Dear Colleagues,

Traditional economic models propose a process where the plant provides processed materials and collects the waste after the product is used. However, this linear system is not sustainable environmentally or economically. The circular economy provides a more sustainable structure by reusing resources. The linear economy is no longer a viable model with the lack of solutions to manage waste from clean energy infrastructure, rising emissions, and ineffective approaches to climate change mitigation.

The circular economy is based on three key concepts: reducing, reusing, and recycling materials, as well as utilizing innovative technologies to improve resource utilization in industrial processes. Energy is crucial in the quest for a more sustainable and circular economy, especially sustainable energy production. The renewable energy sector can significantly reduce resource extraction, polluting waste, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation while increasing the availability of circular goods and protecting future resource availability. This, in turn, leads to social development and a positive economic impact. However, policy instruments are required both in the short and long term to ensure the integration of circularity in renewable energy production.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a game-changer in accelerating the cost-effective circular economy. Waste and products are diverse and complex, and finding the best way to fully recover all components from waste economically is beyond the human brain's capacity. It requires the intervention of AI technology. The Circular Economy Action Plan of the European Commission emphasizes the importance of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, blockchain, and AI in accelerating circularity. Similarly, many businesses worldwide have turned to digital technologies to track products and advance circularity effectively.

Global climate change is driving researchers and policymakers today to focus more on sustainable development and to look for ways to link sustainable development to future generations. In this scope, renewable energy consumption and technological innovations are important in sustainable development. AI, renewable energy, and circular economy research are still hot areas of science. There is, therefore, a need to rediscover the links between renewable energy, AI, and the circular economy, expand research, and address policy gaps.

This special issue aims to explore the role of renewable energy sources and AI in the transition of economies to a more sustainable development model and to enable the formulation of effective policies and strategies by revealing uncertain relationships.

This call for a special issue welcomes submissions in the following areas where empirical methods are used and new findings are uncovered. Topics are not limited to the following areas and new ideas are welcome.