Mapping and Framing Circular Economy in the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: A Systematic Text Analysis

Marta Castellini, Nadezhda Ushakova and Sergio Vergalli
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Marta Castellini: Department of Economics and Management, University of Padua and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei
Nadezhda Ushakova: Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padua and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei
Sergio Vergalli: Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

No 2026.16, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Abstract: Although the circular economy (CE) is recognised as a key climate mitigation strategy, its integration within global climate frameworks, such as those developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Assessment Reports, remains unclear. This study provides a systematic analysis of how the circular economy is framed in the climate-mitigation context of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report using a mixed-methods approach that combines computational text analysis with qualitative content analysis through sentence-level manual coding. Eight Chapters relevant to the mitigation were examined and findings show that CE is most frequently framed as a supporting strategy (44.3%), followed by implicit (29.3%) and primary roles (26.4%), while being unevenly distributed across sectors, with the strongest representation in industry.

Keywords: Circular Economy; Climate Mitigation; IPCC AR6; Decarbonization; Sustainable Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q53 Q54 Q56 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05
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