The deepest of changes are needed
HENRIQUE BRANDÃO CAVALCANTI
outlines the work of the Commission on Sustainable
Development on changing production and consumption patterns
The pressure of rising demand on the world's natural
systems is having serious effects both nationally and globally. Twenty
eight countries, for example, are already affected by scarcity of
freshwater, while the loss of agricultural soils gradually reduces the
world grain yield per hectare, and threatens the security of our food
supplies. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now considers a
2°C warming and a rise in the sea level of 48 centimetres, caused by the
emission of greenhouse gases, a definite prospect for the end of the next
century unless precautionary action is taken, especially over transport
patterns and the production and consumption of energy.
Present industrial society lifestyles can hardly be extended worldwide
without overtaxing environmental resources and threatening fragile
ecosystems. Recent data on the gross domestic product, estimated at
purchasing power parity, of China, India, Brazil and Russia rates them
amongst the top 10 in the world. These four nations cover over a fifth of
the world's land surface and are home to more than one-third of its
population; yet their per capita income levels are still relatively modest
compared to those of leading economies.
Sustainable development, as UNEP defined it at the January 1994 Oslo
Symposium on Sustainable Consumption, 'encompasses the total supply-demand
economic system and it implies the deepest of cultural and technological
changes'. It cannot be achieved in its economic, environmental,
institutional and social dimensions without sustainable consumption
patterns.
Awareness about the relevance of these issues has been growing ever since
the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, and was greatly
increased by the report of the World Commission on Environment and
Development in 1987.
The message is clearly spelled out in several principles of the Rio
Declaration and in many chapters of Agenda 21, both of which were agreed
at the 1992 Earth Summit: indeed, Chapter 4 of Agenda 21 is devoted to the
subject. These point to a process of change focused on sustainable
patterns of production and consumption and on developing appropriate
national policies and strategies. Few topics in Agenda 21 so well portray
the complexity of sustainable development both as a concept and as a
medium-term strategy for the future of mankind on Earth.
Role of the CSD
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) has
provided for a spirited debate on this subject since its first annual
session in 1993. Its 53 member countries, the remaining observer nations,
an impressive number of United Nations bodies and agencies,
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, the scientific and
academic community and business and industry have all been involved.
At least nine important meetings sponsored by these various stakeholders,
and with their participation, took place in Norway, Sweden, The
Netherlands, the United States and the Republic of Korea between January
1994 and December 1995. Most were held in the North - consistent with the
objective laid down in item 4.8 of Chapter 4 of Agenda 21, that 'developed
countries should take the lead in achieving sustainable consumption
patterns'. As the summary of the Symposium held in Oslo underlined, the
industrialized countries, with 25 per cent of the world's population,
account for more than 80 per cent of the overall consumption of natural
resources, 75 per cent of municipal and industrial wastes - and have
contributed about 80 per cent of man-made global carbon dioxide emissions
since 1950. They have made significant gains - in per unit terms - in
energy intensity, waste minimization and air and water quality, but these
tend to be offset by increases in overall economic activity.
Two principal objectives were discussed at the meetings, in accordance
with item 4.7 of Agenda 21, Chapter 4, which calls for action:
- 'to promote patterns of consumption and production that reduce
environmental stress and will meet the basic needs of humanity';
- 'to develop a better understanding of the role of consumption and how
to bring about more sustainable consumption patterns'.
Synergies between regulatory, economic and social policy instruments would
help to achieve the first of these objectives, as was pointed out at the
Seminar held in Stockholm in December 1994, and at the Workshop that took
place in Seoul in August 1995. These would include incentives for product
and process innovation, the removal of subsidies, proper pricing for the
use of natural resources, ecological tax reform and the principle of
extended product responsibility.
The second objective, pursued at all the 1994 and 1995 meetings, is to
define - as Bill L. Long, Director for Environment at the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development put it - the principal relationships
between consumption patterns and environmental degradation, and between
consumption patterns and economic development. It seems that additional
data and further analytical studies are needed for this - as well as to
relate production and consumption patterns and to identify the processes
that would most effectively bring about positive changes.
Nonetheless, there is growing empirical evidence - as the Experts Seminar
held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, in December 1994
concluded - that meaningful changes in those patterns are already taking
place in several countries without having visible impacts on economic
growth, business profitability or personal well-being.
The CSD work programme
At its third session in 1995, the CSD adopted a five-point work programme
and set up an Ad Hoc Working Group to review progress and submit proposals
and recommendations to the fourth session in 1996. Under the programme,
trends in consumption and production patterns, especially in developed
countries, are to be identified and their impact on trade with developing
nations is to be assessed. Policy implications, and the effectiveness of
policy measures intended to introduce changes in consumption and
production patterns, are to be evaluated, and time-bound voluntary
commitments to make measurable progress on priority sustainable
development goals are to be elicited from countries.
The ultimate objective of the CSD work programme is the improvement of
decision-making processes at the national level. Certain practical
measures are needed to stimulate action by individual governments and to
permit them to establish priorities in accordance with their own
perspectives and characteristics. So modelling techniques are being
developed to identify trends and allow for policy options, including the
use of economic and social instruments.
Technology transfer
The move towards the greater use of environmentally friendly products will
require the support of developed countries and intergovernmental agencies
in transferring technology to developing nations. Information and
education are important in guiding customer choices and in inducing wider
acceptance of internalized social and environmental costs. Other useful
tools for promoting the necessary changes in production and consumption
patterns include fostering international cooperation and partnerships, and
disseminating sustainable practices through networking and establishing
specific databases.
All stakeholders have a role to play and, for this very reason, the CSD
has reached out and involved such major groups as NGOs, business and
industry. Through closer cooperation with other members of the United
Nations system, the CSD Secretariat, under the guidance of the Department
for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, has mobilized the
expertise of intergovernmental organizations in its effort to carry out
the directives and recommendations of Agenda 21.
In attempting to implement this mandate, one is reminded of Herman Daly's
proposition: 'The basic needs of all present people take priority over
future numbers, but the existence of more future people takes priority
over the trivial wants of the present'.
Henrique Brandão Cavalcanti is Special Envoy of the President of
Brazil and Chairman, third session, United Nations Commission on
Sustainable Development.
