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Thematic assessment | Consumption and the environment of ecosystems. Tourism could play a vital role in halting the loss of biodiversity if managed sustainably, building on, maintaining and restoring the ecosystems that it relies on and building stewardship for protected areas (Lefèvre and McCool, 2008). Natural heritage areas can serve as learning laboratories, where tourists can learn about biodiversity and how to protect it. At the same time, the United Nation's World Tourism Organization promotes sustainable tourism as a tool to alleviate poverty (UNWTO, 2004). The Marrakech Process Task Force on Sustainable Tourism has developed a number of policy recommendations that highlight the responsibility of all stakeholders (ITF‐SDT, 2009). Recommendations include: • governments at all levels are recommended to integrate sustainable tourism planning into national and regional development plans; • financing from national and international organisations (public and private) dealing with investments in public infrastructure related to tourism or investments in private tourism businesses should estimate their social and environmental impacts and adopt economic measures to compensate for and offset unavoidable impacts; • corporations should adopt corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) principles in their tourism investments; • guidelines for the behaviour of tourists at destinations should be promoted using networks, media and other communication channels; • governments and businesses should set baseline and measurable targets, review progress and report progress towards the achievement of sustainable tourism objectives. Overall, there are many initiatives in place in Europe and globally, but in sum the package of measures is not as robust and effective in addressing consumption impacts on the environment as those for other consumption areas such as food and drink, housing and mobility. 44 The European environment | State and outlook 2010
Thematic assessment | Consumption and the environment 8 Concluding reflections: consumption, environmental priorities and policies The SOER 2010 synthesis (EEA, 2010a) identifies four future environmental priorities in Europe to address the identified links between risks and increased uncertainties across the world: • implementing and strengthening current environmental policies; • dedicated management of natural capital and ecosystem services; • coherent integration of environmental considerations across the many policy domains; and • a greening of the economy. This chapter takes, as its starting point, these four priorities and provides a perspective on the role of consumption within them. It does so by using the analyses of the previous chapters to discuss options and potential obstacles. Finally, the chapter considers that public authorities at the EU, national and local levels are responsible for deciding on and implementing a policy framework and policy instruments. However, they cannot ensure more environmentally sustainable consumption without business and citizens playing an active and complementary role in a triangle of change (Figure 8.1). 8.1 Consumption and current environmental policies A broad range of policies, environment‐related or not, set the framework for consumption patterns, including, for example, the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), EU transport policies, the Cohesion Policy, and trade policies. All these influence the relative prices and availability of different goods and services. The focus of EU environmental policies on sustainable consumption and production has gradually evolved over recent decades from a focus mainly on cleaner production, through sustainable products to a more holistic approach to sustainable consumption and production. The overall EU policy framework dedicated to addressing the environmental impacts of consumption is the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy (EC, 2008a). It seeks to improve the supply, and stimulate demand for, sustainable products and services. This includes the strengthening and extension of the Eco‐design Directive, the EU Eco‐label and Energy Label Directives, and Green Public Procurement (Box 8.1). The EU Action Plan thus mainly makes use of regulatory, information‐based and voluntary instruments. At the national level, at least 15 EU Member States have adopted national SCP strategies either as stand‐alone overarching SCP strategies or action plans — the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland and the United Kingdom — or as a key theme within national sustainable development strategies — Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden (EEA, 2010; Watson et al., 2009 and Adell et al., 2009). There is a great potential in sharing good practices from the design and implementation of such policies. Policies in the EU and in individual EEA member countries have, in most cases, focused on products, by promoting the supply of more sustainable products and encouraging consumers to buy these through the use of labelling or other information‐based instruments (Berg, 2007; Tukker et al., 2008; Rubik et al., 2009). In addition, at national and local levels, economic instruments are increasingly being used particularly for influencing energy and water consumption, mobility behaviour and waste (Table 8.1). Research shows that policy implementation using a single type of instrument alone often has limited impact. Using a complementary mix of various types of policy instruments addressing different groups of actors is likely to increase the effectiveness of policy implementation in the field of SCP (OECD, 2010; Rubik et al., 2009; Jackson, 2005; Jackson and Michaelis, 2003). Labelling has, in a few cases, proved effective, for instance in the case of electrical appliances for which energy efficiency labels have helped drive significant improvements over the past decade. In addition, well‐designed consumer campaigns can help raise awareness and contribute to influencing behaviour, especially if campaigns are linked to other instruments and particularly in areas where awareness levels are low. A recent OECD study found that in addition to the key The European environment | State and outlook 2010 45
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