Resolutionen om cirkulær økonomi fra den Inter Parlamentariske Unions virtuelle forårssession afholdt den 24.-27. maj 2021

142nd IPU ASSEMBLY
Virtual session, 24-28 May 2021
E
#IPU142
Mainstreaming digitalization and the circular economy
to achieve the SDGs, particularly responsible
consumption and production
Resolution adopted by consensus by the 142nd IPU Assembly*
(Virtual session, 27 May 2021)
The 142nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
Fully endorsing the Political Declaration of the Sustainable Development
Goals Summit (September 2019), which reaffirms the commitment to advance the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, and calls for accelerated action in order to achieve
the SDGs,
Recalling the Ministerial Declaration of the 2019 United Nations Environment
Assembly, particularly the commitment made by governments worldwide to "improve
national resource management strategies with an integrated full life-cycle approaches
and analysis to achieve resource-efficient and low-carbon economies", while taking into
account national circumstances,
Noting the establishment of the Global Alliance on Circular Economy and
Resource Efficiency, which aims to support the transition to a global circular economy for
more efficient and equitable use of resources so as to achieve sustainable consumption
and production, and inclusive and sustainable industrialization,
Underlining that the circular economy and digitalization, and the interplay
between them, can make a major contribution to reaching the SDGs, particularly
responsible consumption and production,
Mindful that due to the COVID-19 pandemic we are facing major disruptions
that will force us to use our limited means even more efficiently against the background of
the crisis,
Stressing that the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed hard-won development
gains, particularly in achieving gender equality and reducing poverty, and has exposed
the deep economic and social inequalities and the challenges addressed by the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, thus making the achievement of the SDGs all the
more necessary and urgent,
Emphasizing that responsible consumption and production are pivotal and
cross-cutting elements of the SDGs, and are crucial means to build back better and
greener, as they enable the efficient use of natural resources, minimize environmental
degradation, pollution and waste, and consider each stage of the life cycle while creating
opportunities for social and economic development, thus contributing to poverty
eradication and shared prosperity,
Aware that the pandemic crisis has revealed the precariousness of long and
complex value chains, and the flaws of the linear "take-make-use-dispose" pattern of
production and consumption,
2030-netværket 2020-21
SDG Alm.del - Bilag 40
Offentligt
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Noting that the price of products does not always reflect environmental or social costs,
such as pollution effects or underpaid labour, which have a negative impact on people’s health and
quality of life,
Encouraging the disclosure of appropriate product information to consumers, and
promoting the development of measures to increase transparency in production chains,
Stressing that circular economy transformation, although predominantly associated
with product manufacturing or resource intensive industries and value chains, refers to the
economy as a whole, including service dominated industries, thus requiring the engagement of the
full range of actors across each industry and sector,
Noting that the world is currently in the midst of the creation of a more circular
economy, through policy initiatives such as the European Circular Economy Action Plan, and of the
digital revolution, both of which have the power to transform our economy and society,
Noting also that big efforts are currently being made by national and international
policymakers to promote and regulate both transitions, and the increasing need to align their efforts
or create bridges between policies,
Underscoring that, through the "digital for development" (D4D) policy, consideration is
being given to how digitalization could change people’s lives and result in inclusive, equitable,
efficient, affordable, faster and, above all, sustainable universal growth,
Noting that digitalization gives rise to novel digital platforms, helps create new kinds of
markets, which can be based on the virtualization of products and processes, and facilitates easier
and more efficient networking, collaboration and co-creation with stakeholders,
Bearing in mind that digitalization helps to cut costs and increase efficiency, including
efficiency of resources,
Underscoring the important role of international digital learning and collaboration
platforms, often with virtual technologies, for learning, networking and co-creation, while the
COVID-19 pandemic poses severe challenges to education across the world due to limited access
to infrastructure and technologies,
Aware that digitalization is not a goal in itself but an enabler and an accelerator to
effectively achieve all 17 SDGs,
Highlighting the fact that the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated digitalization,
Mindful that because of the restrained mobility of people due to the prescribed health
protocol of physical distancing as a result of the pandemic, consumer behaviour towards
digitalization has radically changed, especially in terms of transactions of both private and public
goods,
Underscoring that any future disaster risk reduction strategy will be (big) data driven,
Paying due regard to avoiding the most vulnerable people becoming victims of the
circular economy and digital transition by including solidarity in the recovery process in order to
fully seize the opportunities of the current crisis,
Stressing that the shift to a circular economy has the potential to allow countries to
decouple growth from resource use and environmental impact, generate economic opportunities,
build long-term resilience, protect the environment and human health,
Underlining that the implementation of the circular economy principles in key sectors
can play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and successfully addressing
climate change,
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Bearing in mind that creating consumer demand for resource efficient products can be
a challenge, as environmentally sustainable products may not be easily available, affordable,
user-friendly or functional and attractive to consumers, especially at the early stages of their
development,
Acknowledging the potential of digitalization to strengthen the circular economy, and
stressing that circular economy and sustainability principles should be at the heart of digitalization,
Noting that digitalization and the circular economy are driven by the following "bridging
technologies": the internet of things, artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, 3D printing,
augmented reality, and blockchain,
Recognizing that the circular economy and digitalization have the potential to
contribute to equitable economic growth and enable the economic empowerment of women and
vulnerable populations, and youth-led collective action,
Emphasizing that mainstreaming digitalization and the circular economy requires
ambition, political will and a fundamental change of vision at all levels, which go far beyond the
standard digital and environmental political agendas, and must be based on a systemic national
approach with the participation of all sectors of society, as well as on enhanced international
cooperation,
1. Invites parliaments to give digitalization and the circular economy more prominence on
the political agenda, as part of their efforts to address the SDGs, particularly
responsible consumption and production;
2. Calls on parliaments to mainstream digitalization and circular economy principles into
public policies and national strategies, and to adopt an enabling framework for their
implementation;
3. Notes that reducing existing inequalities in terms of access to digital platforms on the
part of women and many vulnerable populations as well as marginalized segments of
society, including Indigenous people, racialized communities, and persons with
disabilities in order to enhance their full participation in the digital economic transition
should be duly regarded;
4. Encourages parliaments to promote adequate regulatory frameworks, including
economic and financial incentives, with a view to enabling circular economy models to
deliver sustainable products and services that are both scalable and competitive in
terms of price, quality and convenience;
5. Calls on all actors to make the right innovative choices against the background of the
pandemic and to prioritize future-proof and sustainable sectors and technologies while
benefitting from the huge social, economic and ecological advantages of smart
digitalization;
6. Invites parliaments to recognize the need for and opportunity of a resilient and
low-carbon inclusive recovery from COVID-19, as an enabler for achieving the 2030
Agenda, and calls on them to ensure that recovery plans incorporate responsible
consumption and production practices, based on digitalization and circular economy
principles, among others, while taking into account national circumstances;
7. Calls on parliaments to adopt legislation that addresses food waste and loss at every
phase and level of the food supply chain, and to stimulate the use of new technologies
for the creation of an integrated agricultural and food system whereby food utilization
is optimized and loss and waste of resources are minimized;
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8. Urges parliaments to support policies that encourage repair, reuse and resource
recycling, including the design of products suitable for recycling; the reduction of
primary material consumption; and the utilization of secondary resources to facilitate
sustainable resource management, and invites them to encourage new business and
service models that are not dependent on mass consumption of disposable products;
9. Requests parliaments to ensure that the functioning of all public institutions, central
and local, takes a more holistic approach to sustainability, while incorporating both
digital and circular economy principles, including the adoption of green and
sustainable procurement legislative frameworks and monitoring systems;
10. Invites parliaments to encourage international policy coordination of standards,
regulations and policies for the circular economy;
11. Calls on parliaments to create an environment conducive to the development and
application of digital solutions, such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence and
blockchain, aimed at maximizing the potential of the circular economy;
12. Also calls on parliaments, as part of efforts to create an enabling environment for
digitalization and the circular economy, to place special emphasis on data policies and
common data architecture;
13. Invites parliaments to encourage research and development to increase innovation
and knowledge-sharing including the transfer of technology, particularly to developing
countries on mutually agreed terms for the uptake, upscaling and replication of
resource-efficient and clean technologies and innovative business practices based on
digitalization and the circular economy;
14. Encourages parliaments to promote collaboration with the Technology Bank for Least
Developed Countries, established by UN General Assembly resolution 71/251, which
has a critical role to play in the digital transformation of the LDCs, to attain sustainable
development by facilitating access to and implementation of digital technologies and
providing assistance with data management issues;
15. Calls on parliaments from donor countries to encourage international development
cooperation agencies to mainstream digitalization and circular economy principles in
their financial assistance and capacity-building programmes aimed at supporting
COVID-19 economic recovery and SDG implementation;
16. Also calls on governments to integrate digital skills and a circular way of life in
education at the earliest possible stage; and to conduct awareness campaigns to
encourage consumers’ engagement in sustainable practices;
17. Invites parliaments to create an enabling environment for citizens’ access to digital
solutions for their digital empowerment;
18. Also invites parliaments and governments to allocate appropriate financial resources
to encourage the development of both digital and circular economy business models,
while specifically empowering young and women entrepreneurs;
19. Further invites parliaments to promote gender-inclusive education frameworks and
policies to boost education opportunities and digital skills development for women and
girls in STEAM-subjects to narrow the gender digital divide;
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20. Encourages parliaments to support efforts by regional and local institutions to foster
urban sustainability through the development of inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable smart cities that digitally optimize communication, transport, energy, water
and sanitation systems, according to circular economy and digitalization principles;
21. Emphasizes the urgent need to work towards a circular built environment by adopting
building practices that minimize the use of raw materials to decrease emissions, by
increasing the recovery rate of construction and demolition waste, and by improving
the energy efficiency and extending the lifespan of existing buildings;
22. Calls on parliaments to encourage the integration of circular economy models into the
national response to climate change, and invites them to ensure that climate change
policies and strategies include measures to optimize the utility of products by
maximizing their use and extending their lifespan and enhance recycling (using waste
as a resource), while promoting a circular design that reduces material consumption
and uses lower-carbon alternatives;
23. Also calls on parliaments to encourage full transparency pertaining to all used
materials in manufacturing in order to limit any introduction of harmful chemical
substances in the production cycle, and furthermore to promote the use of fully
recyclable materials;
24. Invites parliaments to support the adoption, including through public-private
partnerships, of sound environmental and social standards for the extractive
industries, as well as of standards and policy frameworks that enhance the
sustainable recycling of secondary materials and mitigate challenges associated with
the digital economy;
25. Calls on parliaments to promote digitalization and circular solutions, including circular
procurement, circular design and services instead of products, as a means to develop
a more resilient, and economically and environmentally sustainable travel and tourism
industry;
26. Requests parliaments to ensure that governments invest in adequate digital
infrastructure for secure, accessible and affordable internet coverage, connectivity,
regulatory frameworks for data protection/privacy, and cybersecurity standards and
governance, in order to enable the circular economy and D4D to reach their full
potential;
27. Invites parliaments to incentivize the implementation of circular business models with
long-term benefits, such as changing consumer behaviour, stimulating innovation, and
the scaling and diffusion of technologies;
28. Calls on parliaments to stimulate national and international networking and
collaboration between schools, research institutions and networks, and other relevant
stakeholders (for example, companies, NGOs and international organizations) to find
digital solutions to challenges related to the circular economy, for example by
encouraging co-creation through competitions and hackathons;
29. Invites parliaments to ensure that efforts to accelerate the transition to digitalization
and the circular economy address potential risks, such as increasing material and
energy use, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, deepening the digital gap among
and within countries, and increasing the environmental footprint of the IT industry, as
well as the transition’s negative consequences in terms of security and human health;
30. Calls on the IPU to enhance cooperation with Member Parliaments and other
organizations in order to gather evidence on the circular economy, environment and
digitalization, to map the interplay between them and to promote guidelines for
parliamentary action;
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31. Also calls on parliaments to see to it that digitalization and circular-economy
principles, and strengthened goals to this effect, are incorporated while approving
future free trade agreements, which require parliamentary ratification;
32. Invites parliaments to support the use of standardized, comparable and high-quality
digital data which is properly mined, investigated and managed, and stresses that
promoting digitalization is an important tool to support efficient and reliable information
collection and delivery, which are key elements for a safe and sustainable circular
economy;
33. Requests parliaments to rationalize the discussion on data sharing by distinguishing
between different types of data and to establish fair and functional data regulation
based on common sense by securing fair access to data, as well as fair protection of
data according to the internationally accepted data protection principles, intellectual
property rights and other relevant legal frameworks as per national circumstances;
34. Encourages parliaments and governments to engage in dialogue with stakeholders
(for example, civil society, companies and administrations) in order to increase their
awareness of the importance of providing open data and turn them into active
participants of the data economy and co-creators of knowledge when legally possible;
35. Calls on parliaments to envisage measures aimed at tackling people’s lack of basic
digital skills and e-literacy, and at increasing the number of IT, artificial intelligence,
blockchain and other digital professionals, as a means to proactively shape a digital
transformation centred around sustainable ecological, social and economic
development dimensions;
36. Invites parliaments to exchange information and best practices and implement
capacity-building programmes with a view to increasing awareness and knowledge
among parliamentarians about the interplay between digitalization and the circular
economy, and its potential in promoting a resilient and green recovery and achieving
the SDGs, particularly responsible consumption and production.
*
The resolution was negotiated in keeping with the Special Rules of Procedure governing virtual sessions of
the IPU Assembly and Standing Committees. Reservations were received from:
India, which expressed reservations on preambular paragraphs 7 and 29.
Nicaragua, which expressed reservations on operative paragraphs 3, 8, 20, and 28.