Governments and policymakers worldwide have been setting targets to achieve an ambitious net-zero emission target by 2050 to tackle the pressing issue of climate change. However, achieving the net-zero emission target by 2050 depends on the factors determining the transition from traditional fossil fuel energy sources to renewables. In connection with this, policymakers have emphasised the need to transition from a linear to a circular economy. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of the progress towards a circular economy in reducing CO₂ emissions and promoting environmental sustainability. To do so, we use annual historical data for a panel of 29 European countries from 2000 to 2020. Using an identification strategy that adopts heteroscedastic-based instrumental variables and addresses endogeneity issues, we find that progress towards a circular economy significantly improves environmental quality via reducing CO₂ emissions. Our findings suggest that business strategies promoting recycling and circular economy practices play an important role in environmental sustainability by reducing emissions.

中文翻译：

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迈向循环经济：对减排和环境可持续性的影响

世界各国政府和政策制定者一直在设定目标，以在 2050 年之前实现雄心勃勃的净零排放目标，以解决紧迫的气候变化问题。然而，到 2050 年实现净零排放目标取决于决定从传统化石燃料能源向可再生能源过渡的因素。与此相关，政策制定者强调了从线性经济向循环经济过渡的必要性。_{在本文中，我们研究了循环经济在减少 CO 2}方面取得的进展的有效性排放和促进环境可持续性。为此，我们使用了 29 个欧洲国家从 2000 年到 2020 年的年度历史数据。使用采用基于异方差的工具变量并解决内生性问题的识别策略，我们发现循环经济的进步通过以下方式显着改善了环境质量减少CO ₂排放。我们的研究结果表明，促进回收利用和循环经济实践的商业战略通过减少排放在环境可持续性方面发挥着重要作用。