CAMBIUM: Circular material flows in Belgium (CirculAr Materials flows of BelgIUM)

Mission objectives

Through the CAMBIUM research project, to improve the measurement of material flows in the Belgian economy in order to steer public policy towards a more circular and resilient economy.

Achievements and impact

• Development of a methodology for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks associated with the sourcing of raw materials, and establishment of a country-specific criticality list for Belgium.
• Assessment of the ESG risks of 74 raw materials based on 25 indicators selected following a review of more than 70 scientific and institutional publications.
• Aggregation of scores by country, weighted according to the actual supply shares of each value chain, reflecting Belgium’s actual exposure rather than a global average.
• Adaptation of the European materials criticality methodology to the Belgian context, enhanced with these ESG criteria, resulting in a list of critical raw materials for Belgium.
• Mapping of Belgian companies’ dependencies on critical materials, based on foreign trade data (CN codes) cross-referenced with economic sectors (NACE).
• Production of scientific evidence to support federal and regional decision-makers, particularly in the context of the national strategy on critical raw materials (MAKE Plan 2025–2030).