Title: Sustainable consumption: at the cross-road of environmental and consumer policies

Authors: Oksana Mont, Carl Dalhammar

Addresses: International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, P.O. Box 196, Tegnersplatsen 4, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden. ' International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, P.O. Box 196, Tegnersplatsen 4, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

Abstract: Although the need for new systems of production and consumption is constantly stressed in policy discussions, the sustainable consumption concept has not been largely translated into practice. The efforts of environmental policy makers to pay more attention to the consumption side are still rather meagre, and there is little integration of environmental issues into consumer policy. This paper addresses these problems by providing an overview of consumption-related EU policies and by evaluating strategies of consumer and environmental organisations in this field. It is discussed how sustainable consumption can be better addressed by converging efforts of consumer and environmental organisations.

Keywords: administrative; economic policy; informative policy; environmental policy; European Union; sustainable consumption policies; consumer policy; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2005.009575

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2005 Vol.8 No.4, pp.258 - 279

Published online: 01 May 2006 *

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