After Paris: transitions for sustainable consumption

Abstract

Consumption emissions-reduction measures based on an individualized model of consumption, marginal lifestyle changes, and technological innovation alone cannot meet the ambitions of the 2015 Paris Agreement to hold global temperature increases below 2 C. Radical shifts in the societal organization of consumption and production are urgently required to address the scale of the global challenge. Policy for sustainable consumption must be understood in the context of the urgent need for demand-side emissions reductions to reach critical medium-term targets by 2030. Global sustainability policy has remained chiefly focused on technological innovation. Where consumption is recognized, policy approaches have been dominated by 'behavior-change' initiatives that frame the challenge as one of individual choices, usually in the context of markets. Social scientific approaches, by contrast, argue that consumption should be understood as instituted and embedded in wider systemssocial, cultural, economic, and material. Escalating levels of environmental impact result from the bundle of goods and services taken for granted as necessities of everyday life by the growing global consumer class. Furthermore, sustainable consumption is fundamentally an issue of inequality. More equitable distribution of consumption-based emissions within and between societies is critical within the context of absolute emission reductions. The policies should address the social organization of consumption and the dynamic trajectories through which sociotechnical change takes place (the coevolution of technical systems and social practices). 'Policy integration' regarding sustainable consumption that embraces reflexive governance and radical experimentation engaging with sociotechnical trajectories is critical to meet the ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement.

Providers and Practices: How Suppliers Shape Car-Sharing Practices

“…Although practice theories represent an emerging approach to analyzing sustainability transitions [57], and studies show examples of this [78][79][80][81][82], the integration of SPTs with transition studies has been questioned due to different ontologies [52,[83][84][85]. Regardless, applying SPT in connection with sustainability transition studies is held to be useful because individualized models of consumption-like marginal lifestyle changes, consumption emissions reduction, and technological innovations-cannot alone satisfy the ambition of achieving an environmentally sustainable society [86,87]. By foregrounding practice as the central unit of social scientific analysis, SPTs transcend the dualisms of agency/structure and holism/individualism, offering insights into processes of socio-technical change [27].…”

From novelty to normality: reproducing car-sharing practices in transitions to sustainable mobility

“…Recent research along these lines suggests viewing SPTs as a heuristic tool (Frezza et al 2019;Gram-Hanssen 2011;Lamers, van der Duim, and Spaargaren 2017;Perera, Auger, and Klein 2018). This has led to fruitful discussions on the usefulness of applying SPTs with other fields of research (Kennedy, Cohen, and Krogman 2015;Welch and Southerton 2019). For example, also management scholars have noted opportunities for using SPTs (La Rocca, Hoholm, and Mørk 2017;Nicolini 2012).…”

New Conceptions of Sufficient Home Size in High-Income Countries: Are We Approaching a Sustainable Consumption Transition?

“…Motivation for this shift springs from growing recognition that the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets of the Paris Agreement and the objectives of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will be unachievable if policy initiatives continue to be predicated on incremental adjustments that only superficially mollify the most egregious aspects of contemporary norms (Alfredsson et al 2018;Bengtsson et al 2018;Grubler et al 2018;Creutzig et al 2018;Welch and Southerton 2019). By turning attention to the future of housing, and specifically to complex questions pertaining to home size, this paper does not aim to break new ground from the standpoint of original research but rather it aims to open up new perspectives for housing scholarship on what in many respects is the cornerstone of a sustainable consumption transition.…”