Towards Sustainable Consumption Patterns
Subtitle: A Progress Report on Member Country Initiatives
By: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Paris
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource]:
Number of pages: 56
ISBN-13: 9789264162662
Subjects: Ecology; Euthenics; Nature and nurture; Adaptation (Biology)
Description: Addressing unsustainable patterns of consumption is a crucial challenge for OECD Member countries in tackling environmental problems. However, measures to influence consumer demand have, in the past, received less attention than measures to influence production patterns. This progress report provides an initial overview of the broad array of policies and policy instruments which OECD Member countries are already using or considering to influence consumer demand for certain goods and services. These include a wide range of regulatory, economic and social policy instruments, as well as other actions by government, such as capital investment and the use of the land-use planning system. Such actions often form part of Member countries' strategies to tackle major environmental problems, such as climate change. This report reviews currently available information on the success of Member country initiatives in influencing consumption patterns. It finds that detailed information on the effectiveness of these policies is still limited, partly because many of the measures have only recently been put in place. It also identifies next steps for the OECD and for its Member countries, both to improve knowledge of policy initiatives and to take more effective action to influence consumption patterns.<!-- -->
Table of contents: title: 1. INTRODUCTION; title: Origins of report; title: Scope of report; title: 2. CONTEXT FOR CHANGING CONSUMPTION PATTERNS; title: Trends in consumption patterns; title: Trends in production; title: Debates and national policies on sustainable consumption; title: Role of other actors; title: 3. ACTIONS BY OECD MEMBER COUNTRIES; title: Types of initiatives to influence consumption patterns; title: Choice of examples; title: Regulation; title: Economic instruments; title: Social instruments; title: Other government action; title: Packages of measures; title: Addressing small and medium enterprises; title: 4. EVALUATING THE SUCCESS OF MEMBER COUNTRY INITIATIVES; title: How successful overall are Member country initiatives in modifying consumption patterns?; title: How successful are specific Member country initiatives?; title: OECD Environmental Performance Reviews; title: OECD work on Individual Travel Behaviour; title: Australian experience; title: Public information campaigns in the Netherlands; title: Economic instruments; title: Ecolabelling; title: 5. NEXT STEPS; title: Next steps for Member countries; title: Next steps for the OECD; title: APPENDIX A; title: Paragraph 28 of the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21adopted by the UN General Assembly Special Session on Sustainable Development, New York, June 1997; title: APPENDIX B; title: OECD Work Programme on Sustainable Consumption and Production