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PBL wants to introduce its first monitoring report for transitioning
towards a circular economy in January 2021 and thereafter
every two years. The ambition is to generate independent and
indisputable data that will become the fundament for the Dutch
circular economy policy. Together with other scientists, I am a
member of the Social Economic Council reflection group advising
the PBL on developing this monitoring system. I am impressed by
the great number of data that PBL has collected and interpreted.
Measuring the progress of the Dutch circular economy policies
and practices is hard, but the PBL seems to have managed to find
a way to evaluate our success and failure factors. The monitoring
system will be a work in progress: we will have to see how it plays
out in practice and use national and international experiences for
further improvements.
The many variables at play make developing a monitoring system
very challenging. PBL has formulated indicators for both the effects
of the transition and the transition process itself. Effects to be
monitored include the amount of materials used and greenhouse
gas emissions, both direct and indirect, as well as economic
effects. To gain insight into the progress of the transition process
itself and the need for adjustment, additional indicators derived
from innovation research are used. Based on the mission-oriented
innovation systems approach of Hekkert c.s. 25 the following
indicators are applied: new entrepreneurship, development and
sharing of knowledge, giving the circular economy direction
through objectives and solutions, creation of markets and
legitimacy, mobilisation of resources, breaking through resistance
from the established system and orchestration of the various
change processes. These transition activities, however, will only
produce their intended effects over the long term. In the beginning,
the transition process will be slow. Updates and new documents
can be found on the Dutch government website’s dedicated page
25 Hekkert, M. et al., Mission-oriented Innovation Systems,
Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 2020, 34, 76-79,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2019.11.011.