Patricia Urban is a Researcher in the Energy, Resources and Climate Change unit at CEPS.
Patricia’s main expertise relates to the area of circular economy, investigating key value chains such as plastics and electric vehicle batteries. In addition, her research interests have revolved around interactions of socioeconomic and ecological systems, such as socioeconomic effects of the green transition. Finally, she conducted in-depth research on sustainable development in an EU context, with a focus on sustainable production and consumption as well as social inequality.
Circular economy: In addition to her experience with circularity topics in an SDG context, Patricia has been working on different CEPS research projects in this area since fall 2022. In particular, she investigated the potential role of chemical recycling of plastics for the EU’s circularity objectives, through interviews with stakeholders complemented by an extensive literature review, in the context of a CEPS in-depth report. In addition, she is involved in BATRAW, an EU Horizon-funded project on circularity options for electric vehicle batteries. Through a series of interviews with different industry actors, she analysed innovations such as digital product passports, and is closely following ongoing policy developments to enable a circular ecosystem for batteries.
Interactions of socioeconomic and ecological systems: Patricia has worked on interactions of socioeconomic and ecological systems for three years. Since January 2023, her research in this area has focused on the interlinkages of employment, the environment and social justice. In the context of a Horizon Europe project, TransEuroWorkS, she has investigated the concept of green jobs, resulting in a CEPS in-depth report on related definitions and frameworks. A second paper for this project focuses on eco-social labour market policies. In addition, Patricia is involved in the MultiFutures EU Horizon project, where she is investigating alternative societal paradigms to that of economic growth.
Monitoring sustainable development in the EU: Patricia has three years of academic research experience in evaluating the EU’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To analyse SDG trends and Member States’ relative status regarding the 2030 Agenda, she quantitatively evaluated sustainable development indicator trends. Within this field, she co-authored and co-edited Monitoring Reports for Eurostat and supported the development of additional methodologies. In this context, she performed quantitative spillover analyses of EU consumption on other parts of the world and investigated trends in decoupling resource use from environmental impacts. Investigating synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs, she combined correlation analysis with qualitative expert judgement analysis, resulting in a peer-reviewed journal publication.
