scholarly journals Expansion of Policy Domain of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP): Challenges and Opportunities for Policy Design

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6763
Author(s):  
Yasuhiko Hotta ◽  
Tomohiro Tasaki ◽  
Ryu Koide

Since 2015, the international policy community has started to agree on international agreements with ambitious middle-term and long-term goals, highly relevant to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) such as those seen in the Paris Agreement, SDGs, and the plastic-related agreements at the G7 and G20 processes. Along with this trend, there has been growing attention given to socio-technical system change or “transition”. Policy debate is putting more focus on the need to change consumption and production patterns and deal with various ecological consequences within planetary boundaries such as decarbonization, absolute reduction in material throughput, or creation of a plastic-free society. This paper examines the expansion of the policy domain of SCP in three phases; SCP focusing on pollution control and cleaner production (SCP 1.0), SCP from the perspective of product lifecycle (SCP 2.0), and SCP focusing on systematic changes in socio-technical systems driving consumption and production (SCP 3.0). The potential impact of a wider SCP policy domain can be comparable to the historical shift in discourse related to ecological modernization theory from pollution prevention to efficiency. This emerging trend corresponds to the need for a fresh approach to policy design which can facilitate transition to sustainability.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1732
Author(s):  
Seok-ho Jung ◽  
Mee-hye Lee ◽  
Seong-ho Lee ◽  
Ji Whan Ahn

In September 2015, the United Nations included ‘sustainable consumption and production’ as part of its 12th goal of sustainable development. The EU announced its Circular Economic Package in December 2015 to move from the existing linear economic structure to the net environmental system. Recycling of household waste has become more significant as a circular economic policy has been implemented to reflow waste into the economy through recycling worldwide. In this study, Korea’s household waste generation for 20 years from 1998 to 2017 was analyzed through statistical techniques. Waste generation tended to increase in the order of plastics and cans, and papers tended to decrease. The amount of bottle wastes has been on the decline after increasing. A questionnaire survey on recycling priority was conducted on 261 people, including participants in the EARTH-2019 recycling experience hall, using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique. According to the survey, the recycling priorities of six types of household waste are (first) plastic, (second) cans, viny, scrap metals, (third) paper, and (fourth) bottles. Statistical analysis of mid- to long-term household waste generation and AHP-based household waste recycling priority survey results can be used as basic data, such as environmental analysis in Korea’s recycling-related policies and research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-28
Author(s):  
Andrey Sakharov ◽  
◽  
Inna Andronova ◽  

The rationalization of production and consumption patterns lies at the core of sustainable development as it determines the level of anthropogenic impact on the environment, which is ultimately the subject of all international climate arrangements. This topic broadly encompasses not only sustainable development goal (SDG) 12, but also certain aspects of SDGs 7 and 11. The role of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in promoting the concept of sustainability globally is determined by their place among the leading producers and consumers of natural resources and emitters of pollutants, as well as the parties to major global agreements in this area. This article focuses on the institutional contribution of the BRICS agenda to the international community’s efforts to achieve the SDG targets related to the rationalization of resource production and consumption. In addition, because the socio-economic crisis of 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is seen as one of the factors impeding the implementation of the goals, the article also highlights the impact of COVID-19 and the crisis response of BRICS governments on long-term strategic planning for sustainable development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul K. Gellert ◽  
Paul S. Ciccantell

Predominant analyses of energy offer insufficient theoretical and political-economic insight into the persistence of coal and other fossil fuels. The dominant narrative of coal powering the Industrial Revolution, and Great Britain's world dominance in the nineteenth century giving way to a U.S.- and oil-dominated twentieth century, is marred by teleological assumptions. The key assumption that a complete energy “transition” will occur leads some to conceive of a renewable-energy-dominated twenty-first century led by China. After critiquing the teleological assumptions of modernization, ecological modernization, energetics, and even world-systems analysis of energy “transition,” this paper offers a world-systems perspective on the “raw” materialism of coal. Examining the material characteristics of coal and the unequal structure of the world-economy, the paper uses long-term data from governmental and private sources to reveal the lack of transition as new sources of energy are added. The increases in coal consumption in China and India as they have ascended in the capitalist world-economy have more than offset the leveling-off and decline in some core nations. A true global peak and decline (let alone full substitution) in energy generally and coal specifically has never happened. The future need not repeat the past, but technical, policy, and movement approaches will not get far without addressing the structural imperatives of capitalist growth and the uneven power structures and processes of long-term change of the world-system.


Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 469-483
Author(s):  
Tishya Chatterjee

In conditions of severe water-pollution and dormant community acceptance of accumulating environmental damage, the regulator's role goes beyond pollution prevention and more towards remediation and solutions based on the community's long-term expectations of economic benefits from clean water. This paper suggests a method to enable these benefits to become perceptible progressively, through participatory clean-up operations, supported by staggered pollution charges. It analyses the relevant literature on pollution prevention and applies a cost-based “willingness to pay” model, using primary basin-level data of total marginal costs. It develops a replicable demand-side approach imposing charge-standard targets over time in urban-industrial basins of developing countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7742
Author(s):  
Taiwo Temitope Lasisi ◽  
Kayode Kolawole Eluwole ◽  
Uju Violet Alola ◽  
Luigi Aldieri ◽  
Concetto Paolo Vinci ◽  
...  

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) elaborately encompass a global goal for sustainable consumption and production (Goal 12: SDGs), thus providing potential drivers and/or pathways to attaining sustainable consumption. In view of this global goal, this study examined the role of real income per capita, urbanization and especially inbound tourism in domestic material consumption for the panel of OECD countries. The study is conducted for the period of 1995 to 2016 by employing the panel quantile approach. Interestingly, an inverted U-shaped relationship between outbound tourism and domestic material consumption is established across the quantiles, thus indicating that sustainable domestic consumption is achievable after a threshold of domestic material consumption is attained. In addition, achieving sustainable consumption through economic or income growth is a herculean task for the OECD countries because the current reality indicates that income growth triggers higher consumption of domestic materials. However, the results suggest that urbanization is a recipe for sustainable domestic consumption since there is a negative and significant relationship between the two parameters across the quantiles. Nevertheless, the study presents relevant policy for efficient material and resources utilization and that is suitable to drive the SDGs for 2030 and other country-specific sustainable ambitions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Abubakari ◽  
Bessy Thuranira

AbstractCorporate entities are expected to show a great commitment to the sustainability agenda in response to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-12—‘Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns’ by 2030. This study, therefore, analyses the sustainability commitments of two major consumer goods companies in Ghana; Unilever Ghana Limited, and PZ Cussons Ghana Limited. It uses the traditional qualitative literature review approach to identify and evaluate the varying commitments of the two entities through an analytic lens of the Sustainable Business Model (SBM) archetypes. The findings indicate that of the eight archetypes, Unilever Ghana Limited is committed to four of the archetypes—1, 3, 6, and 8—whereas PZ Cussons Ghana Limited’s commitments align with five of the archetypes—1, 2, 5, 6, and 8. This indicates a defining step in their sustainability commitments moving forward, however, the translation of the commitments of the two companies into actualities calls for a concerted effort involving the State, civil society, the academic community, and the entities themselves.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4402
Author(s):  
Chun-Kai Wang ◽  
Chien-Ming Lee ◽  
Yue-Rong Hong ◽  
Kan Cheng

Energy transition has become a priority for adaptive policy and measures taken in response to climate change around the world. This is an opportunity and a challenge for the Taiwan government to establish a climate-resilient power generation mixed to ensure electricity security as well as climate change mitigation. This study adopted a sustainable development perspective and applied optimal control theory to establish a cost-effective model to evaluate a long-term (2050), climate-resilient power generation mix for Taiwan. Furthermore, this study applies the STIRPAT approach to predict the demand of electricity by 2050 for the demand side management. The results not only showed the share of various power generation mixed, but also recommended the trajectory of electricity saving by 2050.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7906
Author(s):  
Nikola Medová ◽  
Lucie Macková ◽  
Jaromir Harmacek

This paper focuses on the dynamic of the recent upheaval in the tourism and hospitality sector due to the COVID-19 epidemic in Greece and Santorini island. It uses the case study of a country one-fourth of whose GDP consists of tourism. We compare the available statistical data showing the change in variables in the previous years with 2020 and look into the new challenges and opportunities posed by the drop in the numbers of visitors and flights. We focus mainly on the economic and social impact on the destination and possible future scenarios for further development in the area. Data show a significant effect of the pandemic on multiple variables, such as the long-term trend of the importance of tourism sector in GDP in Greece, the number of flights and visitors to Greece and Santorini island, and the contribution of tourism and travel to GDP. Based on the available data, we also construct three foresight scenarios that describe the possible futures for Santorini island in terms of the pandemic evolution. These scenarios may help various stakeholders and policymakers to be better prepared for different developments that may appear.


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