Major Group: Children and Youth, Women, and NGOs
Thank you co-chair, and we are of course very pleased to see sustainable
consumption and production as one of the 19 focus areas and also the
emphasis there is towards addressing the urgency of this issue.
I am making this brief statement on behalf of the Major Groups for Children
and Youth, Women and NGOs. The statement is based upon a joint full
response to the paper of focus areas, which can be found on the sustainable
development knowledge platform.
Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs. The world is currently ‘doubly unsustainable’ - we are
not ensuring good lives for those living today and at the same time, some
of us are consuming in ways and amounts that are not sustainable and
accordingly jeopardize the lives of future generations and people from the
global south. Achieving Sustainable Development is tied to our capacity of
delivering products and services to fulfill those needs, producing them in
a sustainable way. Therefore, sustainable consumption and production- or
SCP- is essentially about poverty eradication now and for future generations.
SCP is not only important for the developed countries as highlighted in the
paper on focus areas, but also for the developing countries, and especially
for the BRICS. People in urban areas in China, India and Brazil, experience
every day the high levels of air pollution, health problems, indecent labour
conditions and environmental degradation caused by unsustainable patterns
of production and consumption.
We would also like to emphasise that to monitor sustainable development on
all levels, policies should be based upon the concepts of planetary boundaries
and ecological footprint.
We are therefore suggesting the following points- which are among
others that can be found in our co-chairs response text available
online:
• Firstly, environmental consequences of government and business
policies should done based on environmental and social impact
assessments, to ensure decision makers are fully taking into
consideration long-term environmental consequences.
• Secondly, SCP will remain only a concept unless we implement caps on
resource extraction and bio diversity liquidation within the bio physical
limits of the planet, as part of appropriate caps of energy and resource
use, that leaves room for rights based allocations also.
• Thirdly, Ecological tax reform that shifts the collection base to the
extraction and exploitation of natural resources- instead of taxing the
upcycled added value- will form a part of the solution.
• All production need to ensure good working conditions and respecting
human rights for workers engaged, including living wages.
• Finally, education for sustainable development should include the
understanding of ecosystems and the responsibilities involved in our
actions. It requires both transforming to sustainable lifestyles, as the
co-chairs have highlighted, but also a broader concept of educating
citizens that are taking responsibility politically.
How SCP is included in the agenda will be crucial and we urge you to be bold
for the sake of our common future. Preference has to be given to collective
interest and not to the corporate or private ones.
Thank you
consumption and production as one of the 19 focus areas and also the
emphasis there is towards addressing the urgency of this issue.
I am making this brief statement on behalf of the Major Groups for Children
and Youth, Women and NGOs. The statement is based upon a joint full
response to the paper of focus areas, which can be found on the sustainable
development knowledge platform.
Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs. The world is currently ‘doubly unsustainable’ - we are
not ensuring good lives for those living today and at the same time, some
of us are consuming in ways and amounts that are not sustainable and
accordingly jeopardize the lives of future generations and people from the
global south. Achieving Sustainable Development is tied to our capacity of
delivering products and services to fulfill those needs, producing them in
a sustainable way. Therefore, sustainable consumption and production- or
SCP- is essentially about poverty eradication now and for future generations.
SCP is not only important for the developed countries as highlighted in the
paper on focus areas, but also for the developing countries, and especially
for the BRICS. People in urban areas in China, India and Brazil, experience
every day the high levels of air pollution, health problems, indecent labour
conditions and environmental degradation caused by unsustainable patterns
of production and consumption.
We would also like to emphasise that to monitor sustainable development on
all levels, policies should be based upon the concepts of planetary boundaries
and ecological footprint.
We are therefore suggesting the following points- which are among
others that can be found in our co-chairs response text available
online:
• Firstly, environmental consequences of government and business
policies should done based on environmental and social impact
assessments, to ensure decision makers are fully taking into
consideration long-term environmental consequences.
• Secondly, SCP will remain only a concept unless we implement caps on
resource extraction and bio diversity liquidation within the bio physical
limits of the planet, as part of appropriate caps of energy and resource
use, that leaves room for rights based allocations also.
• Thirdly, Ecological tax reform that shifts the collection base to the
extraction and exploitation of natural resources- instead of taxing the
upcycled added value- will form a part of the solution.
• All production need to ensure good working conditions and respecting
human rights for workers engaged, including living wages.
• Finally, education for sustainable development should include the
understanding of ecosystems and the responsibilities involved in our
actions. It requires both transforming to sustainable lifestyles, as the
co-chairs have highlighted, but also a broader concept of educating
citizens that are taking responsibility politically.
How SCP is included in the agenda will be crucial and we urge you to be bold
for the sake of our common future. Preference has to be given to collective
interest and not to the corporate or private ones.
Thank you