Sustainable Consumption and Production SCP in the context

Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) in the context of SIDS Africa Review Report on Sustainable Consumption and Production Toolseeram Ramjeawon Prof Toolseeram. Prof Ramjeawon, University of Mauritius ramjeawon@yahoo. co. uk Regional Policy Briefing no. 7 Mauritius, 23 -24 April 2012 1

Presentation Outline • Why/What is SCP? • The context of SCP for SIDS • Limitations of current strategies/Plans • Key Recommendations • Conclusions 2

Context for the st 21 century humanity’s metabolism < Earth’s capacity

The current scenario of C&P Economic growth Use of nature Quality of life (happiness)

Why do we need SCP? “The major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment are the unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, particularly in industrialised countries, which is a matter of grave concern, aggravating poverty and imbalances. ” Agenda 21 (Chap. 4) PFIA 21 (Section 28) JPOI ( Chap III) Mauritius Strategy SIDS(Theme 15) 5

SCP as a lens • The value of talking about production and consumption is the ability to focus on , and address, the root causes of unsustainability. • SCP takes a holistic, life cycle approach to the systems of production and consumption, starting from needs and values up to wastes. • Practical implementation strategy to achieve Sustainable Development that requires wide stakeholder involvement

What is SCP? 8

SCP is a vehicle for the Green Economy • Green Economy: An economy which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive. Driven by demand supply of environment friendly and environment enhancing products and services. • Green Economy: ensure growth, decent jobs, improve wellbeing, eradicates poverty, while at the same time protect and improve state of the environment • Green Economy is an economic system change, which makes it applicable to all countries at different stages of development

Relevance of SCP/GE for SIDS • SIDS are well positioned in the transition to SCP / green economy given their low-carbon profile and rich natural capital and cultural assets. Opportunity to “leapfrog”. No “lock-in” effect of the economies of developed countries-greater flexibility to adopt new approaches • SIDS are inherently resource-constrained and have a higher commitment to sustainable living • SCP helps SIDS to reduce their high levels of intrinsic vulnerabilities and contributes to reduce future costs and increase competitiveness • SCP offers new opportunities for SIDS such as the creation of new markets, green and decent jobs(organic food, fair trade, sustainable tourism, renewable energy, fisheries, buildings. . ) • Challenge for SIDS is to determine the kind of investment needed and the key target sectors to stimulate green growth 10

Status of SCP in SIDS • Impact and penetration of SCP activities is still very limited in most SIDS. SCP is in progress…. but still not enough to create national level impacts. On-going activities for SCP is still not sufficient for transition or leapfrogging • Few examples for SC and capacity for promoting SC is far less developed than for SP. • An attractive vision and the economic case is missing. There is a lack of ownership in society or the business sector. • SCP initiatives are fragmented along sectoral and ministerial lines. No integrated and strategic approach. 11

Limitations of Current plans • We know the priority sustainability problems very well - Food, Mobility and Buildings cause 70 -80% of environmental impacts - We need reductions of a factor four or more • But it is much more difficult to solve them - We succeed in addressing production, but not consumption. Consumption growth outweighs efficiency gains, partly because of the rebound effect - We succeed in making incremental changes, but not radical changes and system innovation.

The Delusion of Efficiency Focusing sustainability initiatives solely on efficiency may be politically expedient in the short term, but improvements are likely to be highly elusive over the longer term. Efficiency ≠ Aggregate Reduction Efficiency is a means; it is not an end.

Sufficiency and Sustainability is like a coin: There is the efficiency side and there is the sufficiency side. The next step in conceptualizing the challenges of sustainability will be to develop pragmatic ways to infuse sufficiency into strategic thinking.

Sufficiency and Sustainability Where in the past we focused more on wealth, growth and efficiency, the future will need to be about well being, quality and sufficiency. The problem is that we lack a language for talking intelligently about sufficiency.

Green Economy is also about getting the economy right Is Sustainable consumption possible in a market-capitalist economy? It is necessary to think in something that is apparently impossible, for discovering what is possible. Sustainable consumption may only be possible in a post-capitalist economy. Post-capitalism is neither twentieth century socialism nor Chinese socialism – based in growth

Principles Capitalism Post-capitalism for life (meeting the material needs of all human beings) Principle of production for the accumulation of capital (getting maximum profit rate) Principle of distribution of wealth (to each according to what he and of wealth the instruments he owns (to each according to his needs) produces) Principle of interchange of wealth (killer competition to win market shares for capital accumulation) of wealth (solidarity and planning according to scientific rationality) Principle of consumption ostentatious (induce needs to complete the process of capital accumulation) moderate (provides limits on needs according to the biophysical limits of the planet)

How do we foster action? (We have to be so convincing, that we can explain it to my mother’ (Anon. ) • What: What do want to achieve? A vision for SCP/Green Economy in SIDS…. flourishing lives for all islanders • Why : Why can’t we achieve it with business as usual? Why do we need to change direction? Economic case of action v/s inaction and for leapfrogging • How : How can we change direction? Which sectors? What are the best policies/instruments? Who are the main actors? • Proof: With what impact? Is there proof that such ideas work? Success cases , dissemination , Capacity Building

Dedicated SCP Programme but Integrated with existing national level strategies Agricultural / Industrial Policy National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) Energy Policy Water Policy Health Policy Forest Policy National Development Plan SCP Programme / Action Plan or NSSD National Environment Strategy(NES) Climate Change Strategy Cleaner Production Strategy Agenda / Capacity 21 Population Policy Education Policy Transport Policy

Capacity building in effective SCP policies and instruments crucial

Critical processes for the success of a SCP programme are: • the political process and the need of a strong political commitment from the top leadership • the participatory process and the need to develop mechanisms for participation such as roundtables, workshops, public consultations and multi-stakeholder dialogues, and • the resource mobilisation process from both domestic and international sources.

To develop an effective SCP programme 1. Lead change that can be realized within existing structures and mindsets. Agreement on means and ends (short term) -Cleaner Production, 3 Rs, Energy Efficiency, Enforcement of standards, Internalization of external costs, building codes, Sustainable Procurement; CSR, Green Buildings, eco-labelling, etc 2. Shared sense of urgency, agreement on ends, means unclear: experiment and reflect from new niche concepts to find direction(medium term) -Illustration projects on sustainable buildings/cities -Renewable energy technologies, mass-transport systems 3. Develop inspiring approaches that can foster change in the future that is not feasible now. Disagreement over means and ends: challenge paradigms(long term) -Happiness indices -Going Beyond GDP initiatives -Prosperity without Growth

Make sustainable lifestyles desirable • Most definitions of sustainable lifestyles(SL) talks about minimizing environmental impact, resources efficiency and helping people interact with the community and places in which they live. However , people will only change their lifestyle in exchange for a better one. So we have to make SL attractive and desirable. It’s more than savings on energy and water bills-it is also about happiness, social relations, health and quality time • People living SL (cycling, vegetarian diet, . . ) are often healthier, sleep better, are connected with their communities and families, etc. Focus on social desirability as much as on environmental issues.

To sum up • SCP provides an ideal framework for achieving development goals in SIDS. Help to manage energy, food and water crises and build Green Economies. • The vulnerabilities of SIDS adds a new dimension to the SCP challenges. The same vulnerabilities providing a significant opportunity to leapfrog to more resource efficient economies and sustainable resource use. However need legs to be able to leapfrog! • Lessons learnt from pilots will help in sectoral policy and strategy review and ultimately in mainstreaming SCP in national policies/strategies. A new governance model is needed. Role of Government to be changed to one of “change management”, encouraging learning and experimentation 25

Conclusion • Shaping a sustainable society, not a sustainable consumer- SCP should be acknowledged by policy makers as a policy field in its own right, mainstreamed into all policy areas as a means of implementing SD objectives. SCP should be embedded in an appropriate institutional framework and needs to built from the national level. Its success will depend on the level of ownership from all stakeholders. • In SIDS, more emphasis in the short term on creating the physical infrastructure to make sustainable behaviour easier. • Rio+20 Summit - crucial opportunity to put the world back on the path towards sustainable development. Need to ensure tangible action on SCP at Rio for 2020 and beyond. . . …

Thank you for your attention! 27