Data-driven Policymaking and Monitoring for the Circular Economy

Abstract

The EU Green Deal and the ensuing policies and regulations to stimulate the transition toward a circular economy pose challenges to policymakers and authorities. Taking planetary boundaries into account is a nascent topic on all regulatory levels, and data-driven policymaking and its implementation require the collection and access to new types of data in all policy-making phases, from agenda-setting to policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Extant studies into data-driven policymaking have not yet addressed which information types are needed and how policymakers and enforcement agencies can gain access to data sources, whereas the urgency to prepare for this is high. We use the lens of the policy cycles to assess the required data. In three typical cases, we explore the data sources at different policy levels of monitoring to develop a conceptual framework of data attributes to inform policymakers. We position that the extant data used in the policy phases for the transition to the circular economy are different from the familiar data that public administrations use in their respective domains. Our conceptual framework provides an initial overview of new types of data and potential shared use among the policy phases to support policymakers and enforcement agencies to timely prepare for access to the relevant data and data sources. We recommend the creation of data ecosystems for public administrations, the adoption of new capabilities for CE literacy, exploring the added value of Digital Product Passports, and AI-based tools and mechanisms to handle large volumes of data to structure messy data.