Aiming for a climate neutral future In January, last year, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told attendees at the World Economic Forum 2020 that the European Union would do “whatever it takes” to the unlock investment, innovation and creativity needed to become climate neutral by 2050. The EU, Von der Leyen said, was on a mission to become the world’s first climate neutral continent. This goal was detailed in the EC’s European Green Deal – a programme containing a raft of world-reaching measures, guidelines and regulatory reforms aimed at shifting industrial strategies in the EU towards circular business models and clean technologies. And in March 2020, as part of this programme, the EC unveiled its latest Circular Economy Action Plan for Europe that precisely detailed the legislative and non-legislative measures that would be taken on circularity in the coming years.