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MARK YOUR CALENDAR: 9 OCTOBER
This is the date for our all-day preconference "Conserving
Biodiversity Through Sustainable Production and Consumption,"
on the eve of the official 6th Session Environment for Europe
Meeting. One of the objectives of the preconference is to explore
the underlying causes of biodiversity, climate change and health
risks -- all coming from unsustainable production and consumption
patterns. Environment for Europe meeting presents a window of
opportunity for taking significant action in addressing both
the causes and symptoms of these problems by commiting to developing
a Pan-Reigonal Framework on Sustainable Consumption and Production
that would support national government, business and NGO initiatives
to address the driving forces behinnd environmental and social
degradation. For more, see our preconference
website.
SPAC AND THE PARTNERSHIP PANEL
24 September 2007: Janis Brizga (Green Latvia),
a long-time SPAC Issue Group member and Board member of ANPED,
will be givng the NGO key note address in Belgrade at the panel
on "Environmental Finance and Partnerships to Support the
Implemetnation of Environmental Policies and Programmes"
from 4:30 pm - 7:00 pm on 11 October.
FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR BELGRADE
19 September 2007: It is now less than three
weeks before the Environment for Europe session begins (at the
Sava
Center). There is a full agenda
of the session, with related documents.(Interestingly, the
conference website notes various documents and events focused
on sustainable
production and consumption, but without any mention or references
to NGOs or any of the work or documents we have produced.) As
the schedule now stands, we have the following dates to note:
6-8 October: The Working Group of Senior Officials (WGSO) will meet at the Sava Center starting at 10:00 am and will focus on finalizng the Ministerial Declaration. This is where the ECE and member states' commitment on a framework to support nation SPAC initiatives will or will not be made (see paragraph 23). Right now the Declaration only commits to 'support...the need to consider the development and establishment of a collaborative pan-European framework." We need EfE to commit to developing and establishing this framework! Supporting the framework proposal in the Declaration should be a top priority in our work in Belgrade.
Sunday 7 October: ECO Forum Coordinating Board meeting.
Monday 8 October: All day ECO Forum Strategy Meeting. Our SPAC Issue Group needs to come to this prepared with our statement of SPAC priorities and plans for interventions and actions in the coming days.
Tuesday 9 October: NGO Preconference on "Protecting Biodiversity Through Sustainable Production and Consumption." This is one of the main activities sponsored by ECO Forum in a colloboratioin betwen the SPAC Issue Group and Biodiversity Issue Group.
Wednesday 10 October: Biodiversity Panel
Thursday 11 October, 3 pm to 5 pm: Janis Brizga (Green Liberty, Latvia) has been nominated to give the NGO speech in the official Panel on Partnerships. The theme for this roundtable will be: "Environmental policy, international competitiveness and finance: can we afford a better environment?" and more specifically discusses integration of environmental policy
concerns into national economic development strategies. This is one of our few official opportunities to address governments with an NGO statement about the role of SPAC in development and national policy. Thus it is important to support and help Janis make this intervention.Friday 12 October, morning (10 - 12:30): "Future of the Process". (Russian) I believe Anna Golubovska-Onisimova will be giving a presentation or intervention in this session. This will probably be our final opportunity to state our case or feelings about where we see things going in the next four years. If our framework proposal is adopted we will need to quickly think through our next steps in helping move ths ahead. If the framework remains something "to discuss" we can still use that process to push foreward ideas and priorities, assuming there is a concrete process to carry on those discussions. If there is no committment or action at all, we can express how we feel and think about that.
Friday afternoon: ECO Forum Strategy meeting. Here we will need to be prepared to communicate our plans for follow-up.
Conference documents on production and consumption:
ECO FORUM NGO STRATEGY MEETING BEGINS
28 February 2007: NGOs will meet in Brussels this week
to prepare for the Environment for Europe conference. The SPAC
Issue Group will also meet to discuss how to move the UN Economic
Commission for Europe (UNECE) to commit to developing a Pan-European
policy framework and action plan to support the shift towards
SPAC in the region. One of the targets will be to get this commitment
into the Ministerial Declaration and in the Future of the ECE.
The SPAC Issue Group will also discuss with the Biodiversity
Issue Group collaboration in organizing a one-day NGO pre-conference
in Belgrade "Towards
the Sustainable Production and Consumption of Biodiversity."
For more background, see Update and Overview of SPAC and Environment for Europe.
CEE NETWORK CONFERENCE ON SC TO COORDINATE WITH ECO
FORUM
18 January 2007: From 28 February to 3 March,
in Prague, Czech Republic, the Central and Eastern European
Network on Sustainable Consumption (CEE
Net) will hold its "2007
Reunion" conference on sustainable consumption. Recognizing
their meeting overlaps with ECO Forum's International ECO Strategy
Meeting (28 February - 3 March), organizers are currently discussing
ways to build strategic bridges between the two NGO gatherings,
with ideas and recommendations from both networks feeding into
a common NGO strategy promoting SPAC -- especially on the ECE
Environment for Europe process.
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION OF BIODIVERSITY
2-3 December 2006: At the recent ECO-Forum Coordinating
Board meeting, discussion focused on the theme of the Belgrade
NGO Forum to be held just before the 3-day Environment for Europe
meeting. Agreeing that biodiversity depends on sustainable production
and consumption patterns, the Board decided to do a joint thematic
session on biodiversity and SPAC. This will be further discussed
at ECO-Forum's upcoming International
ECO Strategy Meeting for Belgrade, being held 28 February
- 3 March 2007. Deadline for application is January 17, so please
register (especially SPAC Issue Group members!)
UNEP INVITES COMMENTS ON SCP PAPER FOR BELGRADE
20 December 2006: We have received and been asked to
comment on the draft Category I paper, " On
Sustainable Consumption and Production ," [MS word] prepared
for this year's 'Environment for Europe' Belgrade Conference.
Please send your comments to Rie Tsutsumi, UNEP Regional Office
for Europe, rie.tsutsumi@unep.ch by 11th January 2007 at latest.
The revised draft paper will be submitted to the forthcoming
Executive Committee and the Working Group of Senior Officials
meetings.
WGSO DISCUSS SPAC
November 2006: The latest issue of the European
ECO-Forum Newsletter reports details on the discussion about
consumption and production which took place during the third
meeting of the UNECE Working Group of Senior Officials (WGSO)
in Geneva last October. Sweden and UNEP are playing a leading
role, promoting regional actions linked to the Marrakech
Process. A Caategory 1 document on SCP is now being prepared,
which should be ready by mid-January 2007.
MAKING SPAC AN OVERARCHING OBJECTIVE FOR EUROPE
12-13 October 2006: At the third meeting of the Working
Group of Senior Officials (WGSO) in Geneva, ECO Forum presented
our NGO
statement on sustainable production and consumption, with
its proposals for this issue at the 2007 Belgrade conference.
The statement is now available on the official UNECE
website, as well as on our site here and at ANPED.
The statement calls for a Pan-European Framework on Sustainable
Production and Consumption, linking the regiononal process to
the global 10-Year Framework called for at the World Summit
on Sustainable Development.
In December, members of ECO Forum's Coordinating Board will discuss follow-up to this and other matters for NGO strategy and preparations for Belgrade.
ECO FORUM AND ANPED COLLABORATE ON BELGRADE STATEMENT
6-10 September 2006: Members of ECO-Forum and ANPED's
SPAC Working Group worked together (at the latter's Annual
General Meeting) to discuss and develop a draft NGO position
statement on SPAC, aiming at the upcoming October meeting of
the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy (CEP) in Geneva. The
CEP will discuss the agenda for the 2007 Environment for Europe
meeting in Belgrade, and production and consumption is finally
on the agenda. NGOs plan to present their views on moving this
forward. The draft NGO statement will be available for comment
and further input next week.
ECE OFFICIALS UNDERLIE IMPORTANCE OF SPAC
29-30 June 2006: At their second meeting, members of
the ECE Ad Hoc Preparatory Working Group of Senior Officials
discussed SPAC as one of the elements in the "Possible
Framework for the Agenda of the Belgrade Conference"
for the next Environment for Europe session. Citing the Marrakech
Process, the regional SCP meeting in Ostend, and UNEP's proposal
to map SPAC in EECCA and SEE countries, the report raised the
question of "discussion of the possible development of
SCP programmes for the pan-European region." This begs
the question: What will NGOs now do to shape this discussion?
PUTTING SPAC AT THE HEART OF THE EfE PROCESS
October 2005: ECO-Forum has re-issued its SPAC proposal
for the Environment for Europe process, this time focusing on
the meeting taking place in Belgrade in 2007. The
proposal again calls for sustainable production and consumption
(SPAC) to be placed at the heart of the process, specifically
calling for a pan- European regional process to phase out unsustainable
consumption and production patterns.
2ND INT'L EXPERT MEETING ON SCP
5-8 September 2005: The 2nd International Expert meeting
on Sustainable Consumption and Production, part of the Marrakech
process, was held in Costa Rica on September 5 - 8 2005. A small
number of NGOs attended the meeting. Some highlights include
the setting up of several taskforces to aid implementation,
and the inclusion of global development assistance agencies
as stakeholders in the process to help in obtaining funding
for SCP projects.
ISF's Costa Rica
report
IISD's reports from
the meeting
UNEP/ DESA webpage on the Marrakech Process
EUROPEAN SCP MEETING - REPORT & DOCS
December 2004: The report of the European Stakeholder
meeting on sustainable consumption and production is available
here. Other information
about the meeting‚ including background documents is available
here.
NGO STATEMENT TO SCP MEETING
November 2004: Eco-Forum, along with ANPED and the
European Environmental Bureau collaborated to draft a position
paper that was circulated during the European Stakeholder Meeting
on Sustainable Consumption and Production. The statement is
available here.
EUROPEAN SCP MEETING
November 2004: The European Stakeholder Meeting on
Sustainable Consumption and Production is being held in Ostend,
Belgium on November 24-26.
ERSCP - CONCLUSIONS
July 2004: The conclusions of the 9th European Roundtable
on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP 2004) are now
available at the conference
website .
EU STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION
March 2004: Sustainable consumption and production
and the development of the 10 year framework are some of the
key priorities of the European Union in the follow up to the
World Summit on Sustainable Development. Therefore, the EU has
developed "Sustainable consumption and production: An inventory
of relevant policies, activities and instruments at the European
Community level" to provide an overall view of overall view
of the EU's current activities and best practices on the issue.
On March 22nd 2003, the EU will be conducting a stakeholder
consultation on the inventory.
SPAC IN THE ENVIRONMENT FOR EUROPE MEETINGS
The Kyiv
Ministerial Declaration encourages "national efforts
to promote sustainable production and consumption as well as
corporate environmental and social responsibility and accountability"
(Para. 27) Para. 28 of the Declaration focuses on the 10-year
framework of programmes in support of sustainable production
and consumption and lists out program elements that must be
considered in the same. It also calls for adoption of public
procurement policies at all levels. Para. 29 encourages improvements
in corporate practices. The declaration also deals with public
participation (Section F), transboundary air pollution (Section
G), energy (Section I), water (Section J), transport (Section
K) and chemicals (Section L) among other issues. For more details,
see the ICSPAC home page
Integrative Strategies Forum organized a workshop titled Towards Production and Consumption in the ECE region. ( Event Summary )
SPAC MEETING IN MARRAKECH CONCLUDES
The “International Expert Meeting on the 10 year Framework of
Programmes on Sustainable Production and Consumption” was held
in Marrakech, Morocco between June 16th–19th 2003. This meeting
was organized by UN DESA and UNEP to support the wor of the
UN CSD's long term programme. More information can be found
on the ICSPAC homepage or in ISF's
summary report of the meeting.
KYIV REPORT
The SPAC Issue Group organized two events, a workshop and strategy
meeting, at the ECO-Forum International Conference. The SPAC
Report from Kyiv covers these events and also discussed
the Groups' plans for establishing a solid framework for future
advocacy, education and organizing efforts promoting sustainable
production and consumption priorities.
SPAC WORKSHOP DURING ECO-FORUM INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE IN KYIV
A SPAC workshop was held at the ECO-Forum International Conference
in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 22, 2003. The report
on this workshop, "Towards Sustainable Production and Consumption
in the ECE Region," can be found on the ICSPAC website.
The presentation slides
from this workshop are also online.