PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION

Sustainable consumption had not been approached in as overall and holistic a manner as many other issues of sustainable development, John Gummer, Chairman of the International Commission on Sustainable Consumption, said this morning at a Headquarters' press conference sponsored by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Yet that issue was, in many senses, the most central one facing sustainable development, he added.

Mr. Gummer said sustainable consumption was a matter that straddled the world, but was often spoken of as if it was either a northern or a southern issue, [proponents of] both sides making the issue particularly difficult to resolve. The Commission would seek to look at consumption in a holistic way, both in the South and in the North. It would not be afraid to make a tough examination of the issue in the North, which had not been done up to now. It would also not be afraid to write about it in a direct and clear manner. The Commission was determined to provide the mechanism by which Ministers would be able to solve some of the problems involved.

Unlike other similar bodies, he said, the Commission on Sustainable Consumption felt that seeking consensus by having exact representatives of different groups was not the way forward and had, in fact, been a stumbling block in the past. It had instead sought to produce practical people with a wide range of backgrounds who would be able to present a programme for action which would challenge the world to take seriously the fact that consumption could no longer be merely talked about in the normal terms. Any commitment to sustainable development demanded a commitment to sustainable consumption.

He said that for some time, those involved in environmental issues, particularly the world of sustainable development, had been concerned that issues of consumption had not been properly approached. The international community needed the tools for a proper approach, including proper, researched, scientifically-based, real evidence for practical action. The environmental community was very often strong on generalities, good on phrases, particularly keen on fine words and, in the end, found it difficult to make the real link between what in general had to happen and what, in particular, governments and international organizations could in fact do.

This morning's press conference to launch the Commission was sponsored by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The Commission, a coalition of academic, government and business experts, aims to develop an action plan for sustainable consumption for the United Nations Earth Summit 3 -- the 10-year review of progress towards sustainable development, to be held in 2002. Mr. Gummer, a former Secretary of State for the Environment in the United Kingdom, was accompanied by a fellow Commission member, Dianne Dillon-

Sustainable Consumption Press Conference - 2 - 21 April 1999

Ridgley, Executive Director of the United States Women's Environment and Development Organization.

Ms. Dillon-Ridgley said it had been clear at least for the last 20 years that the issue of sustainable consumption was not only pivotal, but probably the hardest one to tackle. It had taken the world a long time to see that it was the key impediment to true progress in achieving sustainability.

A correspondent asked how much of a role production and consumption of energy would play in the Commission's work. Mr. Gummer said it was energy that had transformed the productivity of people, and it would have to play a very important part in dealing with the productivity of resources.

Responding to another journalist, he said the Commission would have its first meeting this autumn, and it was envisaged that it would take three years to complete its work. During that period, it would be publishing in specific areas, not exactly chapters of the final report, but a wider collection of research papers and comments on those papers for broader distribution.

Another correspondent asked what kind of tools the Commission would develop and for which audience -- business, government, civil society or consumers. How would the Commission look at the production side of the equation in its work? A Commission that addressed itself merely to international bodies or governments had no chance of achieving its ends, Mr. Gummer replied. The engine of consumption was the market; if nothing was being said to business, the consumer, the customer, or to those seeking to sell -- the advertiser or marketeer -- nothing was being said at all.

On the other hand, he said, the atmosphere in which business operated, both internationally and nationally, was very much determined by governmental and intergovernmental action -- by the European Union, the North American Free Trade Area, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. Those organizations all had a huge impact, and the Commission would be addressing them as well as individual governments.

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