Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)

The notions of sustainable production and consumption patterns can easily be traced within international policy texts back to the Earth Summit (United Nations Conference on [Page 322]Environment and Development, Rio 1992), where Principle 8 of the Declaration states that “To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies,” Also at the Rio Conference, Agenda 21 titled its chapter 4 “Changing Consumption Patterns.” The concept remained current at the influential United Nations' level 10 years later at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg 2002), where “Changing Unsustainable Patterns of Consumption and Production” became the title of chapter 3 in the Plan of Implementation. The same ...