The circular economy transition along global value chains provides levers that can curb raw material use, preserve biodiversity, and reduce pollution, including the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). While the transition to circularity is building momentum, several systemic barriers continue to exist. This policy brief presents eight proposals which facilitate the transition to circular value chains in G20 countries and the Global South. In detail, we recommend: (1) advancing the circular design of products, (2) making international trade and investment policies supportive of circular value chains, (3) enhancing funding for circular economy investments and establishing dedicated financing mechanisms for that purpose, (4) developing environmental, social and governance (ESG) and circularity metrics which drive investment decisions towards sustainability, (5) facilitating a localised transition by harnessing regional resources to shorten value chains (6) ensuring that the transition process is just and inclusive for the Global South by supporting reverse logistics and globally applied extended producer responsibility (EPR) standards, (7) using the public awareness momentum created by the plastics crisis to draw attention to the circular economy imperative, and (8) creating a platform for sharing of best practices in circular policy design, implementation and monitoring.

Smartization of sustainable development that requires equitable digital channels alters the organisation structures of governments, civil societies, and corporations, resulting in a data revolution. The discourse around data revolution brings multiple challenges. This policy brief argues for two-way communication emphasising universal internet access and citizen-generated data as a solution. The policy brief further argues that while universal internet access requires addressing the problem of affordability, infrastructure, and digital governance as an enabler of the development, the utilisation of citizen-generated data is conditional on the citizens’ incentive, smartphone use, web-based applications, social media platforms, big data transparency, and data governance.

Digital technology revolution brings about vulnerability to the mass of workers. This is evident particularly in two respects. First, the massification of precarious work, as can be seen saliently in the “gig economy” sector characterized by the high use of digital technology. Second, the threat of automation in the workplace which renders human workers obsolete. As a result, workers are hard pressed to continually learn to stay relevant. The proposal of this Policy Brief highlights the importance of securing the workers’ right to decent work and creating a conducive ecosystem of continuous upskilling and reskilling for workers.

This policy brief proposes a framework that promotes business and technological innovations toward the development of a sustainable mobility ecosystem in smart cities. It addresses ongoing smart city development initiatives related to establishing green transportation, using different types of Energy Transition Vehicles (ETV) based on battery—or hydrogen-powered Electric Vehicles (EVs).

Despite the high potential for improvement by the tremendous interest in the uptake of green and sustainable mobility worldwide, the ETV adoption rate varies among countries. The differential adoption across nations may be attributed to factors such as the availability of charging station infrastructures ecosystem, recycling and battery swapping facilities, the capability of charging on the move, integration of ETV systems within renewable energy power grids, as well as the reliable and secure wireless connectivity of ETV networks via wireless 5G technologies and the local governmental policies and existing ecosystem support.

Availability of efficient support of the 5G+ broadband infrastructure is another critical success determinant. This ensures uninterrupted and secure network connectivity, protecting the vast amounts of information and data (measurements, observations, and metadata) expected to be generated.

Robustness in open data ecosystems is another prerequisite to augmenting ETV adoption. To this end, appropriate policies should be formulated to enable access to open comprehensive data at the urban or sub-national scale, adopting the proposed G20 Open Data Alliance. It is also important to motivate the development of robust analytical frameworks to distil actionable, policy-relevant insights that will ensure the exploitation of the generated data for enhancing the smart mobility key performance and value indicators without compromising issues related to privacy and security.