Project description:

Latin America is a biodiversity hotspot but faces increasing GHG emissions and waste due to growing material and energy intensity, partly caused by an increase in urban consumption. The progress in the field of sustainable public procurement (SPP) and type-I ecolabelling in the region is very different. The project triggers a transformation towards more sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in the five partner countries. This will be achieved by aligning and promoting third party verified ecolabels that guarantee a reliable source of information and ensure low climate impact of products. Additionally, the project will integrate climate and biodiversity protection in SPP policies by defining or improving procurement criteria using ecolabels as a means of verification. The countries will not only contribute to climate change mitigation, sustainable use of natural resources and biodiversity conservation, but can also be-come trendsetters for the region.

Impacts:

The project will contribute to:

  1. Ambitious eco-labeling: support for the development and strengthening of EL schemes with respect to climate change, biodiversity and resource criteria, for selected products, through participatory and gender-sensitive processes, creating credible, robust and ambitious schemes.
  2. Strengthening of regulations: the political and legal framework for public procurement is improved and strengthened in each country, with respect to the evaluation of sustainability criteria and progress in terms of verification and monitoring of SCP.
  3. Supply and demand: increase the availability of products that meet sustainability criteria and that are gender sensitive, using EL, SCP criteria, accessibility to environmental certification of products by SMEs, as well as raising awareness and improving capacities of key stakeholders. The supply and demand for type 1 EL products will improve with the expanded participation of the private sector, especially SMEs.
  4. Global exchange: expanded participation in dialogues and exchange platforms to facilitate scaling up, innovation and outreach by supporting the One Planet Network’s Consumer Information Program, as well as organizing conferences, exchanges and other knowledge management activities.

The project contributes to SDG 12 “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”; SDG 5 “Achieve gender equality and empower women and men”; and SDG 6 “Achieve gender equality and empower women and men”.
achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”; SDG 13 ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’; SDG 15 ‘Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss’; and SDG 17 ‘Revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development’.