1. Sustainable Consumption and Production
(SCP) in the context of SIDS
Africa Review Report on
Sustainable Consumption and
Production
Prof Toolseeram Ramjeawon, University of Mauritius
Prof Tools eeram Ramjeawon
Regional Policy Briefing no.7
ramjeawon@yahoo.co.uk 1
Mauritius, 23-24 April 2012

2. Presentation Outline
• Why/What is SCP?
• The context of SCP for SIDS
• Limitations of current strategies/Plans
• Key Recommendations
• Conclusions
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3. Context for the
21 century
st
humanity’s Earth’s
metabolism < capacity

4. The current scenario of C&P
Economic
growth
Use of
nature
Quality
of life
(happiness)

5. Why do we need SCP?
“The major cause of the continued deterioration of
the global environment are the unsustainable
patterns of consumption and production,
particularly in industrialised countries, which is a
matter of grave concern, aggravating poverty
and imbalances.”
Agenda 21 (Chap. 4)
PFIA 21 (Section 28)
JPOI ( Chap III)
Mauritius Strategy SIDS(Theme 15)
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6. SCP as a lens
• The value of talking about production and
consumption is the ability to focus on , and
address, the root causes of unsustainability.
• SCP takes a holistic, life cycle approach to the
systems of production and consumption,
starting from needs and values up to wastes.
• Practical implementation strategy to achieve
Sustainable Development that requires wide
stakeholder involvement

8. What is SCP?
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9. SCP is a vehicle for the Green Economy
• Green Economy: An economy which is low carbon,
resource efficient and socially inclusive. Driven by demand
and supply of environment friendly and environment
enhancing products and services.
•Green Economy: ensure growth, decent jobs, improve
well-being, eradicates poverty, while at the same time
protect and improve state of the environment
•Green Economy is an economic system change, which
makes it applicable to all countries at different stages of
development

10. Relevance of SCP/GE for SIDS
• SIDS are well positioned in the transition to SCP / green
economy given their low-carbon profile and rich natural capital
and cultural assets. Opportunity to “leapfrog” . No “lock-in”
effect of the economies of developed countries-greater flexibility
to adopt new approaches
• SIDS are inherently resource-constrained and have a higher
commitment to sustainable living
• SCP helps SIDS to reduce their high levels of intrinsic
vulnerabilities and contributes to reduce future costs and
increase competitiveness
• SCP offers new opportunities for SIDS such as the creation of
new markets, green and decent jobs(organic food, fair trade,
sustainable tourism, renewable energy, fisheries, buildings....)
• Challenge for SIDS is to determine the kind of investment
needed and the key target sectors to stimulate green growth
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11. Status of SCP in SIDS
• Impact and penetration of SCP activities is still very limited in
most SIDS. SCP is in progress….but still not enough to
create national level impacts. On-going activities for SCP is
still not sufficient for transition or leapfrogging
• Few examples for SC and capacity for promoting SC is far
less developed than for SP.
• An attractive vision and the economic case is missing. There
is a lack of ownership in society or the business sector.
• SCP initiatives are fragmented along sectoral and ministerial
lines. No integrated and strategic approach.
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12. Limitations of Current plans
• We know the priority sustainability problems very well
- Food, Mobility and Buildings cause 70-80% of
environmental impacts
- We need reductions of a factor four or more
• But it is much more difficult to solve them
- We succeed in addressing production, but not consumption.
Consumption growth outweighs efficiency gains, partly because
of the rebound effect
- We succeed in making incremental changes, but not radical
changes and system innovation.

13. The Delusion of Efficiency
Focusing sustainability initiatives solely on efficiency may be
politically expedient in the short term, but improvements are likely to
be highly elusive over the longer term.
Efficiency ≠ Aggregate Reduction
Efficiency is a means; it is not an end.

14. Sufficiency and Sustainability
Sustainability is like a coin: There is the efficiency side and there is the
sufficiency side.
The next step in conceptualizing the challenges of sustainability will be
to develop pragmatic ways to infuse sufficiency into strategic thinking.

15. Sufficiency and Sustainability
Where in the past we focused more on wealth, growth and efficiency,
the future will need to be about well being, quality and sufficiency.
The problem is that we lack a language for talking intelligently about
sufficiency.

16. Green Economy is also about
getting the economy right
 Is Sustainable consumption possible
in a market-capitalist economy?
It is necessary to think in something
that is apparently impossible,
for discovering what is possible.
 Sustainable consumption may only be possible
in a post-capitalist economy.
Post-capitalism is neither twentieth century socialism nor Chinese socialism – based in growth

17. Principles
Capitalism Post-capitalism
for life
Principle of for the accumulation of capital
(meeting the material needs of all
production (getting maximum profit rate)
human beings)
of wealth
Principle of (to each according to what he of wealth
distribution and the instruments he owns (to each according to his needs)
produces)
of wealth of wealth
Principle of
(killer competition to win market (solidarity and planning according
interchange
shares for capital accumulation) to scientific rationality)
moderate
ostentatious
Principle of (provides limits on
(induce needs to complete the
consumption needs according to the biophysical
process of capital accumulation)
limits of the planet)

18. How do we foster action? (We have to be so
convincing, that we can explain it to my mother’ (Anon.)
•What: What do want to achieve? A vision for
SCP/Green Economy in SIDS….flourishing lives for all
islanders
•Why : Why can’t we achieve it with business as usual?
Why do we need to change direction? Economic case
of action v/s inaction and for leapfrogging
•How : How can we change direction? Which sectors?
What are the best policies/instruments? Who are the
main actors?
•Proof: With what impact? Is there proof that such
ideas work? Success cases ,dissemination ,Capacity Building

20. Dedicated SCP Programme but Integrated with
existing national level strategies
National
Agricultural / Development Plan
Industrial Policy Climate
Change
Strategy
National Biodiversity
Strategy and Action SCP
Plan (NBSAP) Programme /
Action Plan or Cleaner
NSSD Production
National
Strategy
Environmental Action
Agenda /
Plan (NEAP)
Capacity 21
Energy Policy
Water Policy Population Policy
National
Health Policy Environment Education Policy
Forest Policy Strategy(NES) Transport Policy

21. Capacity building in effective SCP policies and instruments crucial

22. Critical processes for the success of
a SCP programme are:
• the political process and the need of a strong
political commitment from the top leadership
• the participatory process and the need to
develop mechanisms for participation such as
roundtables, workshops, public consultations
and multi-stakeholder dialogues, and
• the resource mobilisation process from both
domestic and international sources.

23. To develop an effective SCP programme
1. Lead change that can be realized within existing
structures and mindsets. Agreement on means and ends
(short term)
-Cleaner Production, 3Rs, Energy Efficiency, Enforcement of
standards, Internalization of external costs, building codes,
Sustainable Procurement; CSR, Green Buildings, eco-labelling,etc
2. Shared sense of urgency, agreement on ends, means
unclear: experiment and reflect from new niche concepts
to find direction(medium term)
-Illustration projects on sustainable buildings/cities
-Renewable energy technologies, mass-transport systems
6. Develop inspiring approaches that can foster change in
the future that is not feasible now. Disagreement over
means and ends: challenge paradigms(long term)
-Happiness indices
-Going Beyond GDP initiatives
-Prosperity without Growth

24. Make sustainable lifestyles desirable
• Most definitions of sustainable lifestyles(SL) talks
about minimizing environmental impact, resources
efficiency and helping people interact with the
community and places in which they live. However ,
people will only change their lifestyle in exchange for a
better one. So we have to make SL attractive and
desirable. It’s more than savings on energy and water
bills-it is also about happiness, social relations,health
and quality time
• People living SL (cycling, vegetarian diet, ..) are often
healthier, sleep better, are connected with their
communities and families, etc. Focus on social
desirability as much as on environmental issues.

25. To sum up
• SCP provides an ideal framework for achieving development
goals in SIDS. Help to manage energy, food and water crises
and build Green Economies.
• The vulnerabilities of SIDS adds a new dimension to the SCP
challenges. The same vulnerabilities providing a significant
opportunity to leapfrog to more resource efficient economies
and sustainable resource use. However need legs to be able
to leapfrog!
• Lessons learnt from pilots will help in sectoral policy and
strategy review and ultimately in mainstreaming SCP in
national policies/strategies. A new governance model is
needed. Role of Government to be changed to one of
“change management”, encouraging learning and
experimentation
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26. Conclusion
• Shaping a sustainable society, not a sustainable
consumer- SCP should be acknowledged by policy makers as
a policy field in its own right, mainstreamed into all policy areas
as a means of implementing SD objectives. SCP should be
embedded in an appropriate institutional framework and needs
to built from the national level . Its success will depend on the
level of ownership from all stakeholders .
• In SIDS, more emphasis in the short term on creating the
physical infrastructure to make sustainable behaviour easier.
• Rio+20 Summit - crucial opportunity to put the world back on
the path towards sustainable development .Need to ensure
tangible action on SCP at Rio for 2020 and beyond... …

27. Thank you for your
attention!
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