Global Sustainability in the International Arena Beyond the EU Policy Agenda

In the last decade, the EU has become a champion in the promotion of sustainability, especially in the paradigmatic terms of a Sustainable Circular Economy (SCE), but what does the landscape of the international scene look like? The chapter explores the promotion of SCE worldwide and thus addresses the question of whether the EU is a frontrunner in the transition from linear to circular economy or its role needs to be rescaled to one player among the many others that populate the international community. In fact, while the EU is surely one of the most prominent actors in this respect, it does not act in a vacuum. Many other actors took an interest the achievement of sustainability in general and in SCE in particular, and have become drivers of progressive change, in their respective geographical areas and fields of competence. The research shows that, while the EU is endowed with considerable power to influence and drive the legislative and policy agenda of Member States, other actors are, in their field of competence, promoting sustainable circular economy, consequently giving rise to a truly international and global effort from a linear economic system to a circular one.