As part of the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) and the European project ROBIN (Deploying circular BIOeconomies at Regional Level with a Territorial Approach), the Region of Central Macedonia, with the support of the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia, is taking part in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Programme Circular Economy in Cities and Regions.
In order to maintain high resource values, decrease waste, and generate new business and employment opportunities, cities are actively promoting and facilitating the shift to a circular economy. The goal of the OECD Programme on the Circular Economy in Cities and Regions is to facilitate the sharing of information and best practices between national and regional governments as well as city and regional governments regarding the governance framework and conditions necessary to make the shift from a linear to a circular economy.
The Region of Central Macedonia is one of ten chosen cities and regions that are part of the OECD’s circular economy program. The program’s goal is to help these areas learn from each other’s mistakes and successes as they make the shift from a linear to a circular economy.
The chosen areas will engage in policy conversations with representatives from various governmental agencies and public, commercial, and nonprofit organizations. Supporting productive, evidence-based debates to identify implementable recommendations is the goal of the OECD policy dialogues, a collaborative process. Through a comprehensive questionnaire, the OECD will collect quantitative and qualitative data on the key environmental, socio-economic, and institutional trends, problems, policies, strategies, and governance frameworks pertaining to the circular economy in collaboration with the CCRI Office for Coordination and Support. To further assist cities and regions, the OECD will also look for ways to combine its own efforts (such as the OECD Circular Economy Governance Scoreboard) with those of the CCRI (such as thematic working groups, a self-assessment tool, and the CCRI methodology).
During their visit in Thessaloniki from July 3-5, 2024, the OECD mission sought to assess the level of circular economy implementation in the Region of Central Macedonia by interviewing representatives from various sectors, including local and regional governments, universities, the private sector, associations, and non-profits.
