Advance SCP : Roll-Out of New Initiatives in Latin America!

• The United Nations Environment Programme, the Ministry of Economy of Brazil, the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and the One Planet Network launch a project to promote responsible production and consumption.
• The “Advancing and Measuring Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) for a Low-Carbon Economy in Middle-Income and Newly Industrialized Countries” (Advance SCP) project will be implemented in 5 countries in Latin America: Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Paraguay.
• In Brazil the actions will stimulate changes in the coffee production processes towards a low carbon economy.

Brasília, March 11, 2020 – Food labels are important information tools that help consumers make informed consumption choices. Ecolabels take into consideration the lifecycle of the products, allowing comparison between similar products and, consequently, a more conscious choice for products which have less environmental impact.

To encourage responsible production and consumption, which is the aim of the Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) launched on Wednesday, 11, at the UN House, in Brasilia, Brazil, a new project that will enable coffee producers to implement low carbon production processes and fulfil the requirements for obtaining eco-labels. The initiative will be developed in partnership with the Ministry of Economy of Brazil, the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and the One Planet Network.

“Sustainable consumption and production patterns are central to the low carbon economy that we aspire. In this project we are going to link labelling and sustainable and low carbon production standards, which will then allow us to design integrated policies and expand technical capacity for knowledge dissemination in this field”, highlighted UNEP Senior Program Officer, Regina Cavini.

The project will be implemented in 5 countries in Latin America. In Brazil, the initiative will work specifically with the coffee sector due to its central role in the national economy. In 2019, more than 40,000 bags of coffee were exported, which generated revenue of more than five billion Brazilian reais, according to the Export Report of the Council of Coffee Exporters in Brazil. Within this scenario, producers have the opportunity to adopt more sustainable production processes, which can be improved through the support provided by the project.

For the Coordinator of Competitiveness and Sustainability of the Ministry of Economy of Brazil, Gustavo Fontenele, eco-labelling is still little known in Brazil. “We hope that the project will help to demystify the issue in the coffee sector and other relevant economic sectors, including the industry,” he emphasized during the opening of the event.

The representative of the German Ministry of Environment, Ulf Jaeckel, recalled that this is a market to be explored, as there is already a consumer search for more sustainable coffee.

The actions will therefore encompass production and consumption practices, stimulating both producers and consumers to recognize and value the sustainable use of natural resources. In addition, the initiative will seek to create a market niche for sustainable products, within the so-called 'green market', and will strengthen the national capacity for eco-labelling.

The project entitled “Advancing and Measuring Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) for a Low-Carbon Economy in Middle-Income and Newly Industrialized Countries”, or “Advance SCP”, is part of the Consumer Information Program of the One Planet network (CI-SCP) and will be developed in Brazil until 2021.

Advance SCP is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.