Mechanisms for Implementation

Scaling action for nature: how the circular economy can help to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

This webinar is the first in the Communities of Practice Webinar Series, hosted by the CBD Secretariat to support the implementation of Targets 14, 15 and 16.

Co-organized by the Secretariat and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, this webinar aims to highlight the largely untapped potential of the circular economy as a concrete and scalable solution for delivering biodiversity goals. It seeks to illustrate how strategic synergies can be established and how circular approaches and business models can be better integrated into the implementation process, to help mobilize biodiversity finance and drive the transformative economic change needed to halt and reverse nature loss.

The webinar will be held on May 14 2026, between 8:00 - 9:30AM EDT.

For registration, please access this link.

Speakers:

• Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity
• Janez Potočnik, Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel and Partner at Systemiq
• Adalberto Maluf, Secretary of Urban Environment, Water Resources and Environmental Quality, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and Sissi Alves, Director of New Economies, Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services - Brazil
• Mirabela Lupaescu, Policy Officer / Bioeconomy, European Commission
• Bianca Brasil, Program Manager Mainstreaming, Convention on Biological Diversity
• Marianne Kettunen, Biodiversity Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Background Information

The circular economy offers countries a practical route to tackling biodiversity loss at its source and meeting biodiversity goals. It does so by generating economic value in ways that not only prevent further loss and degradation but also help regenerate nature. This makes circular economy approaches and business models a powerful means of helping deliver biodiversity objectives.

It is estimated that biodiversity could recover to 2000 levels by 2035 through circular economy transitions alone. By 2050, circular land-use changes could contribute 28% of the action required to meet ambitious global biodiversity recovery goals – including reducing required agricultural land by over 600 million ha compared to business-as-usual, including freeing 280 million ha of forest habitats and saving 24 million ha of cotton cultivation area.

Despite this potential, the circular economy is absent from most NBSAPs and national targets. In general, targets encompassing socio-economic dimensions – essential to the transformative change that success requires — receive far less attention than those pertaining to conservation. The circular economy could help address this gap, yet only 25% of countries mention it as part of their national targets and strategies, and even then most focus narrowly on plastics and waste.

The recently published IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment recognises that the current conditions perpetuate business-as-usual and do not support the transformative change required to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. It explicitly identifies the circular economy as a key way forward to change these conditions.

Furthermore, with biodiversity target delivery lagging and the global biodiversity finance gap estimated at $700 billion per year, wider uptake of circular approaches and business models could help mainstream biodiversity considerations across sectors and mobilise funding towards practices that reduce pressures on — and help regenerate — biodiversity. They can also offer countries an economically compelling alternative for redirecting harmful subsidies.