| Abstract |
The present socioeconomic landscape, rife with conflicts and financial downturns resulted in a recess of nations when reaching green targets, casting doubt on their capacity to accomplish environmental goals. To address these challenges, Circular Cities (CC) recently gained traction, however, there is a lack of (1) unification of the approach, (2) Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), and (3) influence, which is still limited varying by city, amongst other gaps that need to be addressed. To restore faith to accomplish green goals, it is proposed an essential shift consisting of a methodology to design a Universal Circular Cities Declaration (UCCD) based on the 2020 Europe's Circular Cities Declaration (ECCD) as a baseline; particularly, this methodology builds on (1) the empirical approach of the CC Definition of Japan that interviewed key stakeholders, (2) the ECCD report 2022, and (3) a four-step sequential process involved in developing the UCCD, consisting of evaluating the 10 principles of the ECCD, incorporating existing literature from desk research, establishing a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and producing a blueprint for policymakers. A key finding underscores the possible skepticism of implementing it, and the responsibility of policymakers for crafting a coherent UCCD view to encompass cities, regions, and even nations. |