OPEN LETTER FROM THE SWEDISH OFFICIAL NON-NEGOTIATING DELEGATION TO COP31
Making NDCs Investable
Scaling Circular Solutions for Climate-Resilient Value Chains
Prepared by Business Sweden, The Swedish Trade & Invest Council
During COP31, Business Sweden convened the Circularity Summit alongside the COP31 thematic day on Zero Waste on 11 November 2026, bringing together industry, government, financial institutions and international organisations. The summit examined how proven circular solutions can be scaled across material-intensive value chains in the built environment, industrial production, packaging and food systems. This letter shares the key takeaways and priorities for implementation through and beyond COP31.
The discussions confirmed that the barrier is no longer primarily a lack of solutions or technical feasibility, but creating the market, policy, financing and infrastructure conditions needed to make proven solutions the standard choice, scale those showing strong potential, and accelerate wider deployment across sectors and markets. Only 6.9% of materials entering the global economy are secondary materials. Reaching the COP31 targets of at least 15% circular material use by 2035 and halving the growth in waste generation requires demand signals that reward lifecycle and circular value, financing that reflects whole value chains and longer investment horizons, and infrastructure that delivers secondary materials at the quality and scale required by industry.
The COP31 Presidency and implementation partners are therefore encouraged to connect circular priorities in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) with project development, investment and delivery. Building on the Green Industrialisation and Zero Waste agendas and the Climate Implementation Bridge, the focus should be on practical pathways, clear responsibilities and measurable next steps.
Five implementation priorities for the COP31 Presidency
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Create early markets and reward circular value
Use public procurement, lead-market commitments and fiscal measures such as reduced VAT to create reliable demand. Base procurement on function, performance, total cost of ownership and lifecycle impact. Recognise residual value from reuse, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and higher asset utilisation. -
Align policy frameworks across markets
Align definitions, metrics, standards, testing and certification, recycled-content requirements, digital product passports and extended producer responsibility schemes across markets, including through mutual recognition where appropriate. Establish end-of-waste criteria that enable secondary materials to reach the market, supported by material-specific standards. -
Match financing and risk-sharing to project maturity
Involve financiers early and use project preparation facilities, guarantees, blended finance and first-of-a-kind instruments to mobilise private capital, including for cities and local authorities. Adapt investment criteria to the retained assets, revenue structures and longer horizons of product-as-a-service, reuse and remanufacturing. -
Finance value chains, not isolated assets
Coordinate feedstock, technology, processing, logistics, infrastructure and offtake. Develop regional and cross-border systems for collection, sorting, recovery and traceability alongside industrial demand. Use industrial symbiosis and resource recovery as starting points, connecting innovators with industrial actors and lead buyers. -
Prioritise deployment across the four Rs
Apply Reduce, Replace, Reuse and Recycle as a material- and function-specific decision hierarchy. Prioritise investment-ready solutions, including innovations that prevent pollution such as microplastics at source. Organise partnerships through the Climate Implementation Bridge while avoiding additional reporting obligations.
Swedish contributions and next steps
Swedish industry brings practical experience, proven solutions and implementation capabilities across circular construction and modular buildings, packaging systems, material innovation, resource-efficient industrial processes, resource recovery, remanufacturing and circular business models. Together with governments, financial institutions and implementation partners, Swedish companies can support project development and help connect circular solutions with the policy, finance and infrastructure conditions required for deployment.
The next step is to identify where these capabilities can support priority circular pathways, clarify the partnerships and financing required, and agree practical milestones for moving projects forward. Building on the dialogue from pre-COP activities and the summit at COP31, this work should focus on coordinated delivery across value chains and the development of models that can be scaled and replicated across sectors and markets.
We look forward to continuing the dialogue with the COP31 Presidency, the incoming COP32 Presidency, the Climate High-Level Champions and the UNFCCC Secretariat to translate these priorities into practical partnerships and project pipelines, with measurable follow-up through and beyond COP31.
Signed by:
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Helena Carlsson, Trade Commissioner & Country Manager Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, Business Sweden, and Head of the Swedish Official Non-Negotiating Delegation to COP31
The views and priorities expressed in this letter reflect the collective discussions convened by Business Sweden and should not be interpreted as representing the individual positions or formal endorsements of each delegation member or their respective organisation.
About the Swedish Official Non-Negotiating Delegation to COP31
The Swedish Official Non-Negotiating Delegation to COP31 brings together representatives from business, government agencies and other organisations working to advance climate implementation and international collaboration.
Delegation members: Adapteo, AFRY, Alfa Laval, AstraZeneca, Atlas Copco Group, Business Sweden, ClimateView, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, EQT, Hitachi Energy, Inter IKEA, Investor, Munters, Myllium, Oatly, Scania, Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), SKF, SSAB, Swedish Energy Agency, Swedish Export Credits Guarantee Board (EKN), Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK), Tetra Pak, TRATON GROUP, Volvo Group and Wallenberg Investments.
