Sustainable Consumption in Asia
Introduction from the Asian Review on SC:
The Asian Review on Sustainable Consumption, conducted by the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) as part of the SC.Asia project, challenges the current international approach on SC and rejects the notion that eco-innovation or greening the consumer should be the main focus of sustainable consumption in Asia. It essentially proposes that the primary goal of sustainable consumption should be to assure quality of life for all. It suggests that sustainable consumption planning should target to enable wellbeing and ensure happiness for all people.
The Asian Review on SC argues that sustainable consumption needs to be discussed in the interest of half of the world’s population that are in poverty, while addressing the over consumption issues of the developed countries. The report emphasises that equity in consumption is a major challenge of the international community that seeks to regulate unsustainable consumption patterns. For this, if the SCP agenda cannot address the basis requirement of most humans on earth such as food, clothing and shelter and understand that issues such as food security, fair trade and good governance are intrinsically linked to creating sustainable consumption, then the process will naturally fail the people’s aspiration for a sustainable world.