Published:
25 Feb 2008 - Housing, food and drink, and
mobility have the greatest environmental
impact over their lifecycle, the EEA and
the European Commission have shown. This
concern brought together European governments,
researchers, NGOs and business under the
same roof during a conference held in Ljubljana,
Slovenia, back in September last year.
The recommendations
of the event have now been published: the
report 'Time for action — towards sustainable
consumption and production in Europe', launched
today, is the result of a joint initiative
of the EEA, the Slovenian Ministry of the
Environment and Spatial Planning and the
UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre
on Sustainable Consumption and Production
(CSCP).
The upcoming EU Action
Plan on Sustainable Consumption and Production
(SCP) — possibly combined with an Action
Plan on Sustainable Industrial Policies
— should include 'clear sustainability targets'
according to the recommendations developed
by the participants of the conference. Concrete
steps to get the prices right and a directive
on green public procurement were additional
top-priority recommendations identified
by the experts ahead of the EU Action Plan.
Internalising costs
through environmental fiscal reforms, identifying
models and examples of sustainable living
and developing long term visions of sustainable
consumption and production were the top-priority
recommendations identified for national
authorities, in cooperation with business
and civil society.
At the global level,
participants advocated for the United Nations
within its Marrakech Process (1) to encourage
national governments to integrate sustainable
consumption and production objectives into
ministries beyond environment. The conference
also singled out the need to develop a world-wide
communication strategy to promote sustainable
consumption and production and to involve
also private financial institutions.
The EEA is already making
its contribution: responding to the recommendations,
the Agency is for example assessing worldwide
impacts from consumption in Europe through
integrated economic and environmental accounting,
identifying indicators of sustainable consumption
and production, and analysing the factors
driving consumption change.
NoteThe 'Marrakech Process'
is a global UN initiative to support regional
and national actions to promote the shift
towards sustainable consumption and production
patterns.
