Writing in ‘The Future We Want’, delegates to Rio+20 declared: “We consider green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication as one of the important tools available for achieving sustainable development.” They further recognized that “urgent action on unsustainable patterns of production and consumption where they
occur remains fundamental in addressing environmental sustainability, and promoting conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems, regeneration of natural resources, and the promotion of sustained, inclusive and equitable global growth.”
Those conclusions bolster the following lessons learned and recommendations:
lesson: A truly ‘green’ economy cannot develop in an idealized vacuum.
reCoMMenDATion: Build a green economy on three pillars: gender equity, poverty alleviation and technological and social systems that reduce the environmental impacts of both production and consumption.
lesson: Women can play a particularly central role in advancing sustainable develop-ment and building the green economy, but only if they are educated about their options, encouraged to act and empowered to succeed.
reCoMMenDATion: Make human and women’s rights a cornerstone of all sustain-able development agreements.
lesson: Empowering women to become producers of sustainable products also empowers them to become sustainable consumers.
reCoMMenDATion: Assure women’s and human rights in all new sustainable devel-opment goals.
lesson: The lack of uniform, meaningful product labels creates confusion in the market-place that undercuts consumer demand for sustainable products and allows unsustainable production practices to continue. Barriers such as premium prices, inadequate quality, inconvenient availability and inadequate performance also inhibit sustainable consumption.
reCoMMenDATion: Governments should establish consistent sustainable production and performance criteria to ensure that product labels reduce consumer confusion and help accelerate the adoption of more sustainable production practices.
lesson: Without empowering women to act, consumption can neither be contained to minimize its impact nor transformed so it can realize its empowering potential.
reCoMMenDATion: In order to realize aspirations for a ‘green’ economy, leaders of civil society must not only adopt, but also embrace comprehensive strategies that reduce the environmental impacts of production and consumption, advance gender equality and eliminate poverty. n
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Endnotes
1 “consumer choice and the Environment—a Worldwide tracking Survey,” see: http://environment.nationalgeographic.
com/environment/greendex/. the study was carried out in australia, austria, belgium, canada, the czech republic, Denmark, finland, france, Germany, india, ireland, italy, Japan, netherlands, new Zealand, norway, poland, South af-rica, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the uK, and the uSa.