Sustainable Consumption and Production in India: A Consumer Perspective

Project Overview

India along with other countries signed the declaration on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, comprising of seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015. Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) has emerged as an important part of the SDGs. It promotes social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems, raises efficiency and ensures sustainability in the use of resources and production processes, reducing resource degradation, pollution and waste. In an increasingly consumption influenced world, where many admire the Western culture, producing and consuming less is a challenge which demands massive behavioural change from individuals and strategic approach in the form of policy change from Governments. Hence, SCP can only be achieved when every country makes sure that their production and consumption patterns are not undermining the environmental boundaries of the planet and simultaneously keeping in mind the social and economic impact.

The UN Guidelines contain governments, which in partnership with business and relevant organisations of civil society, should develop and implement strategies to promote sustainable consumption through a mix of policies that could include regulations, economic and social instruments, sectoral policies in such areas as land use, transport, energy and housing, information programmes to raise awareness of the impact of consumption patterns, removal of subsidies that promote unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, and promotion of sector-specific environmental-management best practices.

CUTS is conducting a study to frame the understanding of concept of SCP beyond the SDG 12 and expand it beyond its current environment dimension. The concept shall be studied taking consideration of its presence in UN guidelines for Consumer Protection under Right to Healthy Environment which goes beyond environment protection and is driven by views and rights of the consumers. At the same time, there is also need to study if the global goal of SDG 12 is making the desired progress in India.

What’s New

• Event Report on State Level Dissemination Meeting on Sustainable Consumption and Production
  March 29, 2023
• Report- Webinar-World Water Day 2022
  March 23, 2022
• Report- Webinar–SDG-12 Will the Pandemic Slowdown the Progress of Meeting the Target?
• Project Background
• Anthology of Sustainable Consumption