MANILA

“Regional Cross - Learning on Sustainable Consumption"

The future rapid growth in consumption levels across Asia and the potential devastating impacts on the regional environment was the focus of an international seminar on “Regional Cross - Learning on Sustainable Consumption“ held at Manila during 15-17 March 2005. It was the occasion for an exchange of experiences on best practices on Sustainable Consumption and an exercise in developing National Action Plans on SC.

Over 80 participants from 12 Asian countries India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR and 4 European countries took part in this , as part of the “SC.Asia Project” focus on Capacity building for Implementation of the UN Guidelines on Sustainable Consumption.

Representatives from Governments, business and civil society had discussed how plans and activities to promote sustainable consumption can be put into practice.

At the opening session of the seminar, Mr. Michael T. Defensor, Minister of Environment, Philippines, delivered a keynote address highlighting the importance of sustainable consumption. He mentioned that sustainable consumption is an important area to address as it is linked to other national priorities such as deforestation, which is of high concern in the Philippines. Mr. Frank Hess, European Commission, (First Secretary, EC Delegation to Philippines) stressed the need to identify the most appropriate policy tools to promote sustainable consumption, including advertising and marketing with a positive and cool message. Mrs. Wei Zhao (UNEP ROAP) gave the welcome remarks and Ms. Adriana Zacarias (UNEP DTIE) made a presentation on the UN Guidelines and the SC.Asia project.

During the meeting, the project partners, Center for Environment and Development (CED), Consumers International (CI) and the Danish Consumer Council, presented the results of the Asian and European reviews on the implementation of the UN Guidelines on Sustainable Consumption. Participants presented some national case studies and best practices on SC: Thailand presented a successful project on education on energy efficiency that was implemented in more than 50 schools in the country. The Philippines presented their experience with eco-labelling, and India presented a project on Impartial Product Testing. Repesentatives of India presented case studies on Comparative Testing Products in India. Particepent from India were Gopal Kumar Jain of CEE from Ahmedabad, Dr. Roopa Vajpeyi of VOICE, New Delhi, Mr. K. P. Nyati from CII, Ms. Priya Ajit Singh from Govt. of India and Prof.Manubhai Shah from CERC, Ahmedabad. Prof. Manubhai Shah, Consumer Education & Research Centre,Ahmedabad ,Gujarat was invited to present his views on “Comparative Testing of Consumer Products in India”.

Uchita De Zoysa Exe. Director of Centre for Environment and Development presented Asian review on sustainable consumption. The twelve Asian countries were under review to evaluate status of Sustainable Consumption Achievments in Asia. He has presented the example of CERC under “Impartial Product Testing” for setting up of in house testing laboratory to carry out independent product testing.

The second day focussed on training on specific SC tools, such as awareness and education campaigns, and public green procurement. The third day was built around an exercise on the National Action Plans (NAP) on Sustainable Consumption. UNEP presented the model that was developed to assist countries to design and implement National Action Plans on sustainable consumption. Based on this model, each country prepared a mock-up national NAP, which focussed on specific sectors or products. The aim of the exercise was to get the country teams started on thinking how to draft real NAPs. During the meeting, UNEP invited countries to consider how UNEP and partners can assist the countries in adopting real action plans. The participants also provided important feedback to the exercise, as well to the whole seminar. Based on the outcome from the seminar, SC.Asia will develop a guidance manual on NAP on Sustainable Consumption

Delegates had reviewed ways and means to minimise the negative environmental and social effects of rapidly increasing consumption levels in Asia while at the same time ensuring that the regions poor get access to products and services to achieve an improved life quality.

The three day meeting was part of the SC.Asia project, an initiative coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and funded by the European Unions Asia Pro Eco Programme.

The project partners were UNEP, Consumers International, The Danish Consumers Council and the Centre for Environment and Development (Sri Lanka).They will review a range of approaches in Europe (Denmark, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdoms) and Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam) and together with government officials from Europe and Asia synthesize the findings into a guidance manual.