Build on the Positive Trends - next steps in the global effort for sustainable production and consumption
2 Ambitions for the next ten years of work
The World Summit in Johannesburg produced a commitment to stepping up efforts in favour of sustainable production and consumption over the coming ten years. If this is to bear fruit, there is a need for a vision of how far the world community should advance in the course of such a period.
Unfortunately, it has to be acknowledged that completing the shift to sustainable production and consumption is unrealistic within ten years. For example, the international community has limited its ambition to halving the proportion of poor people by 2015. This goal can and must be attained, but it is nevertheless likely that hundreds of millions of people will remain extremely poor in 2015. Their consumption will not be sustainable, simply because it will be insufficient.
The rich countries are also facing a major challenge in reconverting their societies. In the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the countries of the world adhere to the goal of avoiding dangerous man-made climate change8. If this is to be fulfilled, drastic reductions in the rich countries’ emissions of greenhouse gases will be required. And yet the Kyoto Protocol’s target is confined to cutting back emissions by approximately 5% in about 10 years.9
Although the global transition to sustainable production and consumption is a challenge of unparalleled proportions, much progress can be made if the nations of the world live up to their commitment from Johannesburg to cooperate. It is thus feasible to reach the following goals, which obviously need to be fleshed out as part of the work ahead to establish the ten-year framework.
 | The world should be on a course towards meeting, or meeting in excess, the relevant development goals of the Millennium Declaration (see section 4 below). |
| The rich countries should be able to present an array of examples of sectors in which it has been possible, over some years, not just to maintain the decoupling of environmental degradation and economic growth, but also to reduce markedly the stress on the environment. |
| An effective system should be in place to ensure the transfer of environmental technologies from industrialised to developing countries. |
| It should be standard practice to build decisions upon a holistic assessment of the effects, whenever choosing the means to an end. Environmental outcomes must be seen from a life-cycle perspective, and social impacts from a global perspective, i.e. the outlook cannot be confined to the national sphere. |
| A binding set of global rules for the social responsibilities of corporations must be developed and implemented, including provisions for damage liability. |
| An effective system should be in place to prevent extensive environmental problems from arising with the launch of new products or methods of production. |