Regions - Asia & the Pacific



:: Implementation Milestones

Regional SCP Help Desk

The Asia-Pacific regional “SCP Help Desk” was established in 2006 and has its institutional home in the China Standards and Certification Centre in Beijing. The Help Desk fosters innovative practices on sustainable consumption and production in Asia and the Pacific; conducts SCP research and studies; plays the role of information broker to support national and regional SCP initiatives; disseminates best practices through training; and designs and implements demonstration projects in partnership with global, regional and national stakeholders.

Regional SCP Platform

The Asia Pacific Roundtable on SCP (APRSCP) was established in March 1998 and organizes annual meetings. The mission of the Roundtable is to foster dialog among industry, government, academia, and non-government organizations in the region to address pollution problems and solutions. The Roundtable provides tools to cleaner production practitioners and supports working groups on specific topics.

National SCP programmes

China has a three pronged strategy that encompasses a circular economy, resource efficiency and environmental protection. Indonesia is developing a national SCP programme.

National Cleaner Production Centers (NCPCs)

National Cleaner Production Centers (NCPCs) with the support of UNIDO have been established in China, Korea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. NCPCs are taking an approach that focuses on the entire production cycle to increases the natural resources productivity of manufactured products. NCPCs thus have an important role in helping governments to identify and develop the policy tools and economic instruments suitable to their country's context which would encourage industry to favor cleaner production over end-of- pipe treatment. In China, the Circular Economy initiative has been developed as a system approach to achieve country’s cleaner production and productivity of resource use.

:: Key Projects and Initiatives

  • Project ‘Capacity Building for Implementation of UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection (Sustainable Consumption )in Asia (SC.Asia Project) (2004-2005) produced the Guidance Manual “Advancing Sustainable Consumption in Asia”, implemented by EC, UNEP, CI, Asia Pro Eco, EuropeAid Co-operation Office
  • Policy Reinforcement for Environmentally Sound and Socially Responsible Economic Development (PRODEV) – Guiyang City, and ultimately in other cities in China, implemented by UNEP, City of Guiyang, China
  • Marketing Assistance in Sustainable Tourism in Nepal (MAST NEPAL Project), implemented by UNEP, EC
  • UNEP-UNIDO network of NCPCs and affiliated Cleaner Production Centres (CPCs)’s Demo projects, training seminars and publishing guidance manuals, implemented by UNEP, UNIDO, UNIDO network of NCPCs and CPCs
  • Sustainable Consumption and Cleaner Production Capacity Building for CPCs, implemented by UNEP and funded by InWent German orgaisation
  • Workshop on Sustainable Consumption for the Asia-Pacific region (Aug. 2001, Malaysia), organized by CI, Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, Government of Australia
  • Global strategy for children and youth (Australia, 2003) by UNEP
  • ‘Is the Future Yours?’ project, surveying over 10,000 young people in 24 countries, including Thailand and Australia, in cooperation with UNEP and UNESCO
  • UNEP Global consumer survey of 1000 consumers worldwide, including Mumbai and Sydney
  • New interactive sustainable consumption training kit (YouthXchange) in Asia-Pacific countries (2003)
  • Workshop on sustainable consumption (March 2003, Tokyo), co-hosted by UNEP, the Japanese Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), government of Japan
  • Demo project on YouthXchange in Philippines, implemented by Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Lifestyles (led by Sweden), UNEP, Young Artists Fellowship for the Environment (Philippines)
  • Workshops in China and India on “Communicating Sustainability”, implemented by Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Lifestyles , UNEP, Futera, Govts of China, India
  • Creative Communities for Sustainable Lifestyles Project in China and India, led by Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Lifestyles and Politecnico de Milan
  • ‘Dongtan Ecocity’ in China, implemented by government of China
  • Regional seminars on Green Growth, organized by UN ESCAP in China and Korea
  • Seoul Initiative on resource efficiency, implemented by UN ESCAP, Government of Korea
  • Kitakyushu Initiative on waste management and sustainable urban development, implemented by UN ESCAP, IGES, City of Kitakyushu
  • 3R Initiative on waste reduction, recycling and reuse, implemented by Government of Japan.

:: Regional priorities on SCP

Asia- pacific needs and priorities related to SCP have been identified in the meeting reports of regional consultative meetings organized in Asia and the Pacific under the Marrakech Process.