to Paul Ekins, Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the University College London (UCL) Institute for Sustainable Resources and Henning Wilts, Director of Circular Economy at the Wuppertal Institute for their contribution to the three Workshop of the OECD Task Force for Circular Strategic Thinking held on 15 November 2024, 16 December 2024 and 31 January 2025.

Authors are grateful to Anthony Cox, Senior Policy Advisor, Ecologic Economics and former Deputy Director of the OECD Environment Directorate (ENV) for his in-depth review of the report.

Preliminary findings were shared and discussed at the 6^th OECD Roundtable on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions held on 18 April 2024 (Brussels, Belgium) and at the 36th session of the WPURB on 3 December 2024.

Thanks are extended to Jack Waters in the CFE for preparing the report for publication.