ABSTRACT
The circular carbon economy (CCE) concept offers a comprehensive, technology-neutral, and flexible framework for assessing and supporting transitions to net-zero emissions. The CCE concept has been endorsed by the Group of Twenty (G20) countries as a holistic, integrated, pragmatic approach to managing emissions while promoting economic growth. The CCE framework can help countries assess what their strengths and weaknesses are vis-à-vis reaching carbon circularity or net-zero emissions. It can also be used to compare countries and to identify commonalities and differences, in areas such as leadership or challenges. This, in turn, can enable explorations of areas where countries’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as their priorities and needs, align, which could form the basis for cooperation to achieve higher ambition in reducing, recycling, reusing, and removing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions to reach full circularity in energy and emission flows.
This chapter starts by describing the CCE concept and explaining how it can be used for country comparisons using the Circular Carbon Economy Index. The Index is a composite indicator covering 64 countries that account for approximately 90% of the global economy and global emissions, including China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The chapter then examines China and the GCC, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as case studies. It focuses on two areas: first, how China and the GCC are currently faring on adopting and applying various CCE technologies and approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon circularity in their economies; and second, how well their enabling environments—policies, technology development, financing, business environments, and system resilience—are supporting their net-zero transitions.
In the final part, the chapter maps areas where China and the GCC could either strengthen their existing collaboration or open up new areas of cooperation in support of CCEs and net-zero emissions. The chapter then outlines what shape cooperation in these areas could take.
