National Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Strategies in the EU — a comparative review of selected cases

Jozsef Szlezak, the European Topic Centre on Resource and Waste Management (ETC/RWM), with contribution from Almut Reichel, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Hubert Reisinger (ETC/RWM)

The research study „National Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Strategies in the EU — a comparative review of selected cases” was conducted by the European Topic Centre on Resource and Waste Management (ETC/RWM) between May and August 2007, under contract by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
The study served as background paper for the conference “Time for Action – Towards Sustainable Consumption and Production in Europe”. The overall objective was to provide background information on some examples of high-level national strategies addressing SCP per se in the EU. The focus was on dedicated national SCP frameworks of programmes or action plans, and/or on national sustainable development strategies (NSDSs) integrating SCP as a key component. During the period of research, up to the end of August 2007, almost a dozen of examples of dedicated SCP strategies or NSDSs integrating SCP as a key component were identified.

For the purpose of the study the relevant strategies of Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France and the UK were selected. The first part of the study provides an overview of the processes of preparing these strategies (i.e. responsibilities, coordination etc.), furthermore the main objectives and visions of SCP outlined, main areas of planned action and instruments of implementation in focus and information about responsibilities for implementation and relevant targets and indicators defined.

The second part of the study is a comparative review of the selected cases in terms of the above topics. It focuses on the priority implementation areas and instruments defined in the strategies in general, as well as from the perspectives of the consumption areas of “food and drink”, “housing” and “mobility” in particular.

The study concludes that in terms of starting points, foci of action, instruments and targeted stakeholders etc. the identified examples represent a very wide range of approaches. The most broadly and uniformly shared overall implementation area planned by the SCP strategies is the improvement of the eco-efficiency. The focus in this respect however, is on the domestic economy and on the production processes. In terms of “consumption side measures”, the strategies focus on education, sensitisation for responsibility and the provision of information. Only few activities go beyond these issues. At the same time research aimed at understanding the dynamics of consumption decisions is a common element of strategies.
A particularly common ambition of the strategies is commitment for setting the example in the public sector. In terms of planned instruments of implementation, key role is assigned to market interventions in the promotion of SCP in all reviewed cases. The study also concludes that it can be broadly confirmed that food and drink, housing and mobility are in the foci of strategies. At the same time, in most of the cases these areas are already addressed or planned to be addressed in more detail in relevant dedicated strategies. Lastly, as regards the comprehensiveness of action from the life-cycle perspective, some areas considered of key importance (e.g. consumption side impacts of food consumption, energy use of household appliances etc.) are not specifically addressed in the strategies.

The study is available at http://waste.eionet.europa.eu/publications/SCP_review

These three areas have been identified responsible for the bulk of environmental pressures activated by consumption in the EU from the lifecycle perspective, by numerous relevant researches. See e.g. the “EIPRO study”, available at http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=1429