Individual Responsibility in Consumption and Production is Critical to Achieving the SDGs

In 2015, World Leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The 17 SDGs call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while maintaining peace, protecting the planet, the people and building partnerships. With only ten years remaining to achieve these goals, countries are accelerating steps towards ending poverty, fighting inequalities, tackling climate change and ensuring that no one is left behind.  Every month, the United Nations places one of the 17 SDGs under the spotlight, highlighting its purpose, targets and criticality in advancing Agenda 2030. This month’s focus is SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

As the world continues to grapple with the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, working to recover well and ensure a better future for all, one may remember the great proverb: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors but borrow it from our children.”

More than ever before, the world has come together in solidarity to ensure that the next generation has a healthy, equal, sustainable and opportunity-filled future. However, such a future requires that we all take responsibility to build back better, including while transitioning our consumption and production patterns towards more responsible practices at a local, regional and global level.

In August, a focus is placed on SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. Central to SDG 12 is the need to protect our planet. As this year marks the first of the Decade of Action to achieve the SDGs, our commitment to recovering from COVID-19 responsibly must be bold and ambitious.

While the pandemic  has led to a 5% drop in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the lockdown measures in place across the globe, the world is still short of the   7.6% annual reduction required to limit global warming to 1.5°C.  In fact, the pandemic has  also had a negative impact on the environment, as the sale of disposable face masks, gloves and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) rapidly increased, along with online shopping and packaged take-away meals delivered daily to homes during lockdowns and confinement. As an example, Singapore, a small State of 5.7 million people, produced an extra 1,470 tons of plastic waste from take-away packaging and food delivery alone during its eight-week lockdown.

Plastic pollution – with the amount of plastics dumped every year into the oceans and landfill – has long been a major concern. Historical data shows us that 75 percent of the coronavirus plastic waste is expected to end up in landfills and floating in our seas; hazardous to sea creatures, fisheries, tourism and maritime transport, with negative spillover effects of plastic waste on such industries costing an estimated USD 40 billion each year, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

As pollution to our rivers, oceans and freshwater supplies is devastating to our ecosystems, it adversely impacts millions of people throughout the world. Indeed, with less than 3 percent of the earth’s water being  fresh and drinkable, of which 2.5 percent is frozen in Antarctica, Arctic and glaciers,  humankind must rely on only 0.5 percent of the earth’s water supplies for man’s ecosystems and freshwater needs. Consequentially, one billion people in the world still do not have access to freshwater supplies.

We need innovative approaches that will ensure that interventions in COVID-19 times are not counterproductive to our efforts to achieve the SDGs, including the targets on ensuring a safe and healthy planet.

Unfortunately, global sales of disposable face masks alone are expected to dramatically increase from an estimated USD 800 million in 2019 to USD 166 billion in 2020, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

In 2018, the Kingdom of Eswatini distributed approximately seven million plastic bags each month, causing extensive plastic pollution nationwide. Limited recycling facilities and laws protecting the environment contribute to the devastating impacts of plastic waste in the country.

The United Nations Development System in Eswatini continues to support the Kingdom of Eswatini to build environment sustainability and climate change mitigation. In recent years, UNDP and other agencies have worked to strengthen national institutions for climate change, risk management and integration in national planning.

The European Union is also working with the Municipal Council of Mbabane to implement waste minimization and management, focusing on waste recycling and composition through improved storage, presentation and collection of waste. Initiatives such as these are encouraging for Eswatini, yet we still have a long way to go.

Under His Majesty King Mswati III, the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini, with support from the United Nations, has developed the 2016 National Climate Change Policy and Strategy and the National Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (2014-2019). The strategies are a commendable effort at strengthening institutional, systemic and individual capacity-building on climate change mitigation, adaption and impact reduction.

Significant to SDG 12 and the degradation of our ecosystems is also the immense amount of global food waste, weighing approximately 1.3 billion tons and costing the world USD 1trillion. Each year, an estimated one third of all food produced is wasted having been thrown away into bins or spoiled due to poor transportation and harvesting practices. Despite the significant amount of excess food produced, over 800 million people still go hungry today.

In Eswatini, local farmers, and especially the youth, have taken advantage of the lockdown situation - which has reduced imports - in order to plant various crops and vegetables. However, due to the partial lockdown which has negatively impacted the tourism industry, markets for such produces have become saturated, leading to spoilages and our call for improved coordination and planning to ensure that no produce goes to waste.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to intensify the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems. The State of Food Security and Nutrition 2020 published by FAO estimates that at least another 83 million to 132 million people may go hungry in 2020.

The UN Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres, has issued a series of policy briefs, including the UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19, which outline a global vision for the delivery of an effective and coordinated response to COVID-19 by the international community. Strategies and interventions shall ensure that the most vulnerable populations are at the centre of national responses; impacts of the crisis are mitigated; and opportunities to recover better are identified and harnessed amidst the pandemic.

The achievement of SDG 12 is critical to ensuring that environmental systems on which we all depend for survival are not destroyed. COVID-19 can be a catalyst for social change. We must build back better and transition our production and consumption patterns towards more sustainable practices.

COVID-19 has underscored the relationship between people and nature and revealed the fundamental tenets of the trade-off we consistently face: humans have unlimited needs, but the planet has limited capacity to satisfy them. We must try to understand and appreciate the limits to which humans can push ‘mother nature’ before the impact is negative. Those limits must be reflected in our consumption and production patterns.

The United Nations continues to stand in solidarity with the Government and the people of Eswatini, working to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst delivering on our promises to protect the people and the planet.  

We are fighting a common enemy: unity and solidarity will help us to rise victorious from the COVID-19 battle. It is this common strength and resolve that will enable us to achieve the SDGs. By slowing down the effects of pollution, food waste and climate change, we protect the planet for future generations.

Ultimately, sustainable consumption and production is about doing more and better with less. It is also about decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, increasing resource efficiency and promoting sustainable lifestyles. It can also contribute substantially to poverty alleviation and the transition towards low-carbon and green economies.

Let us remember that the earth is on-lend to us and the ability to change its future lies in our hands. It is up to each one of us to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.