Offsetting greenhouse gas emissions has been suggested as an important part of a comprehensive climate policy approach. Programmes for offsetting greenhouse gases can reduce the cost of achieving the emission targets, since emission reductions can be enabled where the costs are low. In a new handbook of carbon offset programmes, a systematic review of existing offsetting programmes is provided. The handbook gives information on how offset mechanisms function, as well as information about the successes and pitfalls that the different programmes have encountered. A number of different types of programmes are covered, including mandatory and voluntary systems, government regulated and private markets, carbon offset funds, and accounting and reporting protocols. The handbook can be used by regulators, policy makers, business leaders as well as NGOs.

Read more: www.sei.se and www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=101804

Although the developed countries are largely responsible for the climate change to date, future responsibility is shared by both developed and developing countries. As the world’s most populous country and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases with steeply rising emission curves, China’s role is critical in combating climate change. However, without technological and financial support, China will not be able to shoulder the entire responsibility for achieving the necessary reductions. A report by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Chinese Economists 50 Forum shows how China can make the emissions reductions needed to reach the global 2°C target, while still meeting development and economic growth goals over the next four decades.

Read the report: http://sei-international.org/?p=publications&task=view&pid=1325

Civil society organizations can play very diverse roles in the SCP policy arena, by making use of participatory, informational, economic or educational instruments, for example. Another very interesting way of promoting SCP is through the so-called creative instruments, which will be discussed in this article.

Creative instruments: creating a collective movement

Creative approaches are needed to address the challenges our planet is facing, to support behaviour change and to spread awareness of global conditions among different stakeholders. Since unsustainable behaviours can be changed more effectively when best practice examples can be demonstrated, communication to stimulate the process of change is key.

Creative instruments include the use of different art forms and media. They are often informational in nature but are action-oriented and use different creative methods to promote targets.

One particularly interesting creative instrument is known as a “collective movement” which has significant potential for changing consumption patterns. Collective movements can be local, national or global; they can be located in one geographical place or cover several areas via online movements. Usually, collective movements have a common goal, which can be anything from a single issue to the overarching goal of moving the world towards sustainability.

Boycotts and “buycotts“, in which consumers either refuse or prefer to buy particular products and services to support or protest something, are classic examples of collective movements. However, new forms of social movements and political actions are emerging. These forms are based on local networking, such as Community-Supported Agriculture groups (CSA), or on transnational networking, such as the fair trade movement. The internet provides a base for many movements, including Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAG) and German Utopia. Utopia is a platform that promotes sustainable initiatives and aims to increase the awareness surrounding sustainability. CRAG is working both online and in real life, aiming to reduce carbon footprints by forming local groups and providing knowledge and experience through the website.

Many consumers around the world are confronted with the message that consumption is a duty required to keep the economy growing. Western societies are essentially defined by mass consumption: more is better than less, fast is better than slow and new is better than old. Counter movements such as Slow food, Simple living and Take Back your Time attempt to negate these ideas. Slow food is a movement founded in opposition to “fast food”. Its main objectives are to preserve and promote local and traditional food products, to raise consumers’ awareness about the risks of fast food and biodiversity defence, to encourage ethical purchasing in local marketplaces and to boost organic farming.

Simple living emphasises the opportunity to voluntarily choose a simple lifestyle, in contrast with the current mantra that “more is better”. This movement is consistent with preservation of the environment, social justice and sustainable development themes but it is still in its infancy and is relatively small.

Take Back your Time seeks to mobilise political resources in support of state and federal legislation that would allow, and potentially compel, citizens to work shorter hours. When working less, people can dedicate more time to non-materialistic activities such as spending time with their children, enjoying their hobbies, reading a book or simply taking some rest to improve your mental and physical health.

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Case: The Story of Stuff

This animated video, created by Annie Leonard, clearly explains the general topic of SCP in 20 minutes. The story describes how the entire structure of our developed society is based on an unsustainable system of production and consumption that is now endangering our planet’s resources and our own lives. The main message is that we should not only downsize our consumer demands but that we also need to RE-size so they are heading in a sustainable direction.

In this short movie, Annie Leonard invites us to reflect on the “System of Stuff”, namely all of the stages within the production chain and the unexpected consequences of our consumption choices. By the end of the video, it is apparent that social and political conditions, previously thought to be irrelevant to sustainability, can affect the environment in a positive or negative way, that daily behaviour and choices determine our environmental impact and finally why turning to sustainable patterns of consumption is definitely up to us!

www.storyofstuff.com

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Further information:

Lähteenoja, Tuncer & Salo 2009: Using Creative Instruments for Promoting Sustainable Citizenship. In Making a Difference:  Putting Consumer Citizenship into Action. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of  The Consumer Citizenship Network, Berlin, Germany 2009. Pdf available here.

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You can download the whole paper on policy instruments  and other interesting papers of the Action Town project in the Library!

There are innumerous opportunities for CSO engagement at different policy levels, going from the individual and household to the international sphere.  The present article describes the ways CSOs can contribute on a national level, taking into account that this is where a great percentage of policy formulation by the government and other stakeholders takes place.

Policy Instruments: National level

The national level is where most of the “big” decisions are made. Regulations and economic instruments are set at this level and the influence of these on decisions made at local and individual levels, such as what we eat, where we live and how much we travel, is often great.

In order to achieve a strategic and comprehensive view on SCP, many countries are developing national action plans on sustainable consumption and production. The priorities stated in these plans represent guidelines for SCP policy and policy instruments.

The national action plans on SCP are very diverse in nature. Some of them provide frameworks that set out general objectives and guidance, while others have concrete action plans with specific objectives and detailed measures to undertake.[i] The issues covered in these action plans cover a broad spectrum. In some countries, a separate strategy on SCP does not exist but rather SCP programmes are integrated into, and given high priority within, other strategies, such as sustainable development, environment or poverty reduction strategies..[ii] By 2008, over 30 countries had developed, or were in the process of developing, national SCP action plans. In Europe, these countries included Belgium, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Finland, Poland and France. In addition, countries such as Austria, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Norway have specific SCP elements in their sustainable development strategies.[iii]

On occasion, these action plans and strategies are dismissed as merely words.To avoid this occurring, the implementation of action plans is crucial. One of the key roles for CSOs in relation to action plans is to ensure the successful implementation of planned action and to make sure that the programmes are as ambitious as possible. Following this, CSOs can then push for priorities to be set in the action plans during their campaigns.

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How can you promote SCP at the national level?

• Identify the problem, challenge or opportunity you would like to address. The UK Green Building Council starts projects this way – first by finding an issue that has either come from their members or simply from observations. Their next step consists of writing a proposal about how to tackle the issue and whom they need to involve. They then ask organisations to join task groups and from nominations they make a final selection in order to have the right number of organisations involved.

• Identify like-minded organisations active, or willing to be active, at the national level. Initiate exchanges and position-building. You can sign up at http://csoplatform.ning.com for example, to share your ideas on food, housing and mobility and network with other CSOs online.

• Take part in political processes and lobby for meaningful issues. The European Climate Foundation undertakes a campaign to encourage large car fleet owners to pledge that they will buy more energy efficient cars. This provides an important signal for car manufacturers to invest in energy efficiency, resulting in higher consumer demand and more support for legislative change.

• Insist that political processes are followed up with an implementation phase and are not simply toothless declarations.

• Concentrate your efforts on the most efficient policy instruments such as regulation or environmental taxes and fees. By doing this, the lobbying activities of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC) won them access to parliament hearings and meet representatives from the Finance Ministry to discuss ecological tax reform.

• Initiate high-level discussions regarding how local sustainability achievements can be translated into general practice.

• Identify like-minded media or independent journalists and keep them informed on both ustainable and unsustainable processes. Celebrate success stories where projects relating to sustainable food consumption, housing or mobility worked well.

• In partnership with business, seek out organisations at the forefront of SCP and avoid wasting time in fruitless discussions with those lagging behind. WWF-Germany has partnered with business in relation to the Soil and Palm Oil Roundtable (www.rspo.org), working together towards the implementation of measures on specific topics like agriculture, biofuels and climate change.

• Carry out independent research projects, obtain more data to support your position and publish challenging evidence on your website, in your newsletter or via press mailings. Green Liberty did this by conducting research on the household detergents available in the Latvian market. The results of toxicity tests were used to run an information campaign and lobby the government for a ban on selling detergents containing phosphorous.

• Lobby for improved consumer communication through, for example, product labelling. Since 2005, Greenpeace has campaigned for supermarkets to sell only sustainable seafood (http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/espana/reports/http-www-greenpeace-org-espa.pdf). For general guidance on lobbying – at the national and EU level – see the training handbook “Making your voice heard in the EU – A guide for NGOs” at http://act4europe.horus.be/module/FileLib/NGOGuide_EN.pdf).

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[i] ETC/RWM, 2007. National Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Strategies in the EU. A comparative review of selected cases Background paper for the conference ‘Time for Action — towards Sustainable Consumption and Production in Europe’. URL: http://www.mop.gov.si/fileadmin/mop.gov.si/pageuploads/podrocja/okolje/pdf/time_for_action/background_paper_national_SCP_strategies_reviw.pdf

[ii] UNEP, 2008. Planning for Change – Guidelines for National Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production. URL: http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1028xPA-Planning4change.pdf

[iii] UNEP, 2008. Planning for Change – Guidelines for National Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production. URL: http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1028xPA-Planning4change.pdf

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You can download the whole paper on policy instruments  and other interesting papers of the Action Town project in the Library!

European Union level policies affect the legislation of individual member countries considerably. The main forms of EU legislation are directives and regulations. Most EU law is in the form of directives, requiring individual member states to adopt the requirements into national law and implement them. A directive sets the result that member states need to achieve, but leaves the method and form of implementation up to individual countries. In contrast, regulations are entirely binding and take immediate effect in all member states in the same way national law would. Two further EU legislative processes are the European Commission’s decisions, which are binding for the members they are addressing and EC communications, which are preliminary documents, often followed by proposals for legislation.

Sustainable consumption and production was identified as one of the seven key challenges in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS), renewed in 2006. Decreasing the environmental impact of industrial and consumption patterns and encouraging environmentally friendly production, use and disposal of products are the main focuses of EU policies. By July 2008, the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) had been developed, used to promote sustainable production and consumption by anticipating and responding to environmental threats. Part of the IPP involves encouraging green public procurement and eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS). These were originally set up in 1995 for companies in industrial sectors but since 2001 have been open to all economic sectors. The EU Eco-label is an additional instrument designed to encourage businesses to market and brand products and services that are more environmentally friendly.

EU SCP Action Plan

To complement these policy instruments and provide measures where gaps exist, the European Commission presented a series of proposals in July 2008, including a specific Action Plan on sustainable consumption and production and on sustainable industrial policy (SCP/SIP). It aims to “improve the energy and environmental performance of products and foster their uptake by consumers”. Building on existing EU policies, the core elements of the EU SCP action plan include 1) better products, 2) smarter consumption, 3) cleaner production, and 4) action at the global level. Specifically, proposals include:

• • * Extending the Ecodesign Directive to include not only energy-using products (such as computers, televisions, boilers, and industrial fans) but all energy-related products, including those that do not consume energy during use but have an indirect impact on energy consumption (such as window frames, water-using devices, etc.).
  • * Extending mandatory labelling of energy and environmental performance under the Energy Labelling Directive and EU Ecolabel to include a wider range of products;
  • * Promoting voluntary measures to increase the potential benefits of green public procurement by enhancing green spending by public authorities; and
  • * Significantly revising the voluntary EU eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) to increase user-friendliness, thereby making it more attractive to participating organisations.
  • * Setting up a retailer forum that aims to reduce the environmental impact of the retailer sector and its supply chain and to promote sustainable products and raise consumer awareness on green purchasing opportunities.

The EU SCP action plan is important for CSOs working in the EU member states because it sets the overall framework for SCP policies in individual countries. In some cases, the EU action plan is more ambitious than national policies and can therefore be referred to by CSOs in their campaigning. The EU action plan also includes measures that have to be directly translated into national legislation. These measures include the extension of the eco-design and the eco-design labelling directives.

Case example: EEB Blueprint for Action on SCP

Due to their dissatisfaction with the Commission’s SCP action plan, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) published a Blueprint on European Sustainable Consumption and Production in May 2009. It is the result of a combined effort by representatives from environmental and social organisations and the research community. It brings together cutting-edge analysis, technical expertise, and civil society representation to communicate urgent and high priority actions to help Europe change its consumption and production patterns.

The EEB considered the EU SCP Action Plan to be: 1) lacking in vision, clarity and ambition as the stated objective of an “energy and resource efficient economy” was too vague, 2) lacking direct reference to the areas of highest importance: food & drink, housing and transport, 3) overly oriented towards voluntary measures, 4) lacking innovative development in the sustainable consumption policy area and, 5) lacking a systems based approach.

The Blueprint therefore aims to:

• * Provide inspiring, easy to grasp, scientifically-grounded suggestions on how changes to SCP can be realised.
• * Guide the action of contributing organisations, in particular by highlighting priorities and providing guidance on collaboration and on where mutual support and brokering can make a difference.
• * Guide research
• * Provide an alternative for existing SCP policy plans that often lack effective action and implementation
• * Highlight the shortcomings of existing policy plans

The document has been prepared to present CSOs’ view on the SCP agenda and what actions public institutions, the business community and civil society can and should undertake. It presents the need and goals for change, provides a vision of what that change might look like and outlines the actions needed from government, business and civil society to achieve such a change. The EEB hopes to be supported and legitimised by important CSO and scientific groups from which it can derive visibility and strength.

Download the Blueprint at http://www.eeb.org/publication/general.html (see May 2009).

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How can you promote SCP at the EU level?

-       Understand the EU SCP action plan, compare it to the processes in your country to identify possible gaps and communicate them on your website, via the media or by addressing the EU parliamentarian from your constituency. They can then ask oral or written questions in the EU parliament to the European Commission to highlight gaps in implementation, thereby denouncing national deficits.

-       Get informed on EU level campaigns and processes through networking with umbrella organisations such as EEB (www.eeb.org) and ANPED (www.anped.org)  Joining their emailing lists is one good way of doing this.

-       Check for official EU consultation processes on SCP related issues and participate in them. For the EU SCP action plan, about 18% of the participating stakeholders were CSOs – a figure which can be easily increased (see: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/escp_en.htm)

-       Strengthen EU legislation processes on SCP through national campaigning to increase pressure on government officials, for example ministers who are national delegates to the EU Council.

-       Take opportunities to apply for EU funds for projects with other CSOs and organisations. Possibilities for funding exist from LIFE (www.europa.eu/life), INTERREG (www.interreg4c.net/), the 7^th Resarch Framework Programme (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/), Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/index_en.htm) and the Intelligent Energy for Europe Programme (http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/call_for_proposals/index_en.htm). For general information see: http://ec.europa.eu)

-       For more information on how to best undertake lobbying at the European level, you can check out the training handbook “Making your voice heard in the EU – A guide for NGOs” (http://act4europe.horus.be/module/FileLib/NGOGuide_EN.pdf) prepared by The Civil Society Contact Group for ‘newcomer’ CSOs and activists that are in the process of establishing a European strategy.

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You can download the whole paper on policy instruments  and other interesting papers of the Action Town project in the Library!