1 STRONG SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND DEGROWTH

Based on the analysis how the political and scientific discourses on Sustainable Consumption developed during the last two decades the paper develops the concept of Strong Sustainable Consumption Governance. Next to an emphasis that Sustainable Consumption has to consider resource consumption (including the available sink capacity of the ecosystem) it highlights their use and distribution among the Earth’s population, and considers their contribution to human well-being. For the lifestyles of the global consumer class this implies giving specific attention to the levels and patterns of consumption. The paper questions the actual political SCP debate, its strong reliance on Sustainable Consumer Procurement, and the belief that green economic growth can cure all our problems. Instead it suggests other ways to go. To stimulate public debate it seems useful to apply a carrot and stick strategy. The stick in this case is to create a sense of urgency for the global environmental and social threads. The carrot would be to articulate better the message to the public and policy that a de-growing economy is not as much of a disaster as mainstream economics tends to suggest. In this context governments should overcome the dominant strategy of information provision but take responsibility for governance and accepting that hard policies like regulatory instruments and economic instruments are most effective. Civil Society Organizations should switch from promoting Sustainable (in fact green) Consumption by using marketing strategies and instead foster public debate about values and well-being