| Europe
"The global economic crisis is an opportunity to
change our consumption and production patterns and move
towards a more sustainable model of development."
Ms. Michèle Pappalardo, French Commissioner-General
for Sustainable Development.
Europe has expressed its strong commitment to promoting
sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns. The
EU member states and the European Commission have been actively
engaged in the Marrakech Process, taking the lead, and building
North-South cooperation supporting through the Task Forces
and the national roundtables on SCP under the Marrakech
Process.
In Europe, several regional meetings on the Marrakech Process
have been organised in:
Sub regional meetings on SCP
have also been held.The next subregional meeting will be
held in 2009.
Various SCP activities are taking place at the regional
and sub-regional levels. Main activities include:
Regional initiatives
European Union Action
Plan on SCP
In 2006, the European Union (EU) included SCP as a priority
issue in their revised Sustainable Development Strategy.
As a response, the European
Commission developped an EU
Action Plan on SCP, improving synergies between the
existing policies and tools and addressing the potential
gaps.
Europe is also supporting the seven Marrakech
Tasks Forces. Which have shown to be effective mechanisms
in building North-South cooperation and supporting the implementation
of SCP projects.
The European Commission and the European Environmental
Agency (EEA)
have identified the SCP priority areas which are: housing,
food and drink, and mobility. These are the areas that lead
to the highest environmental impacts over their full life
cycle.
Europe has organised several regional meetings on SCP:
the European Stakeholder Meeting on SCP, in Ostend, Belgium
(November 2004) inviting EU's neighbouring countries, the
European Conference on Sustainable Energy Consumption, in
Berlin, Germany (December 2005) and the European regional
meeting in Prague, Check Republic (June 2008).The
next subregional European meeting on SCP will be held in
September 2009. For more information on the last regional
meeting in Prague, please click
here.
Another important initiative was the Conference on 'Time
for Action - Towards SCP in Europe' organised by the EEA,
the Slovenia Government, and CSCP.
Pan-European Collaboration
and Partnership: The Sixth Ministerial Conference 'Environment
for Europe'
Belgrade, Serbia (October 2007)
At the Sixth Ministerial Conference 'Environment for Europe'
held in Belgrade in October 2007, the Ministers called for
development of national programmes, sub-regional and regional
partnerships to promote SCP in the pan-European region.
 UNEP
and EEA jointly produced the report 'SCP
in South East Europe and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central
Asia'. The report identifies the current trends on
SCP for these sub-regions as well as to identify opportunities
for and barriers to more sustainable consumption and production
in the SEE and EECCA countries. The main part of the report
provides detailed information and a review of SCP initiatives
in key production and consumption areas: industry, food,
buildings, transport and waste.
Links:
South Eastern Europe (SEE) and Eastern Europe,
Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA)
Many countries in SEE and EECCA highlighted the importance
of and expressed their interest in working towards more
sustainable consumption and production patterns. In SEE,
there was sub-regional multi-stakeholder meeting to raise
awareness and hold dialogue among key stakeholders.
EEA and UNEP jointly review the trends on SCP related sectors
and policy development in order to identify opportunities
for and barriers to more sustainable consumption and production
in the SEE and EECCA countries. These economies are facing
the common challenges to break the link between economic
growth and environmental impacts from production and consumption,
resource use and waste generation. Their primary need is
to increase the efficiency and address social sustainability.
The report
highlights the promising opportunities for SEE and EECCA
to leapfrog and some of the consumption-related problems
common in more affluent society. Some elements of the legacy
of the past have a major potential to support a society
towards with more SCP. Many of the countries have policies
and initiatives to address SCP-relevant issues, however
they exist in isolated faction and lacking overall coordination.
European Regional
Meetings on SCP
Fourth European Meeting on SCP
Prague, Czech Republic (June, 2008)
"It is time to move to an energy and resource efficient
society" mentioned Mr. Jan Dusk -Deputy Minister
of Czech Republic- at the opening of the European Regional
Meeting held in Prague (30 -31October 2008).The objectives
of the meeting were to assess the role and elements of the
EU-SCP Action Plan as a key European contribution to the
10YFP. Working groups provided comments for both the EU
SCP Action Plan and the draft 10YFP, suggesting that
the 10YFP should build on the experience of existing regional
plans, such as the EU SCP Action Plan, which is a key regional
plan under the Marrakech Process. The meeting stressed the
need for a clear communication strategy on SCP and supported
the development of targets and indicators to help implement
SCP policies. The importance to provide incentives for all
stakeholders was also highlighted, particularly regarding
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). For more information,
please click
here.
Conference
on 'Time for Action - Towards SCP in Europe'
Ljubljana, Slovenia (September 2007)
 The
UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on SCP (CSCP)
and the European Environmental Agency (EEA), with support
of the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning
of the Republic of Slovenia, jointly organised the expert
conference Time for Action - Towards SCP in Europe. The
main objective of the conference was to provide recommendations
for the development and implementation of the EU action
plan on SCP, focusing on housing, food and drink, and mobility
that have been identified to cause the highest environmental
impacts. The conference also aimed to provide input to the
Marrakech Process as well as to encourage collaboration
and partnerships among stakeholders.
Links:
European Conference on Sustainable Energy
Consumption
Berlin, Germany (December 2005)
 The
European Conference on Sustainable Energy Consumption is
considered as the 2nd regional meeting in Europe. It focused
on sustainable energy consumption, particularly on the production
and the use of energy-using products. The positive impact
of small and inexpensive improvement measures was emphasised.
The global perspective of energy efficiency and energy poverty
as a phenomenon prevalent in developing and developed countries
was stressed. It was also proposed to intensify the promotion
of green public procurement as a positive example to effect
much-needed changes in consumption patterns.
Concrete actions proposed include inter alia:
- Promote performance targets for energy efficiency products
(e.g. Top-Runner-Approach) using instruments such as the
EuP Framework-Directive
- Conduct a product panel on light bulbs at the European
level to improve energy efficiency
Link:
The European Stakeholder Meeting on Sustainable
Consumption and Production
Ostend Meeting , Belgium (2004).
 The
European Stakeholder Meeting on Sustainable Consumption
and Production (SCP) was held in Ostend, Belgium (25-26
November 2004). Over 120 experts representing governments,
business, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), retailers,
banks, trade unions, consumer and environmental organisations,
local authorities and research institutes from 30 European
countries participated in the meeting.
The Ostend Meeting discussed priorities for further work
on SCP for all key actors in Europe. It also considered
how Europe could cooperate with other regions to promote
SCP. Participants from 30 European countries identified
the key SCP challenges in the region, and suggested the
following policy recommendations:
- Coherent strategic framework for sustainable development
and SCP, such as embedding growth, competitiveness and
jobs creation in a framework of sustainable development
- Consumers' and producers' decisions, i.e. paving the
way for SCP decisions by individuals, by promoting a change
in mindset and behaviour. To this end, a comprehensive
communication, education and information strategy is urgently
required at local, national and European level
- SCP on the global market by supporting other regions,
especially developing countries, in achieving sustainable
development including SCP
The participants recommended concrete actions for implementation.
Some of them are:
- Launch Task Forces on specific issues on SCP with champions/lead
countries or stakeholders
- Set up specific targets and timetables for sustainable
public procurement at local, sub-national, national and
EU levels
- Create a forum or board of governments and stakeholders
to monitor progress towards SP and the establishment of
a fund to support SCP activities
- Increase investments by the financial sector in sustainable
infrastructure
The meeting was jointly organised by UNEP and the European
Commission, in consultation with UN-DESA and hosted by the
federal government of Belgium. The European Commission and
the governments of Belgium, Finland, Germany and Sweden
provided financial support.
Links:
Subregional
meetings on SCP
South-Eastern European Meeting on
Sustainable Consumption and Production
Zagreb, Croatia (5-6 December 2005)
The Workshop was organized by the Ministry of Environment,
Physical Planning and Construction of the Republic of Croatia
in collaboration with the Centre for Cleaner Production
in Croatia, UNEP and the Central European Initiative. The
workshop highlighted the three key areas for the future
work including: cleaner production, education and awareness
raising, and promoting SCP at local authorities.
Link:
Baltic States Multi-stakeholder
Workshop on SCP
Vilnius, Lithuania (June 2004)
The sub-regional meeting of the Baltic States identified
production efficiency, transport, and waste management,
information for consumers and policy framework as sub-regional
and national priorities for SCP. National resources taxes
and labelling were among the instruments mentioned to improve
consumption and production patterns. Based on the SCP priority
areas identified, the workshop recommended a series of actions
as beneficial for the promotion of SCP in the Baltic sub-region.
Priority actions include:
- Establish a High level multi-stakeholder body at the
national level to facilitate the promotion of SCP and
a multi-stakeholder SCP network in the Baltic sub-region
- Integrate SCP considerations into sectoral and regional
action plans
- Develop more environmentally sustainable transport
modes with special emphasis on the development of public
transport
- Introduce modern waste management systems
Link:
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