Consumption and the environment (SOER2010) - European ...

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
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