Patrick Schröder

Chatham House · Energy, Environment and Resources Programme

Fossil fuel companies and countries created a deadlock in negotiations over a much-needed treaty governing their use. About $2 trillion will have been invested in clean energy by the end of this year, according to the World Energy Outlook, published the International Energy Agency (IEA). The strong growth in clean energy indicates that global dema...

This briefing note is part of a series of sectoral notes commissioned by TESS intended to inform a final report on Trade and climate scenarios on the road to 2050: Implications for developing countries and climate-resilient development. The series and the report aim to provide an overview of current and anticipated transformations in trade on the...

With progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) badly off track, international policymakers are scrambling for solutions that can both revitalize the current SDG agenda and drive more effective action on humanity’s big challenges in the future. The ‘circular economy’ offers clear potential in this area. This wide-ranging concept, whi...

Plastic waste poses a significant challenge to achieving sustainable production and consumption of resources, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where effective governance and waste management systems are lacking. In this paper, we develop an empirical understanding of the influence of public governance system on promoting circular economy (CE) for...

If SUVs Were a Country Western governments are not confronting the threat they pose. 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded, and large SUV and pickup truck sales reached new records, too, responsible for more than 20 percent of the growth in global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In the U.S. market alone, more than 12.3 million new...

Purpose This paper aims to provide insights into the environment needed for advancing a digitally enabled circular plastic economy in Africa. It explores important technical and social paradigms for the transition. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted an interpretivist paradigm, drawing on thematic analysis on qualitative data from an in...

The implications of China's global ambitions have been a prominent topic of discussion in the international media and academic scholarship in recent years. The rise of China is perhaps the most consequential regional and global security issue of this century, and political analysts have provided all sorts of ‘solutions’ to the ‘problem’. These two...

For the circular economy transition to be inclusive there are two main equity dimensions to be considered. These issues are connected, but still distinct from each other. 1. Rectifying existing injustices of mismanaged waste and pollution that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide – this is the environmental justice dimension of the tran...

Scholars and practitioners have highlighted the importance of digital innovations in the drive towards a circular plastic economy. Therefore this paper investigates the role of digital innovators and the public's response to digital innovations on the African continent. The study draws from four focus groups, and cross-sectional surveys of 33 digit...

The role of international trade in accelerating the transition to a circular economy is receiving increasing attention in the global policy arena and academic literature. It is a complex area of study encompassing domestic policy, international trade governance, multilateral environmental agreements, material flow analysis, and Just Transition. Due...

In the run-up to Stockholm+50, Chatham House’s Environment and Society Programme convened a series of international online workshops and stakeholder dialogues.1 These identified key areas for global cooperation on the circular economy. Participants included representatives of UN member states, multilateral institutions, and representatives of Major...

The report was presented at the 16th UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Poland. You can download the full report and watch the presentation here: https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/policy-network-on-environment-pne

The paper analyzes the current state of plastic value chains in Africa and the potential of digital innovations adopted by African entrepreneurs to contributing to a circular plastic economy. We provide an overview of plastic waste trade to African countries and an assessment of existing digital solutions that can support the transition to a circul...

Climate justice provides a crucial framework to embed issues of equity and justice into COVID-19 recovery strategies. The pandemic, alongside climate change, is disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable and marginalized people across the globe, and particularly exposing Black, Brown, and Indigenous people to ill-health and economic hardship....

The circular economy is a key part of global efforts to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Circular economy activities aim to reduce overconsumption, design-out waste and restore and regenerate ecosystems and natural capital. However, new financial instruments and investments are needed to support the growth of these business models and innovat...

Lockdowns and social distancing from the COVID19 crisis took many by surprise. Panic grew about the implications. Supply chains became center stage. We consider decision making in large multinational companies and whether COVID19 responses focused on crisis management or a strategic, rational decision-making approach. Chief procurement officers fro...

A growing interest in the circular economy concept has pushed the discourse in various management-related disciplines beyond established boundaries, with calls to better address how such a model may be developed in a world of global value chains. Still, the conventional linear economy model continues to dominate business, society, and research. Whi...

The circular economy model has gained high-level political attention and support in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in recent years. This paper provides analysis of the current state of circular economy policies in LAC and identifies priority issues for governments, businesses, civil society and the research community.

The effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remind us of our arrogance of ignorance. Society has suffered. We are emerging scarred but enlightened. Can COVID-19 lessons help us avoid repeating the same mistakes with future climate shocks? We offer a supply-chain perspective and a set of pragmatic actions to increase resilience t...

A major shift in private and public investment is needed to forge a transition to a circular economy. A recent surge of activity from policy makers, the financial industry, and other stakeholders suggests commitment and progress toward providing resources to facilitate this process. In this forum article, we provide a measured, and in some respects...

This report summarizes findings from the Open Forum on an Inclusive, Equitable and Environmentally Sound Circular Economy - Post COVID-19

This paper aims to re-conceptualise and advance the existing frameworks and practical applications of the circular economy (CE) towards a broader approach to development in general and, more particularly, to combine it with the approach for Human Development (HD). The CE is an alternative to the current "take, make, waste” extractive industrial mod...

Considerations of justice and social equity are as important for the circular economy transition as they are in the contexts of low-carbon transitions and digitalization of the economy. This paper sets out the just transition approach, and its relevance in climate change and energy transition debates.

Sustainable Development Goals: Their Impacts on Forests and People - edited by Pia Katila December 2019

Outdoor air pollution is a major environmental risk that caused over 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2016. In this article, we investigate how groups with lower social-economic status are disproportionally affected by outdoor air pollution. Based on a comparative case study of two heavily polluted urban areas around Beijing and Delhi, we...

Outdoor air pollution is a major environmental risk that caused over 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2016. In this article, we investigate how groups with lower social-economic status are disproportionally affected by outdoor air pollution. Based on a comparative case study of two heavily polluted urban areas around Beijing and Delhi, we...

This paper empirically investigates the impact of financial crises on air pollutant emissions (CO2, SO2, NOx and PM2.5). A panel data approach is used, including 419 financial crisis episodes in >150 countries over the period 1970-2014. The short- and medium-term effects of crises are estimated, using a GMM specification (for short-term) and the es...

This perspective calls for building greater understanding of overlapping and conflicting considerations between the sustainability principles that inform current conceptions of circular economy and degrowth. We contend that scholars and practitioners need to be pragmatic and to recognize evident ideological differences, but simultaneously to acknow...

The circular economy is a policy approach and business strategy that aims to improve resource productivity, promote sustainable consumption and production and reduce environmental impacts. This book examines the relevance of the circular economy in the context of developing countries, something which to date is little understood. This volume highl...

This paper explores the emerging role of the private sector and public-private partnerships for e-waste management in the developing world. We use a combination of two conceptual frameworks, the triple bottom line approach and the sustainable livelihoods approach, to analyze the case study of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programme in...

Abstract Urban consumption patterns and lifestyles are increasingly important for the sustainability of cities today and in the future. However, considerations of consumption issues, social norms, behaviour and lifestyles within current urban sustainability research and practices are limited. Much untapped potential for the reduction of the enviro...

The United Nations formulated the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 as a comprehensive global policy framework for addressing the most pressing social and environmental challenges currently facing humanity. In this paper, we analyse SDG 12, which aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.” Despite long-standing poli...

The concept of the circular economy has gained significant traction among businesses, policymakers and researchers in recent years. The transformation of the current linear economic system to a circular one offers many opportunities to advance sustainable natural resource use, create closed-loop supply chains and implement sustainable recycling man...

The United Nations formulated the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 as a comprehensive global policy framework for addressing the most pressing social and environmental challenges currently facing humanity. In this paper, we analyse SDG 12, which aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.” Despite long-standing poli...

What does closing civic space mean for development? Aid donors are concerned about the implications of restrictions on civil society for their partners and programmes, but to date there has been little clarity about what this means for development. This paper summarises the findings of a literature review in support of research on this issue. It co...

This report summarises in-depth reviews in five areas of the circular economy: the sharing economy; e-waste; agricultural waste; urban waste and industrial symbiosis. These reviews allow a deeper analysis than previous approaches based on case studies. The authors identify a range of development interventions that are proven and replicable in a var...

ABSTRACT Open burning of waste is estimated to cause 14,000 premature deaths a year in Pakistan and could account for a quarter of the nation's reported carbon emissions, according to recent estimates. Dumped waste is also a major cause of diarrhoeal diseases. A community-based approach to waste management addresses these problems while also creati...

This paper identifies the extent to which circular economy (CE) practices are relevant for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The results of a literature review and a matching exercise to determine the relationship between CE practices and SDG targets show that CE practices, potentially, can contribute directly to achie...

Based on a household energy use survey, this paper explores the technical and economic potential of residential energy savings in a Chinese city, Xiamen. The survey adopted a similar questionnaire used by the U.S. EIA's Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), covering the end-uses of cooking, water heating, plug-in appliances, lighting and sp...

This paper combines the concept of leapfrogging with systems-thinking approaches to outline the potentials for and barriers to enabling systemic shifts to strong sustainable consumption in the emerging economies of China and India. New urban consumers in China and India have the potential to “lifestyle leapfrog” the high impact lifestyle models of...

In the emerging narrative of sustainable development in Asia, the essential challenge is to reduce the use of natural resources and environmental degradation alongside the increasing demand for goods and services. To achieve this, Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nat...

In the emerging narrative of sustainable development in Asia, the essential challenge is to reduce the use of natural resources and environmental degradation alongside the increasing demand for goods and services. To achieve this, Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nat...

This short paper – primarily for development policy-makers and practitioners – highlights a significant opportunity to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Case studies from Brazil, Ghana, Kenya and India demonstrate how supporting (and removing obstacles to) circular economy business models can provide a triple win: - inc...

Thanks to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for permission to use several of its graphics and to the SWITCH-Asia Programme and to Sanenergy for providing project information to be used as case studies. Design: Wingfinger Graphics Cover photos (clockwise from left): Eleanor Bentall/Tearfund; Nat.Genius; Sanergy © Tearfund 2016 Tearfund is a Christian r...

The latest issue of MakingIt, the quarterly magazine of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), features the perspective of SWITCH-Asia on sustainable consumption and lifestyle in Asia. With SWITCH-Asia case-studies from China, India and Indonesia, the article illustrates current trends and scenarios ahead, highlighting the...

This chapter presents an overview of the two related issues of climate change and sustainable consumption and production (SCP), and how Chinese civil society organizations (CSOs) including both grassroots CSOs and think tanks are addressing these two issues. A particular focus of the chapter is on CSO participation in processes aiming to influence...

In conjunction with the 7th ASEAN+3 Leadership Programme on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) held from 30th September to 3rd October 2014, the SWITCH-Asia Network Facility organised a workshop entitled “National SCP Policy Developments: Progress and Impacts”. The SWITCH- Asia Programme supports SCP policy development in Asian countries...

Cities in China will be crucial for deciding the direction of China's transition to a low-carbon economy and will play a key role in China's sustainable future. Over the next two decades over 325 million people will migrate to China's cities and by 2030 they are expected to house about 1 billion people. Will these cities be able to ‘leapfrog’ conve...

This paper analyses eight governance approaches and representative case studies on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) in China. Applying a four quadrants analysis framework (consumption, production, top–down, bottom–up), the effectiveness of governance approaches for SCP are assessed and discussed. Several case studies and examples either...

The chapter elaborates on the Chinese civil society organisations and initiatives in the field of climate policy.

This is one of the “Comparative Policy and Practice” Study Series undertaken by EU-China Environmental Governance Programme (EGP). The contents of every EGP “Comparative Policy and Practice” Study on EU (“EU Volume”) or China (“China Volume”) environmental governance approaches and mechanisms covering one of EGP’s four core thematic subjects is...

This chapter analyses China's responsibility for climate change by reference to the concept of ‘sustainable consumption and production’ (SCP). SCP has three main attributes. First, it is an integrative analytical perspective based on ‘life-cycle’ thinking for understanding the complex interrelationship between global economic activity and value cha...

This chapter looks at China's responsibility for climate change from the perspective of ‘sustainable consumption and production’ (SCP). The SCP approach is an integrative analytical perspective that captures the complex relationship between economic activity, human well-being, and environmental degradation. Drawing on the SCP perspective, the chapt...

This paper highlights current trends in consumption and production patterns in Asian developing countries and emerging economies. It describes the main challenges and opportunities for Asian countries making the transition towards sustainable consumption and production patterns. The main challenge for Asian economies is to address the unsustainable...

In recent years a number of different energy scenarios and technological pathways have been developed for China. On the one hand, standard scenario projections show that if China followed business-as-usual development trends, the country's growing economy, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions have the potential to eclipse the results of...