Date: 19 June 2025
Venue: Side Event Room Bonn, UNFCCC SB62 Venue, World Conference Centre, Bonn
Time: 16:30 to 18:00

Co-organizers

SWITCH-Asia, Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA), EU SWITCH-Asia Programme, Centre for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD), Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)

Introduction

The year 2025 marks a defining moment in the global climate landscape, with countries expected to submit their enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0) ahead of COP30 in Belem, Brazil. Beyond ambition, the core challenge lies in implementation and monitoring, ensuring that commitments translate into meaningful climate action.

Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and Circular Economy (CE) present innovative pathways to align socioeconomic development with climate mitigation. These strategies enable resource-efficient growth, reduce emissions, and bolster climate resilience while engaging the private sector and supporting national development priorities.

The findings of the Global Resource Outlook 2024, published by the International Resource Panel (IRP), reinforce this by showing that resource extraction and processing contribute to over 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 90% of land-use releated biodiversity loss and water stress. There are significant disparities between countries as high-income countries consume six times more materials per capita than low-income countries. These disparities highlight the urgent need for transformative policy action to achieve more equitable and sustainable resource management. The report underscores that material efficiency and circularity strategies alone could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions from materials production by up to 40% by 2060,

The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and the UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2024 both call for drastic reductions in emissions to maintain a pathway to 1.5°C warming. Specifically, greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 42% by 2030 and 57% by 2035. Without immediate and systemic changes, the world risks warming between 2.6–3.1°C this century—a scenario with severe consequences for people, ecosystems, and economies. —highlighting

The Global Stocktake (GST) concluded at COP29 in Baku underlined the need for increased ambition, enhanced action, and international support. The GST further emphasized the importance of net-zero transitions tailored to each country’s context, requiring whole-of-government approaches, robust financial architecture reform, and enhanced private sector participation. SCP and CE offer avenues for such systemic transitions, enabling countries to enhance climate ambition while advancing sustainable development.

To fully harness the climate mitigation and adaptation potential of Circular Economy, Material Resource Efficiency, and SCP, these approaches must be strategically integrated into national climate ambitions. Climate change cannot be addressed in isolation; it is intrinsically linked with the broader environmental and natural resource use and managements context, particularly biodiversity loss and pollution. By embedding SCP and CE into climate policy frameworks, countries can tackle the triple planetary crisis in a cohesive and transformative way—maximizing climate benefits while advancing sustainable development and ecological integrity.

The Side Event

The EU SWITCH-Asia Programme, in collaboration with CANSA, CPRD, and SDPI, is convening this side event to take stock of progress made across Asia and the Pacific in integrating SCP and CE principles into national climate agendas. The SB62 session in Bonn represents a critical juncture in the global climate negotiation calendar, offering a timely opportunity to discuss how SCP and CE can support Just Energy Transitions and the Mitigation Work Programme.

• Drawing from experiences in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Pacific, this event aims to:
• Assess the current status of SCP/CE integration into NDCs and discuss national implementation plans.
• Foster dialogue to deepen global understanding of the SCP-climate nexus
• Identify challenges and solutions for mainstreaming SCP/CE strategies in post-NDC 3.0 implementation phases.

About the Organizers