The World Summit in Johannesburg and Denmark's National Strategy for Sustainable Development

The World Summit in Johannesburg and Denmark's National Strategy for Sustainable Development

Sustainable production and consumption

Today‘s environmental problems are very much linked to the way we produce and consume. It is therefore important to use the resources in production and consumption in an efficient manner. Moreover, amounts of waste and the degree of environmental impact must be minimised. All players bear responsibility and must contribute to pointing society towards sustainability.

At the World Summit, a decision was made to reinforcethe efforts to create sustainable patterns of production and consumption

The decision to develop programmes for sustainable production and consumption was one of Denmark‘s key issues in Johannesburg.

The UN Commission on Sustainable Development has designated sustainable production and consumption as an important cross-disciplinary problem to be discussed at the Commission‘s annual meetings. At the same time, the UN has started a regional process in which each region is responsible for following up the targets for sustainable production and consumption in the Johannesburg Plan.

In June 2003 in Marrakech, Morocco, a UN meeting of experts was held in order to ensure the continuous progress of work concerning sustainable production and consumption. Denmark gave its financial support to this conference so that the developing countries might take part in the work.

The conference concentrated on exchanging experience and identifying the most efficient tools for making production and consumption more sustainable.Tools included: environmental management in enterprises, lifestyle analyses, market information, and cleaner technologies. Denmark is working to achieve agreement on specific recommendations and on establishing cooperation and partnerships in specific areas.

Denmark supports the EU in taking the lead and making its own programme, as regional cooperation will be crucial for real progress towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Nationally, work in Denmark to promote more sustainable production and consumption patterns is based in particular on the National Strategy for Sustainable Development and the Government report on Green Market Economy, with regular follow-up to the recommendations of the report.

The Johannesburg Plan highlights that investment and incentives to use cleaner technology and products should be promoted

In Johannesburg, business played a positive and constructive role and entered into a number of partnerships. It is important that corporate responsibility receives the right framework to be able to work freely.

The Danish government is working to see corporate responsibility regarding sustainable development continue this positive development and to see environmental concerns play a greater role in corporate decision-making processes. Future work will focus on establishing incentives for environmentally friendly behaviour through framework-creating activities.Work will also contribute to developing and implementing product-oriented initiatives in the EU under the IPP - Integrated Product Policy. Environmental awareness by Danish enterprises should be transformed more extensively into a competitive advantage in international markets. Results achieved and tools developed within environmental management should be used.

Denmark places priority on collating and reporting knowledge of the environmentally best available technologies within pollution-intensive sectors in the EU in the so-called BREF (Best REFerence) documents.The EU eco-label (the Flower), the EU energy labels, and the EU car-labelling scheme provide important information for consumers. Denmark will strive to ensure that common systems for environmental information on products in the internal market are promoted.

In 2003, the Danish government established a centre for lifecycle assessment to report knowledge, develop competencies, and promote exchange of experience within Denmark. The centre will cooperate with partners abroad to develop and spread lifecycle-assessment methodologies.

In spring 2003 the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs established a new Partnership for the Environment and Industry. The Partnership will enhance market-oriented environmental efforts by Danish business, and through greater dialogue between the authorities and enterprises, it will transform sustainability work into competitive advantages.

In Johannesburg it was agreed to prevent and minimise waste amounts and maximise reuse, recycling, and use of alternative environment-friendly materials

The Danish government has just issued the "Waste Strategy 2005-08", which contains over 100 initiatives for the entire waste area.The focus of the Strategy is to prevent the loss of resources and environmental impacts from waste.

The Waste Strategy provides a number of new waste indicators to show the loss of resources and the landfill requirements for 22 waste materials (for example paper and aluminium).These indicators will provide a better basis for placing priorities on efforts in the waste area, and they will elucidate the type of waste treatment resulting in the lowest loss of resources.

The European Commission is planning to prepare two thematic strategies, one for sustainable use of natural resources, and one for waste prevention and recycling, as part of the implementation of the EU‘s Sixth Environment Action Programme. In summer 2003, the Commission sent a communication on work on the Strategy for the Prevention and Recycling of Waste to hearing, and in October 2003 it sent a communication on sustainable use of natural resources to hearing. Denmark‘s opinion of the two European thematic strategies will be based on the principles in the Waste Strategy 2005-08 and the report Making Markets Work for Environmental Policies.