Environment Research and Technology Development Fund S-16
Policy Design and Evaluation to Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns in Asian Region (PECoP-Asia)
OVERVIEW
The Rio+20 Conference in 2012 confirmed that Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) is a cornerstone of sustainable development. At the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in 2015, a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adopted and SCP is an important goal (Goal 12).
To achieve decarbonized economy, agreed in Paris agreement 2015, we need to shift our lifestyle in a drastic manner. In addition to an efficiency-approach where energy and resource efficient products are promoted, we have to design and implement a new sufficiency-policy by indicating an appropriate structure of consumption and production and by changing consumer’s lifestyle. Various stakeholders’ practices are essential.
The Strategic Research Project (S-16) launched in June 2016 with financial support of environmental research and technology development fund of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. This collaborative research is contributed by eleven leading research universities/institutes in Japan and consists of four research themes. Our goal is to present policy packages to achieve SCP by various stakeholders’ practices considering characteristics of individual nation or region such as economy and lifestyle. We will evaluate the effect of a policy package by employing economy model analysis and life cycle analysis. The outcome of the project will contribute for policy planning to achieve SCP in Asia including Japan and for policy dialogues with Asian countries.
Project Leader
Masahiko HIRAO: Received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from The University of Tokyo. After working for a private company in researching computational physics, he joined Department of Chemical Systems Engineering, The University of Tokyo. His research interests cover environmentally conscious chemical process design and recycling systems design using life cycle assessment, and environmental education. He is also interested in connecting environmental information provided by manufacturers and eco-friendly actions by consumers as a MAC member of the Consumer Information Programme in the UNEP 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns, and the chair of Green Purchasing Network (GPN), Japan.
ORGANIZATION
