Parallel and Side Events Contents Page

The world in 2012: Towards a ten-year plan to achieve sustainable production and consumption

Presented by the International Coalition for Sustainable Production and Consumption

Bjarne Pedersen, Consumers International, reminded participants that a ten-year work programme on promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns is being negotiated at the WSSD, and welcomed inputs to this discussion.

Hans Christian Schmidt, Danish Minister of Environment and Energy, emphasized the need to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. He underscored the responsibility of developed countries to exhibit leadership in this regard, but stressed that developing countries would also benefit from decoupling. He said that a ten-year programme on consumption and production could provide a much needed focused approach to address decoupling.

Schmidt suggested that the programme's elements include: framework conditions for decoupling; promotion of decoupling and eco-efficiency; partnerships; and education and awareness-raising at all levels.

Edda Müller, Federation of German Consumer Organizations, underscored the need for a systematic approach to address the demand side of sustainability. She stressed the importance of framework conditions to enable a shift towards sustainable production and consumption patterns, including removal of unsustainable subsidies, recognition of consumer rights, and putting sustainable consumption on a permanent political agenda at the international level.

Kenneth Ruffing, OECD, introduced OECD's work on decoupling, including a recent report on appropriate indicators. He noted that key conditions for stimulating sustainable consumption include: regulatory frameworks and policies; access to information; full-cost pricing; availability of sustainable products; and infrastructure to support consumer choices. He said that general policy guidelines include: providing a consistent set of signals to consumers; using packages of policy instruments; ensuring the use of integrated cross-sectoral policies; and promoting and supporting voluntary initiatives. Ruffing suggested that the proposed ten-year programme: be focused, prioritize products and sectors, and identify key actors.

Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel, UNEP, introduced UNEP's work on sustainable consumption, including its cooperation with Consumers International. She stressed the need to adopt consumer-oriented policies to local values and circumstances, and to bridge the gap between values and behavior. She said that UNEP endorses the proposed ten-year programme, and suggested incorporating a strong regional component.

Afifa Raihana, UNEP, underscored the youth's commitment to sustainable consumption. She recommended that the ten-year programme: build upon ideas of local people; disseminate best practices and initiatives; and incorporate awareness raising and capacity building in the North and the South, stressing that developed countries could learn from examples of sustainable consumption from the South.

Discussion: Delegates exchanged views on: unsustainable production and advertising; inequalities of existing market infrastructure; the need for partnerships and information exchange; and unsustainable military consumption and production.

Launching of the 2003 World Development Report "Sustainability development with a dynamic economy"

Presented by the World Bank

Trevor Manuel, South African Minister of Finance, recognized the contribution of the 2003 World Development Report (WDR) to development and highlighted its weaknesses and strengths. He noted the WDR's long-term approach to key problems such as poverty, inequality, conflict and environmental degradation and observed that absence of government control and accountability has led to economic and environmental destruction. He suggested that the World Bank promote strong multilateral partnerships and institutions, addressing inequality and technology transfer, and consider developed countries' consumption patterns when addressing sustainable development.

Ian Goldin, the World Bank, observed that the WDR revises suggestions made in the report's 1992 edition, which recommended "win-win" policies and underestimated the capacity of institutions to deal with environmental problems. He highlighted that poverty is not only defined by income, and that solutions to poverty involve elements additional to economic growth. Noting that the World Bank has in recent years integrated issues of sustainable development in its work, Goldin highlighted that the WDR recognizes the importance of engaging institutions in furthering social, economic and environmental sustainability. He emphasized that the WDR aims to assist and secure implementation of the Doha and the Monterrey commitments, and noted that it identifies current patterns of consumption as being inefficient and unsustainable.

Zmarak Shalizi, the World Bank, underscored achievements in development, including overall increase in per capita income, decrease of infant mortality, and adult illiteracy. He highlighted that the WDR takes a 50-year horizon to suggest solutions to challenges such as world population growth, poverty increase and pressure on global resources. Shalizi emphasized that the WDR examines interactions between economic, social and environmental problems at local, national and global levels, and said that the WDR recommends that the World Bank strongly recognize the importance of institutions, and manage assets. He underscored the relevance of institutions' transparency and accountability in promoting public confidence in the institutions' work.

Clean Development Mechanism round table: From idea to reality

Presented by the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Egil Myklebust, Norsk Hydro, highlighted the difficulties to stimulate individual businesses to implement Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects and stressed that they should be launched without delay. He highlighted that experience gained through implementing CDM will provide inputs to improve relevant rules and procedures.

Jennifer Morgan, Climate Action Network (CAN), highlighted that CDM projects should promote renewable energy and benefit communities and the environment. She emphasized the need for credibility, promotion of sustainable development.

Joke Waller-Hunter, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, explained that important features of CDM projects include: combining interests of developing and developed countries and mobilizing new private sector investments. She highlighted that the CDM reflects the WSSD's emphasis on partnerships.

John Kilani, CDM Executive Board, highlighted that the Board has prepared a list of modalities and procedures for the CDM and given guidance to participants related to projects accreditation. Agus Sari, CAN, said that CDM projects should, inter alia: contribute to sustainable economic, social and environmental development; promote public participation; and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Charles Nicholson, British Petroleum (BP)-Amoco, presented the BP Rural Solar Project, a CDM partnership with the Brazilian Government, which aims to supply sustainable energy for 2,000 schools.

Satish Roopa, South Africa, said that CDM rules and procedures should allow local governments to decide on projects in their communities.

Mohammad Salamat, CDM Executive Board, highlighted that the Board has examined tools to guarantee regional balance in the implementation of CDM projects.

Sandy Gauntlett, Indigenous Peoples Organizations, said that CDM projects must respect and recognize indigenous people's rights and knowledge, and share benefits with indigenous people.

Dashboard of sustainability: Indicator guidance to the 21st century

Presented by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Consultative Group on Sustainable Development Indicators (CGSDI)

Peter Hardi, IISD, presented the IISD/European Commission Joint Research Centre initiative on sustainable development indicators, and noted that it has received public and private international and national support. He stressed the need for a dialogue between politicians and scientists to identify relevant indicators, and noted that the dashboard, developed by the Joint Research Centre, is a visual online presentation tool. He explained that the dashboard metaphor was used to: simplify characteristics of the presentation tool; focus on important sustainable development characteristics; facilitate communication; and provide visually attractive tools.

Hardi highlighted that the dashboard displays the primary dimensions of sustainability through a set of indicators relating to social, environmental, economic, and institutional clusters. He stated that the dashboard provides quantitative and qualitative information, and stressed: the use of statistical analysis for data validation prior to the elaboration of graphics; algorithms for defining indicators; weighting, aggregation, gap filling and other methods; and performance scale. He drew attention to tests of the dashboard's robustness and to the issue linkage analysis feature.

Hardi underscored that the data sources for the dashboard include international data sets from the World Bank, UN Agencies, the OECD, and national statistical services. He identified high level decision makers, the media and the general public as target audiences because of: the staged approach, which provides the tools required; the use of consensus-based indicators and clusters developed by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development; and the attractive interface. He expressed determination to ensure that the dashboard be the best presentation tool for indicators that can be applied by various constituencies, including the private sector.

Jochen Jesinghaus, European Commission Joint Research Centre, ran a demonstration of the dashboard, outlining: its colour fading approach to valuation; the per country performance synthesis; the possibility of global and detailed geographic and thematic analysis and comparison; the availability of map displays and explanatory notes on data collection; the internet interface enabling further research; the issue linkage analyses; and the availability of time series and trend analyses. He highlighted that the dashboard can only help to identify correlations, but cannot replace human intelligence for interpretation. Noting the different definitions of sustainable development and the use of value judgment in choosing indicators, he recommended a negotiated, transparent process for selecting indicators. Jesinghaus stressed the need for continuity in indicator programmes through long-term investment.

Discussion: Participants discussed various issues, including: the scientific and political dimensions of the dashboard; gap filling methods and solutions for aggregations without distortion; causal relationships; and creating one's own set of indicators.