Making governance better for fair and sustainable consumption

The paper examines the limitations of 'green growth' and absolute decoupling, highlighting how rebound effects and problem shifting hinder environmental progress. It advocates for a transition to 'strong sustainable consumption governance' that combines technological efficiency with modal shifts and absolute reductions in high-impact consumption. The authors emphasize the need to measure consumption-based emissions—which often occur outside the borders of high-income countries—and to reconcile ecological limits with social aspirations to ensure a fair distribution of resources.

• Technological development and efficiency improvements alone are insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement targets; substantial changes in consumption patterns and behavioral shifts are required.
• There is a significant disparity in carbon emissions based on wealth, with the richest 1% of the global population producing more than twice the emissions of the poorest 50%.
• High-income countries often exhibit a 'displacement' of environmental impacts, where consumption-based emissions—those caused by domestic consumption regardless of where production occurs—exceed territorial emissions.
• The 'green growth' strategy, which relies on absolute decoupling of GDP from resource use, lacks empirical evidence of success at the scale needed to prevent environmental breakdown.
• Efficiency gains are frequently offset by 'rebound effects,' where saved resources or money are reallocated to further consumption, or 'problem shifting,' where a technological solution creates a new environmental issue.
• The authors distinguish between 'weak' and 'strong' sustainable consumption policy; weak policies focus on efficiency and rational consumer choice, while strong policies simultaneously incentivize efficiency, modal shifts, and absolute reductions in consumption levels.
• Sufficiency-oriented policies—such as personal carbon quotas, bans on fossil fuel cars, and reduced working hours—are proposed as necessary tools to enforce ecological limits.

APA

Dalhammar, C., Finnveden, G., & Ekvall, A. (2022). Making governance better for fair and sustainable consumption. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/consumption-stockholm50backgroundpaper.pdf

Chicago

Dalhammar, Carl, Göran Finnveden, and Andreas Ekvall. Making governance better for fair and sustainable consumption. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/consumption-stockholm50backgroundpaper.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dalhammar |first1=Carl |last2=Finnveden |first2=Göran |last3=Ekvall |first3=Andreas |title=Making governance better for fair and sustainable consumption |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=May 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/consumption-stockholm50backgroundpaper.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dalhammar2022making, author = {Dalhammar, Carl and Finnveden, Göran and Ekvall, Andreas}, title = {{Making governance better for fair and sustainable consumption}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/consumption-stockholm50backgroundpaper.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }