ABC of SCP: Clarifying Concepts on Sustainable Consumption and Production

Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, there has been an international recognition that the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation was agreed, with a call for action to “encourage and promote the development of a 10-Year Framework of Programmes in support of regional and national initiatives to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production to promote social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems by delinking economic growth and environmental degradation.”