Taiwan pilot ties circularity to finance at Climate Week NYC

A Taiwan-based initiative is using Climate Week NYC to test whether circularity can be measured well enough to support business and finance decisions. The Miaoli pilots link material reuse, regenerative farming and biodiversity data into a proposed framework for verifiable circular performance.

Why it matters: - Taiwan’s Miaoli initiative is trying to move circularity from a sustainability concept to a measurable input for finance and business decisions. - The effort aims to connect material reuse, regenerative agriculture and biodiversity data into one framework that can show verifiable circular performance. - The work reflects growing pressure on companies to prove where materials come from, how long they stay in use and what environmental value circular systems create.

What happened: - Tung-Hsuan Lu, representing the Resource Circulation Industry Booster Association and serving as general manager of RESource Technology Co., Ltd., is bringing the Beyond Circularity framework to New York during Climate Week NYC. - Lu will present "Beyond Circularity: A New Perspective to Accelerate Global Sustainability Endeavours" on Sept. 25 at the STUF United Fund Climate Week NYC Forum 2026 at STUF’s New York headquarters. - The forum is being held under the theme Circular Economy and Green Finance: Local Solutions and Global Opportunities. - The event will include perspectives from policy, academia, industry and finance. - Contributions are expected from Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission and Johns Hopkins University. - The source URL for the forum is More information.

The details: - The initiative is built around pilot activities in Miaoli County. - The framework combines inorganic material circulation, organic regeneration and social participation. - The pilots are being developed with partners including Napital, NCU.fi and Chung Yuan Christian University. - The three pilot areas cover regenerative farming and youth participation, biodiversity baselines and agroforestry models in pomelo-growing landscapes, and circular materials applications that may support resilience and nature-based solutions. - The framework is intended to track those activities together rather than treat them as separate sustainability projects. - Measures under consideration include circular efficiency, circular maturity, ecosystem services, climate adaptation, resilience and social value. - The proposal centers on a Circularity Capital Index. - The index is still under development and is not being presented as an established credit or financial product. - The index is meant to test whether a consistent set of indicators can make circular performance more transparent and comparable for investors and other stakeholders.

Between the lines: - Climate Week NYC’s 2026 agenda already places circular supply chains inside transport and industry discussions, which gives the Taiwan pitch a timely platform. - The United Nations Environment Programme’s Global Resources Outlook 2024 warned that global resource extraction could rise 60% from 2020 levels by 2060 without urgent action. - UNEP also identified lower resource intensity in food, mobility, housing and energy as essential to climate and sustainability goals. - The proposal follows a broader move toward clearer circular-economy standards, including ISO 59020:2024, which sets requirements and guidance for measuring circularity performance within defined economic systems. - The core challenge is not the concept of circularity but the evidence needed to support trust, verification and eventual financial use. - Lu framed the effort as a path from real action to measurable value, from measurable value to trust, and from trust to credit.

What’s next: - Lu’s New York presentation is meant to invite outside scrutiny of the Miaoli pilots rather than present a finished system. - The next test is whether local circular practices can be compared, verified and strengthened enough to meet expectations in international markets. - The initiative will need reliable data, verification and governance before any environmental performance can support financial decisions.

The bottom line: - Taiwan is using Climate Week NYC to pitch a bigger idea: circularity may be most valuable when it can be measured, compared and trusted well enough to influence finance.