UN Guidelines on Sustainable Consumption

UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) and Consumers International (CI) conducted a global survey of the implementation of the UN Guidelines, Sustainable Consumption in 2001. This joint research project assessed the level of awareness of the Sustainable Consumption chapter in the UN Consumer Guidelines by selected national governments and determined what these governments had achieved in response to this call to implement SC policies.  

The research findings were published in the "Tracking Progress" report, launched in Bali, Indonesia, 3 June 2002. Press Release, 3 June 2002 (PDF, 24 KB). An updated version of the Report was published in July 2004. Tracking Progress, second edition.

Tracking progress: Implementing sustainable consumption policies	Tracking Progress: Implementing sustainable consumption policies - 2nd Edition
Survey - English (PDF - 235 KB) - French (PDF - 235 KB) - Spanish (PDF - 237 KB)	UN SCP Guidelines - English (PDF - 9 KB) - French (PDF - 9 KB) - Spanish (PDF - 9 KB)

Background

In 1985, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, by consensus, the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection in its resolution 39/85. The Guidelines represent an international framework for Governments, particularly those of developing countries, to use in formulating and strengthening consumer protection policies and legislation.

In 1995, the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations requested the Secretary-General to expand the Guidelines to include elements on sustainable consumption. The expansion process of the UN Consumer Guidelines concluded in 1999 with the adoption of the new Guidelines.

In 1999 the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection were expanded to include elements on sustainable consumption. Based on the text drafted by the UN Inter-Regional Report Group Meeting on Consumer Protection and Sustainable Consumption: New Guidelines for the Global Consumer (Sao Paulo, January 1998), and on informal intergovernmental consultations held at the UN in late 1998, CSD-7 adopted a revised text for the Guidelines. That text was endorsed by the Economic and Social Council in July 1999 and adopted by the General Assembly in late 1999.

The extension of the Guidelines to include sustainable consumption provided an important opportunity both to update consumer protection policies to include environmental protection and sustainable development and to strengthen the linkage between consumer interests and sustainable consumption, thereby stimulating national policy making to promote more sustainable consumption.