Wayne Hubbard on the importance of accelerating the transition to a circular economy

Ahead of the Sustainable Innovation Forum 2020 taking place across 5 days from the 16-20 November, we caught up with Wayne Hubbard, CEO at London Waste and Recycling Board, to discuss the importance of accelerating the transition to a circular economy.

2020 was meant to user in a decade of action on climate change but we have been fighting a different challenge, COVID-19. How has this impacted climate ambition and momentum, especially as COP26 has been postponed to November 2021?  

The thing that strikes me about the pandemic is that it is causing us – and will continue to cause us – to question what we do and how we do it. For example, the use of the internet to conduct business or to see family and friends has, ironically, made the world feel a little smaller.

I have been to more conferences and spoken to more people across the globe in the last few months than I ever have – with none of the carbon impacts of flying. That momentum on climate policy has been interrupted is in no doubt; and that COVID has been deeply disruptive and tragic is clear; but the implications of the post-COVID era also have the potential to be significant and positive.

To meet 2030 targets, any decision, investments and industry we support will ultimately decide the future we rebuild. Will they keep us on track for 2030 targets and the Paris Agreement? 

We at LWARB are focused on the reduction of consumption-based emissions and the ‘stuff’ that is produced, used and thrown away – so we will continue to provide support, and will focus any governmental recovery funding we receive on supporting, those products, services and initiatives that help to minimise emsissions, reduce waste and increase recycling. 

With just 12 months to COP26, what must be done, what key actions must we see and what would you demand from businesses and governments ahead of these crunch negotiations? 

We should remain laser-focused on building a green recovery, ensuring that help is targeted to those sectors and businesses that reduce carbon emissions, or qualified such that any funding is provided subject to emissions reductions or business model change. We must resist an approach which prioritises ‘recovery at any cost’, so that the recovery helps us build back better and greener.

Is there anything that COP should be placing greater emphasis on? 

Yes – we believe that it is time to place much more emphasis on the role that consumption-based carbon emissions play in climate change. I have been impressed by the work of Per Klevnas for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in unpicking the hard to abate emissions produced by food and manufacturing.

These typically cannot be abated through changes in energy use, from fossil fuel to renewable sources, but instead have to be reduced through behaviour change. The biggest drivers of these emissions are northern hemisphere cities and the solution is the accelerated transition to a circular economy.

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London Waste and Recycling Board are an Institutional Partner of the Sustainable Innovation Forum 2020. Join them and other industry leading experts by registering for free today.