Driving Sustainable Consumption through Policy Innovations in Value Chains

Many consumers are now increasingly interested in buying sustainable and climate-conscious or environment-friendly products and services. However, the supply of such products and services remains limited. Further, despite awareness and consumers’ intention to choose sustainable options, sustainable purchasing is extremely restricted. This ‘intent-action gap’ in sustainable consumption needs to be addressed to achieve the goals of sustainable lifestyles, as envisaged by the Indian G20 presidency, especially through the Mission Lifestyle for Environment (Mission LiFE). This policy brief recommends that the G20 countries work together in bridging this gap to incentivise sustainable consumption practices, shift consumption patterns, and reform consumption and production behaviourbydrivingthefollowingpolicy innovationsinglobalvaluechains: ● Developing traceable standards tosupportthecredibilityoflabels and claims. ● Underlining the need for consumption-based emissions accounting to hold individual and institutional consumers to account. ● Making global value chains inclusive and workable for all interested parties. ● Supporting and enabling regulatory actions to address greenwashing.