The Governing Council,
Recalling Agenda 21,14 adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, which in its paragraph 4.8 calls for action to meet the objective of promoting patterns of
consumption and production that reduce environmental stress and meet the basic needs of humanity,
Recalling also paragraphs 2, 14 and 15 of the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development,15
Recalling further Governing Council decision 22/6 of 7 February 2003,
Recognizing that resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production are one of
the six cross-cutting priorities and objectives of the United Nations Environment Programme’s
medium-term strategy for the period 2010–2013, which is aimed at providing strategic direction to the
Programme’s activities in all areas,
Commending the progress made since the twenty-second session of the Governing Council in
advancing the sustainable consumption and production agenda through the activities of the
United Nations Environment Programme, notably through its subprogramme on resource efficiency,
and through the activities of the Marrakech Process on sustainable consumption and production,
Acknowledging the numerous and diverse sustainable consumption and production initiatives
under way at the national, regional and international levels, many of which have received financial and
technical support from the United Nations Environment Programme and the Marrakech Process,
Welcoming the support demonstrated for the development of a 10-year framework of
programmes on sustainable consumption and production by the Commission on Sustainable
Development at its eighteenth session, in 2010, and also welcoming the recognition by the
Commission of the work of the Marrakech Process and its task forces,
Welcoming also the strengthened collaboration between the United Nations Environment
Programme and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs during the current
cycle of the Commission on Sustainable Development, and expressing support for the increased
participation of the United Nations Environment Programme in preparations for and the
implementation of the outcomes of the Commission’s nineteenth session,
Taking note of the Chair’s summary of the high-level intersessional meeting of the
Commission on Sustainable Development on a 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable
consumption and production, held in Panama in January 2011, as an input to the intergovernmental
preparatory meeting for the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, to be
held from 28 February to 4 March 2011, and to the nineteenth session itself, to be held from 2 to
13 May 2011,
Acknowledging that further progress in achieving sustainable consumption and production
requires a more coherent and sustained approach that, among other things, provides policies and tools
for implementation, access to information and participation, and capacity-building to enable relevant
stakeholders to respond in the most appropriate and efficient way to regional and national priorities
and needs, to scale up and build linkages between relevant initiatives and actions within the
United Nations family and other stakeholders, and to channel resources effectively,
1. Invites the Executive Director to build upon and strengthen the United Nations
Environment Programme’s existing activities and initiatives with governmental institutions and other
relevant stakeholders, including the private sector, in promoting sustainable consumption and
production patterns;
2. Invites support for Aichi Biodiversity Target 4 of the Strategic Plan of the Convention on
Biological Diversity, adopted by the Conference of the Parties to that Convention in decision X/2,
which target is that, by 2020 at the latest, Governments, businesses and stakeholders at all levels have
taken steps to achieve or have implemented plans for sustainable production and consumption and
have kept the impacts of use of natural resources well within safe ecological limits;
3. Supports the development of a concise, ambitious, practical and action-oriented 10-year
framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production that aims at responding to
national, regional and global needs, provides appropriate institutional arrangements and encourages
the broad participation and involvement of stakeholders and effectiveness, efficiency and coherence
within and beyond the United Nations system, based on the most effective and successful features of
the reviewed models of cooperation in other fields;
4. Invites the Commission on Sustainable Development to finalize and adopt at its
nineteenth session a 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production
and requests the United Nations Environment Programme, in collaboration with other relevant
agencies, to enhance coordination and coherence in its implementation;
5. Requests the Executive Director:
(a) To ensure that the United Nations Environment Programme continues to play an active
and co-leading role with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in the
development of a 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production in all
its dimensions such as objectives, institutional arrangements and priority programmes;
(b) To offer to take a lead role in the implementation of a 10-year framework of
programmes on sustainable consumption and production;
(c) To take the necessary measures for the United Nations Environment Programme to
play a lead role in the implementation of the 10-year framework of programmes;
(d) Directly to support implementation of the 10-year framework of programmes in
programme areas where the United Nations Environment Programme has particular expertise;
6. Encourages Governments to participate actively in the finalization of a sound and
effective 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production during the
intergovernmental preparatory meeting for the nineteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable
Development, and the nineteenth session itself, and to support its subsequent implementation to
promote a shift to sustainable consumption and production;
7. Invites Governments and others in a position to do so to provide financial and technical
assistance and capacity-building through public and private efforts to support the implementation of
the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, once adopted;
8. Recognizes that the 10-year framework of programmes could be an important input into
the preparatory process for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012;
9. Requests the Executive Director to submit a report on the implementation of the present
decision to the Governing Council at its twelfth special session in anticipation of the Governing
Council’s contribution to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.