ACEA at UNEA-7: Advancing Africa's circular economy agenda

ACEA, which is hosted by the African Development Bank, was represented by its Secretariat, Margaret Kamau and Bonmwa Fwangkwal, participating in sessions where implementation questions, standards, safeguards, and pathways to scale, are being refined. ACEA also advanced circular economy in Africa's policy narrative during key moments throughout the Assembly:

A defining moment came through Leadership Dialogue 2, "Round and Round: Why circularity and sustainability are critical to the future of global industry" (12 December), which placed sustainable materials management at the center of environmental protection and industrial competitiveness, examining resilience in sectors including textiles and plastics, with social safeguards treated as integral to transition design rather than secondary considerations.

In his remarks, African Development Bank’s Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth, Dr. Kevin Kariuki outlined: "Circularity builds resilience to global supply shocks by keeping materials in use locally and lowering pollution induced environmental and health risks, while creating new livelihoods in repair, remanufacturing, and recycling.." He emphasized delivery, noting the Bank's commitment to "generate investments that create jobs, strengthen resilience, and protect ecosystems."

For African policymakers and development partners, the environmental and economic case has become clearer: Africa's industrialization is unfolding amid climate pressures, resource constraints, pollution risks, and supply-chain volatility. Circular value chains offer a practical response that addresses both environmental degradation and economic opportunity. The scale is substantial: Africa's circular economy represents an estimated $546 billion annually and over 11 million potential jobs by 2030 across priority value chains, while reducing pollution, resource depletion, and curbing the 45% emissions linked to materials extraction and waste.

ACEA's contribution is structural by design. As a government-led platform uniting 22 countries, the Alliance advances circular economy policies, standards harmonization, and regional collaboration, creating the enabling environment for circular value chains to function across borders. Working in tandem, the Africa Circular Economy Facility (ACEF) provides the catalytic financing needed to translate policy frameworks into investable projects and implementation capacity on the ground.

This dual-mechanism approach, highlighted at UNEA7, addresses what the continent needs most: enabling architecture that protects environment while creating bankable delivery pathways:

• Standards and market enablers: ACEA's collaboration with the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) is advancing harmonized circular economy standards, including an adopted recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) standard. This addresses a critical barrier, fragmented standards that limit regional trade in secondary materials, while simultaneously reducing plastic pollution and building investor confidence in circular value chains.

• Bankable pathways:  Dr. Kevin Kariuki made the investment case explicit at UNEA7: keeping materials in use locally reduces exposure to global supply shocks, lowers pollution-induced health and environmental risks, and creates livelihoods in repair, remanufacturing, and recycling. It points to concrete implementation pathways including critical minerals recycling, where recycling cobalt and lithium could offset the need for one new mine by 2030, reducing mining's environmental footprint, and integrating circular design principles as African cities expand, preventing resource lock-in and pollution before infrastructure is built.

  
  

At the end of UNEA-7, the signal from Nairobi is measured but consequential: circular economy is increasingly positioned as both environmental imperative and industrial strategy. For African leaders and development partners, the question has shifted from whether circularity belongs in development and environmental frameworks to how rapidly the enabling conditions (policy coherence, standards harmonization, investable pipelines, and inclusive safeguards) can be strengthened to deliver environmental protection and economic results at scale.