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

Authors

• Marta Castellini, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of PaduaFollow
• Nadezhda Ushakova, University of PaduaFollow
• Sergio Vergalli, Department of Economics, University of Brescia, and Fondazione Eni Enrico MatteiFollow

Date of This Version

5-14-2026

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.

Recommended Citation

Castellini, Marta; Ushakova, Nadezhda; and Vergalli, Sergio, "Mapping and Framing Circular Economy in the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: A Systematic Text Analysis" (May 14, 2026). Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Working Papers. Paper 1509.
https://services.bepress.com/feem/paper1509