Low Carbon Circular Economy Awareness in Enterprises

A significant portion of carbon in the atmosphere is present as carbon dioxide. Exceeding a certain level of CO2 is life-threatening for living organisms and increases the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect causes global warming, which is caused by heat trapping, reduced radiation absorption and therefore critical climate disruptions. In order to prevent carbon emissions, policies and measures based on various topics should aim to preserve the natural balance.

The European Commission has added ‘Fitfor55’, an improvement package covering various regulations and protocols, to its planned work on climate change. With Fitfor55, the Commission sets a target of %55 reduction in carbon emissions globally by 2030, and lists important measures such as additional taxes for products that are not sensitive to greenhouse gases in the import of industrial products, control practices, etc. In this sense, the EU continues to draw a portrait of transformation in which organizations sensitive to reducing carbon emissions are brought forward in economic competition.

China, which is determined to cause more than a quarter of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, has developed certain measures and policies, aiming to exceed the EU targets in carbon emissions before 2030 and to zero carbon emissions by 2060. According to the Low Carbon Development Pathways and Priorities for Turkey 2015 report, Turkey is not among the largest ‘polluting’ countries in terms of carbon emissions. On the other hand, Turkey’s carbon emissions have increased by 110.4 percent in the last thirty years, and it is stated that these figures will accelerate in the future and that permanent solutions are essential. Therefore, there is a need for a holistic transformation awareness on a global scale, not only for the EU, China and other economic powers. In this sense, organizations that adopt relevant practices for global economic transformation will continue to be supported and sanctions will continue to be imposed on those that do not.

As the world agenda is changing in this way, various sanctions are being imposed on organizations from all sectors, especially in sectors such as iron and steel, cement, fertilizer and electricity, to make adjustments in their operations. Therefore, issues such as corporate carbon footprint offsetting solutions and steps to be taken to limit global warming to one and a half degrees form the basis of the circular economy transformation agenda of organizations.

The circular economy, unlike the linear economy, means resisting the profitability approach focused on consuming more resources and making money by creating waste(4). Covering a wide range of literature, the circular economy is based on a low-carbon economy model, which is expressed in one hundred and fourteen different definitions in the literature and is framed on the basis of environmental sustainability(5). In other words, the circular economy can be defined as an economy model based on the principle that profitability is measured by up-cycling and high quality recycling in order to reuse the available resources and bring them back into the economy. In this framework, improving air quality is one of the issues that paves the way for a low-carbon circular economy.

In a recent statement, the World Health Organization pointed to the need to adjust national policies to reduce air pollution, which it cited as the cause of many chronic diseases(6). Air pollution is cited as the strongest threat to climate change and human health.

The EU Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), which was established by the European Union in 1993 and continued its activities during the Covid-19 pandemic, has developed a number of policies framed by air quality improvement targets7. EMAS, of which nearly five thousand international organizations are voluntary members, aims to bring the current situation to the level of climate neutrality (balancing carbon emissions with carbon sequestration) by 2030 with a strategy of focusing on the sectors that cause the most air pollution8. Therefore, subjecting international organizations to regulations on clean air quality targets is expected to be a trigger for other organizations.

In this respect, regulations can reduce adverse conditions for human health, as well as stop further threats to the ecosystem through critical factors such as further biodiversity loss. Corporations can take action to protect human health and the global climate by renewing all operational processes to reduce air pollution.

In terms of their responsibilities for the future of the world, organizations need to develop sensitivity towards the ecosystem, renew their activity targets according to green consciousness and share the goal of reducing global carbon emissions. The global transformation indicates that organizations that serve holistic consciousness will shine in the global economy, while others will be left behind on the economic stage.