Abstract
Current efforts by the Pacific SIDS towards SDGs and the climate target (NDC) are embedded in the old linear economic paradigm of “take-make-dispose”. Circular economy (CE) is a systems approach to sustainability that is increasingly applied in the global north, and has seen exponential growth in academic literature in OECD countries. Amidst this, our understanding of CE practices or progress in Pacific SIDS is limited. This study contributes in this gap by identifying baseline initiatives, and strategies advancing CE in Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. The CE diagram from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, formed the framework for characterising CE initiatives and strategies. Mixed-methods methodology was utilised. National material input data were gathered, and allocated through a Sankey diagram according to their CE trajectories and destinations. CE initiatives and strategies were elicited from publicly available institutional and organisational reports. The same data were subsequently analysed for CE governance as a function of the interaction between material-economic factors, discourse, actors and institutions. The findings revealed that there are CE activities occurring in varying degrees in the three SIDS. The choice, inter alia, of ocean management (OM) policies, revealed the use of ingrained cultural path dependencies and environmental knowledge, secured material economic opportunities and strengthened self-determination. It also exposed how selecting an alternative OM regime can divide vulnerable communities while building new actor-institutions and dependencies with the potential to erode community resilience and impoverish residents. Pacific SIDS’s insights provide geographically effective and efficient approach to the SDGs and the NDCs.
Presenters
Litia Vea SimpsonStudent, PhD Candidate in Economics, Massey University, Northland, New Zealand
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
PACIFIC, SIDS, KNOWLEDGE, LOCAL, SUSTAINABILITY, SDG, NDC, GEOGRAPHY, SPECIFIC, ENVIRONMENTAL
