International environmental experts discuss challenges in resource efficiency

At the beginning of December in Berlin, adelphi welcomed participants of the 73rd UNEP / UNESCO / BMUB short course "Resource Efficiency - Cleaner Production and Waste Management" to discuss hands-on steps towards the dissemination of resource efficiency and the circular economy.

As part of the 73rd UNEP / UNESCO / BMUB Internationalen Kurzkurses "Ressourceneffizienz - Cleaner Production and Waste Management" at TU Dresden, adelphi hosted 23 government and business representatives from 22 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America for a halfday workshop to present challenges and approaches to the implementation of resource efficiency and the circular economy.

The adelphi team gave hands-on insight into various resource efficiency and circular economy initiatives, including: i) Supporting Self Employment and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED)  ii) Implementing sectoral approaches to resource efficiency (METABUILD); iii) Promoting cooperation between the formal and informal sector in the Indian e-waste sector, iv) transparency in supply chains (Atlas environmental impact) and v) financing of resource efficiency and climate adaptation measures.

The key message highlighted that the implementation of such measures requires country and sector-specific approaches and strong capacity building in countries of the Global South. This can be supported by established systems for performance monitoring and financing.

This postgraduate training program was started by UNEP, UNESCO and BMUB and has been administered at TU Dresden since 1977 by the Centre for International Postgraduate Studies of Environmental Management (CIPSEM). The target group of the program are specialists and leaders from developing and emerging countries active in the environmental field. Each year,  a six-month course covering a wide range of topics and three four-week short courses on selective environmental topics take place.