Sweden supports the intervention made by Germany on behalf of the European Union.
Sweden acknowledges the importance of the interlinkages between the CSD themes and the
crosscutting issues, including means of implementation.
Sweden would like to highlight sustainable consumption, including sustainable lifestyles, and
the Marrakech process. Sweden consider Sustainable Consumption and Production as a precondition
for Sustainable Development and an essential mean of implementation in order to
reach sucess within the CSD themes of this cycle: energy, sustainable industrial development,
air pollution and climate change. Especially we need to consider unsustainable patterns of
consumption ? we need to change the way we consume, use and dispose of products and
services. This is a challenge especially for the developed countries and countries in transition.
But it is also essential to consider for developing countries. In this we must also consider the
differencies in women and mens patterns of consumption in order to find the right measures.
We thank the Swiss delegation for their kind words in support of the Swedish side event last
night on the theme scp and gender equality as a precondition for sustainable dev. An area
which indeed deserve further intention, including within the Marrakech process.
In promoting sustainable consumption and sustainable lifestyles within the Marrakech
process, Sweden has taken a leading role and established a Task Force on Sustainable
Lifestyles, in order to make the work more concrete. We welcome more countries to
participate in the task force, especially from developing countries,
Sweden will host the next International Expert Meeting on SCP in Stockholm in June 2007.
We will arrange the meeting together with the UN. The meeting will serve to report and share
progress on national and regional activities related to SCP and advance the work of the
Marrakech Process on sustainable consumption and production that was launched in
Marrakech, Morocco in June 2003.
The objectives of the meeting are to assess progress on the Marrakech Process, notably in the
work of the Task Forces, the regional and national strategies, and in the development
cooperation dialogue; to start conceptualising the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on
SCP to be presented at the CSD 18/19; and to identify new mechanisms to build a more active
cooperation between the Marrakech Process and major groups, such as business, NGOs, and
academia, among others.
We are hoping for a broad participation.
Thank you.
