The Relevance of the Circular Economy for Climate Change: An Exploration through the Theory of Change Approach

Abstract

The relevance of the circular economy for climate change is still a developing area of research that needs to be explored. This paper aims to provide an overview of the relevance of the circular economy for climate change through the theory of change approach framework. For this purpose, we analysed 96 articles from the Scopus and WoS databases in the “Arts and Humanities, Business, Management and Accounting, Economics, Econometrics and Finance and Social Sciences,” with the keywords “Circular economy” and “Climate Change”. Our analysis shows that 87% of the reviewed articles showed a strong relevance of the circular economy for climate change. However, most of the articles focused on the mitigation aspect of climate change. The circular economy is widely practised in countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, and China. Our main theoretical contribution is in developing a logical framework through the theory of change, which is a novel approach in social science research apart from monitoring and evaluation studies.

Waste as Resource for Pakistan: An Innovative Business Model of Regenerative Circular Economy to Integrate Municipal Solid Waste Management Sector

“…However, there is a need to explore the direct investment modes by international lenders, and the waste sector can play an essential role in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The reduction in greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions associated with municipal waste handling can help to explore options such as "debt for climate/environment swaps" to sustain the global climate [87], which will save the fate of humanity on the planet Earth as Pakistan is the fifth largest populated country in the world generating 100,000 tons of MSW per day. International lenders may support the sustainability of developing economies such as Pakistan in paying foreign debt, which will help minimize geopolitical crises [88].…”

Drivers to mitigate climate change in context of manufacturing industry: An emerging economy study

“…Other analysis assessed the drivers in carbon management to evaluate the carbon performance considering the regulations of climate change adopting data from New Zealand firms (Bui et al, 2020). Instead, Khanna et al (2022) Concerning green innovation, some authors proposed the green innovation adoption (GIA) framework to advocate sustainable development in the manufacturing industry, identifying various suggestions for adopting green technologies (Shahzad et al, 2022). Ullah et al (2022) recognized the drivers of green innovation of an emerging economy using a mixed methodology considering the manufacturing industries.…”

“…Other analysis assessed the drivers in carbon management to evaluate the carbon performance considering the regulations of climate change adopting data from New Zealand firms (Bui et al, 2020). Instead, Khanna et al (2022) presented a model for the examination of CE for climate change, also unveiling that most of the extant studies have concentrated only on the mitigation perspective of climate change neglecting pro‐active actions. Furthermore, other studies conducted an analytical review that analyzed the potential factors of quintuple helix model (QHM) to bridge CE innovations and climate change mitigation, recommending policy guidelines for climate change driven by eco innovation (Durán‐Romero et al, 2020).…”

Impact of transition risks of climate change on Chinese financial market stability

“…This paper refers to the TVP-VAR model established by Nakajima to analyze the impact of climate change on financial stability (Nakajima, 2011). Since the climate will not only affect the stability of financial market, but also will cause the economic fluctuation in the real sector, the interaction between the real sector and financial market will lead to further expansion of the risk (Khanna et al, 2022). Frontiers in Environmental Science frontiersin.org Therefore, we also introduce the industrial added value and consumer price index reflecting the macroeconomic performance into the TVP-VAR model.…”