Climate Leadership Coalition has officially launched the Circular Economy Coalition, a new collaboration uniting leading companies, researchers, and policymakers across industrial value chains. The coalition’s goal is to strategically accelerate Finland and the Nordics' shift toward circular business models and establish Finland as a global frontrunner, turning current resource challenges into new economic opportunities.
Why now?
Circular economy is a strategic necessity for competitiveness, resilience, and climate neutrality. As Mario Draghi noted in his report on competitiveness, circularity is not just an environmental issue but a key lever for economic growth and resilience. Despite Finland's world-class technology and expertise, the country is currently lagging behind in adoption. Each year, Finland pays nearly €100 million in penalties to the EU for unrecycled packaging plastics, a stark reminder of the urgent need for change.
The real bottleneck – systemic challenges
The real obstacles to circularity are not technological. Instead, Finland faces a set of persistent structural barriers. The demand for circular solutions remains weak, and economic incentives are insufficient to make circularity the default business choice. Energy recovery through incineration continues to divert valuable materials away from higher-value recycling and reuse. Regulatory and market obstacles hinder the adoption of chemical recycling, while rigid waste classification rules restrict the reuse of materials that could otherwise re-enter the economy. The current tax system does little to encourage circular business models or the use of recycled materials. At the same time, slow and unclear regulation and permitting processes delay investments and innovation, and the metrics and logic guiding policy often lead to piecemeal, suboptimal solutions rather than systemic progress.
Pertti Korhonen, Chair of the board Remeo and Chair of the Coalition steering group, emphasizes:
“Finland is currently lagging behind in circular economy, but we have every opportunity to become a frontrunner and turn this into new economic growth. The only way to tackle these massive challenges is to harness the power of the market economy, making circular solutions more profitable than the linear model.”
The Nordic edge in circular transition
Nordic companies are well-positioned to lead this transformation, thanks to our world-class technological readiness and expertise, but also thanks to Finland’s clean, reliable, and affordable energy system, a stable and forward-looking policy environment, and a proven track record of aligning climate action with competitiveness.
Coalition’s core ambition
The Coalition’s overarching goal is to become a recognized actor in promoting circular economy more broadly across industrial value chains. To achieve this, the Circular Economy Coalition is committed to driving systemic change through the following key actions:
- Improve the business case and market demand for circular materials and solutions
- Examine material and energy streams together to enable true industrial symbiosis across value chains
- Aid Finland’s journey toward becoming a Carbon-Neutral Circular Economy Society by 2035
- Position circular economy as the leading theme for sustainable economic growth and future prosperity
- Develop conditions to increase recycling rates and the utilization of industrial side streams (by-products)
Shaping policy in Nordics and Brussels
The coalition will work to influence key EU legislation, including the Circular Economy Act, Green Public Procurement, EU Emissions Trading System review and Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. It will also seek to shape the upcoming Nordic elections to ensure circularity becomes a core pillar of economic and industrial policy.
