Promoting sustainable consumption and production in Asia (SCP Outreach)

Project description

Title: Proliferation of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) in Asia – the Next Five Countries (SCP outreach)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)
Country: Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam
Lead executing agency: Thailand: Pollution Control Department (PCD); Bhutan: Gross National Happiness Commission; Cambodia: National Council for Sustainable Development; Laos: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE); Myanmar: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC); Viet Nam: Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI)
Overall term: 2020 bis 2024

Context

In recent years, Green Public Procurement (GPP) and environmental labels have become significantly more important in the South-East Asian region. The International Climate Initiative (IKI), for example, has successfully supported Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines in introducing these policy instruments for the first time. However, the level of implementation varies from country to country due to various factors.

GPP in particular has great potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is because the state, as a single consumer, has a substantial budget. As most countries in South-East Asia also consume similar products, experience with GPP can be transferred directly from one country to the neighbouring countries. Thailand takes a leading role here and is supporting five other countries in the region: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Viet Nam and Bhutan. Viet Nam has been publishing strategies for promoting and introducing environmental labels for several years. Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan and Myanmar are still at the beginning of this process. None of these countries has yet introduced an environmental label, passed a GPP-related law or developed a strategy for integrating sustainability criteria into public procurement.

Objective

VSustainable consumption and production (SCP) promotes a low-emission economy and thus reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Green Public Procurement and the use of environmental labels help consumers to make informed purchasing decisions.

Approach

The project supports five Asian countries in developing and implementing SCP policy instruments, in particular environmental labels and green procurement. It is supported here by Thailand. It adapts its measures within the SCP framework to the specific conditions and requirements in the various countries.

Environmental-friendly products/unsplash.com

The measures are strengthening the institutions. They include technical training courses for representatives of government agencies, as well as knowledge transfer and the development of integrated political solutions in the region, for example at workshops. Other measures include stakeholder meetings to establish core cross-border criteria for environmental labels and GPP in the economic community of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Capacity development and awareness-raising activities support the partner institutions in the introduction of climate-protection and emission-related criteria in environmental labels. For this purpose, the project conducts training courses and train-the-trainer programmes, and analyses international examples of applications.

The priority areas of the support measures are:

  1. Creating legal framework conditions, communication systems and appropriate incentive mechanisms for products and services that are particularly relevant to climate within the framework of a GPP and environmental label system in the target countries;
  2. Developing strategies for Green Public Procurement;
  3. Promoting environmental labels at institutional level in partner countries;
  4. Improving the mutual recognition of environmental labels in the target countries.

Last updated: May 2021