The Emergent Environmental Policy Discourse on Sustainable Consumption
Author(s)
Cohen, Maurie J.
Abstract
While consumption has been a long-neglected topic in dominant environmental discourse there are indications that it is now moving closer to the centre of contemporary policy-making. The original sustainable development framework adopted by many of the world’s most affluent nations attributed ecological deterioration not to consumption, but rather to rampant population growth. This lead many experts to advise developing nations to curb demographic expansion, and once population growth was controlled, states could implement policies to expand economic growth. In this article, the author criticizes the defining of global environmental problems in terms of population growth, as it allowed wealthy nations to successfully sidestep their own complicity in environmental degradation. Further, the article examines new and more comprehensive policy frameworks that are being developed to further the process of sustainable consumption.
