Both the EU and China have policies to promote recycling, energy saving, and the green economy. Yet relevant knowledge and data are in short supply, not only on the economic implications but also on how policy can influence drivers like technological innovation. A new three-year project entitled ‘SINCERE’ will gather European and Chinese researchers to fill these gaps.
Prof. René Kemp and Eva Bartekova joined the first Sino-European workshop on resource efficiency (RE) and circular economy (CE) in Shanghai, China from 14-16 October 2015. At the workshop, researchers from Europe and China discussed policy frameworks for RE and CE in Europe and early research findings, before making a site visit to the Lingang industrial zone, a future low-carbon zone.
From UNU-MERIT, Serdar Turkeli, Eva Bartekova and Prof. René Kemp are involved in the project. UNU-MERIT is responsible for the bibliometric analysis, the comparative analysis of institutions and policy frameworks, the innovation survey under (re)manufacturing and for studying the innovation-policy link for the case of eco-cement.
The SINCERE project will examine historical patterns between resource indicators, trade and macro-economic performance, develop new economic models for explaining resource-use and examine the role of policy in RE and CE patterns. Another important aim is to strengthen collaboration between European and Chinese researchers.
The project partners are the Institute for Sustainable Resources (ISR) of UCL in the UK, the Institute for Applied Ecology of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, Wuppertal University and the Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI in Germany, and ParisMinesTech in France. See the SINCERE project website for more details.
MEDIA CREDITS
UNU / R.Kemp