Circular Economy – a key component of a water-smart society

When: Thursday, 23 March 2023 | 8 am-9:15 am EDT

Where: Interactive Dialogue Room 4, UN Headquarters, New York City, USA

This is an in-person side event at the UN Headquarters during the UN 2023 Water Conference. The event is organized by the European Union, the Ministry of Environment of Peru, the United Nations Environment Programme, and Water Europe, and implemented together with partners, including the Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency.

The objective of the event is to provide a visible platform to public, private, scientific, intergovernmental and civil society organizations to showcase coordinated and innovative actions and voluntary commitments to the Water Action Agenda to demonstrate the potential of “going circular” for reducing the water footprint and to promote sustainable consumption and production.

Through an exchange of practices, high-level speakers from the following sectors will be able to illustrate how the transition can be accelerated by public policy frameworks encouraging circularity, innovative business models and technologies, cross-sectoral partnerships, policy-oriented research, lessons learnt from behavioural science and engagement from civil society. The audience will get a better understanding of the different contributions and solutions from science, policy, corporates and civil society to revalue water in the circular economy, in line with Interactive Dialogue 2: Water for Sustainable Development: Valuing Water, Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Sustainable Economic and Urban Development (SDG 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 and SDGs 2, 8, 9, 11, 12). 

The event concluded that we must build water-smart societies in which the value of water is recognized and realized to ensure water security, sustainability and resilience. Read more in the just published World Water Development Report 2023 which highlights the need for new partnerships to help achieve progress on water pollution and the Sustainable Development Goals generally.

The first-ever International #ZeroWasteDay on 30 March is coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN-Habitat and seeks to #BeatWastePollution and promote circularity, including the reuse and recycling of waste materials.