Transitions for Sustainable Consumption After the Paris Agreement

Radical shifts in the societal organization of production and consumption
are urgently required in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement
to limit global average temperature increases to within 2°C above
preindustrial levels, with the ambition of a 1.5oC limit. Policy for sustainable
consumption should be understood in the context of the critical need for
demand-side emissions reductions in order to meet medium-term targets.
Consumption should be understood as instituted and embedded in wider
systems—social, cultural, economic, and material. Policy must address the
social organization of consumption. Central to the challenge of sustainable
consumption are the escalating levels of resource and energy use tied
up in the bundle of goods and services taken for granted as necessities
of everyday life. Escalating environmental impacts of consumption are
the outcome of the coevolution of technical systems and infrastructures
on the one hand and social practices, conventions, and norms on the
other. The international policy community is not engaged with processes
of consumption and has remained focused on technological innovation.