Priming an Inclusive ‘Circular Economy’ to realize the SDGs: Complexity, Uncertainty and the SDGs

The draft SDGs proclaim seventeen goals to end poverty in all its forms everywhere and ensure healthy lives, quality education, gender equality, access to justice, modern energy for all, sustainable economic growth, resilient infrastructure and industrialization, make cities and human settlements inclusive, combat climate change and strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. The complex webs of SDGs demand that Africa fosters sustainable tools at all level of the implementation of the SDGs such as the circular economy as opposed to the rectilinear one. Insular focus on shoddy products has created a rectilinear ‘use & throw’ economy.
The circular economy is a redesign of the future, where industrial systems are restorative and regenerative by intention and design. The quality of products is defined beyond traditional metrics, to en¬compass positive effects on economies, ecology and social health. In this future, growth need not happen at the cost of environmental health. The potential for innovation, job creation and economic development is huge: estimates indicate a trillion-dollar opportunity, and numerous global trends suggest the time is ripe for change. Circular economy is intrinsically all-em¬bracing; it can only succeed if states, businesses and civil society draw up plans together and share ownership. No doubt, with the corporate greed being infused into the classic Socialist giants of China and India, the shift to a circular economy will be a boisterous one, it always seems within reach, only to elude; it seems practicable, only to resist realization. To paraphrase Churchill, I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to preserve our Earth’s environment, to ride out the storm of climate change, and to outlive the menace of corporate greed, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.
Key words: SDGs, circular economy, climate change adaptation, adaptive strategies,
see lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/15450636/Priming_an_Inclusive_Circular_Economy_to_realize_the_SDGs_Complexity_Uncertainty_and_the_Post-2015_UN_Sustainable_Development_Goals_SDGs_Public_Lecture_Notes_UNCC_Addis_Ababa