The Economic Cooperation and Trade Division of UNECE is implementing a capacity-building project “Accelerating the transition towards a Circular Economy in the UNECE region” financed by the United Nations Development Account (UNDA) (2021-2024).

The project includes activities in various sectors and Sustainable and Innovation-Enhancing Public Procurement is one of the key areas of work for Circular Economy transition in UNECE region. Sustainable public procurement is a crucial issue because the transition to the Circular Economy requires a simultaneous shift in production and consumption systems, and systemic change is often hampered by network and coordination externalities and misalignment in pricing.

By integrating circularity principles into public procurement criteria, Governments have a great opportunity to catalyze this systemic change.  Besides making the consumption of the public sector more circular and setting an example for consumers - they can also create a highly visible, reliable demand for circular products and services, which in turn can create powerful incentives for the business sector to make the necessary investments into sustainable production. In particular, innovation-enhancing procurement can be used to stimulate the development of new technologies, production processes and products that meet circularity criteria by tying tenders to impact indicators rather than technical specifications. Public procurement and investments are crucial to install the necessary infrastructure to support the Circular Economy.  

To explore this important topic deeper, the Economic Cooperation and Trade Division will organize Regional Policy Dialogue: Sustainable and Innovation-Enhancing Public Procurement to support Circular Economy Transition in UNECE region on 15 November at 8:00-9:45 AM CET. This meeting will also contribute to development of a policy brief on Sustainable and Innovation-Enhancing Public Procurement, with policy options for member States, which can help in the development of the national roadmaps/action plans on circular economy, one of the main outputs of the UN DA project.

The webinar will take place online and have an English/Russian Interpretation.

Agenda of the meeting is available here. 

Registration link is here.

Should you have any questions, please contact the Circular STEP Secretariat at [email protected].