The EU debate on sustainable production and consumption is often focused on taxation, labelling and environment information, green procurement, and recently more and more about waste. However, the entire debate on chemical input use in EU’s agriculture is often set aside. That is a real pity!
Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) was put on the global policy agenda at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.
Sustainable consumption was adopted as a definition in January 1994 "Oslo Symposium" as: "the use of services and related products which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations".
Sustainable production is ‘the creation of goods and services using processes and systems that are non-polluting, conserve energy and natural resources, are economically efficient, are safe and healthful for workers, communities, and consumers, and are socially and creatively rewarding for all working people.
In September 2011, the European Commission published the Communication of the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe (2), highlighting the need to allow the economy to create more with less, delivering greater value with less input. As part of the debate on sustainable production and consumption is mentioned ‘Avoiding, wherever possible, the use of dangerous chemicals and promoting green chemistry can help protect key resources like soil and water, and make others, like materials, safer, easier and less costly to recycle and reuse’. This report, among others, highlights the need to propose a new pathway to action on resource efficiency, setting general objectives and indicators and targets in collaboration with all stakeholders. This report highlights the potential of environmental taxation, and set a specific target to reduce resource inputs in food production by 20% by 2020 (page 18).