How can a circular economy help secure the critical minerals essential to climate solutions in the energy and digital sectors, making them more resilient?
At London Climate Action Week (LCAW) 2026, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation brought together industry leaders and stakeholders including Back Market, CATL, Google, the International Energy Agency, Octopus Energy Generation, ReLondon, SAP, and Syensqo to answer this key question.
Together with WRAP and the Zero Waste Foundation, we partnered with Climate Action to co-host the first ever Circularity and Zero Waste Stage at the Climate Innovation Forum — LCAW’s opening flagship event — attended by around 2,500 business, policy, finance, and technology leaders committed to scaling climate and nature solutions and accelerating implementation.
Opening the session, the Foundation’s Climate Lead, Miranda Schnitger, said circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. approaches were key to tackling the 45% of emissions that come from how we produce and consume.
She said: “The temperatures we experienced in London couldn’t have given us a clearer message: get on with it. And the message from this stage also couldn’t have been clearer: the circular economy is an essential climate action lever. It is an opportunity to redesign systems. It is complementary to — not in competition with — the energy transition. We must act now to bring these solutions to scale and lean into the spotlight the COP31 Presidency is putting on zero waste and circular economy solutions, in addition to electrification.”
Highlighting the central role of critical minerals in delivering multiple climate solutions key to the energy transition and other sectors, Critical Minerals Executive Lead Wen-Yu Weng said a circular economy for critical minerals could help meet surging demand, strengthen supply chain resilience, and unlock economic growth and innovation, while also supporting climate action.
She said: “The fact our session was so hugely oversubscribed, with people crowding at the doors and watching from outside, shows this is at the top of every agenda. And that it was held on the first ever circularity stage at LCAW signals real intent in demonstrating how these topics — climate action, critical minerals, and the circular economy — align.
“The circular economy is the answer — keeping critical minerals in use at their highest value, reducing the need for virgin extraction over time, and ensuring the transitions the world depends on are built on resilient, equitable foundations.
“We are grateful to our Network organisations for their support and excited to spark conversations with potential new collaborators.”
Wen-Yu Weng - Executive Lead - Critical Minerals with CATL
An industry showcase highlighted the circular products, business models, and systems already making an impact — including EV battery swapping, refurbished electronics, and digital product passport policies — and explored how we can build on this momentum ahead of COP31.
The Foundation is playing its part by collaborating with organisations in our Network on new projects. Our work in the EV battery sector, together with CATL and others, will include developing circular design guidelines to embed circularity across the entire value chain, and creating a cross-sector coalition to advocate for the economic and policy conditions that make circular business models the default.
CATL Vice President and Board Secretary, David Jiang, said: “Better technology extends the life of every material in the system. But technology alone is not enough. The industry also needs a common way to measure circular performance, and a shared framework for deploying circular business models across different markets. The guidelines and the coalition are precisely that.”
In electronics — building on our ongoing projects in secondary markets for critical minerals and smartphone circularity — we have been working with Deloitte on data centre circularity, focusing on the operational hardware powering the rapidly-expanding digital and AI economy.
Interested in joining or supporting our new projects, or exploring our Critical Minerals mission? Learn more about working with us.
