Main focus: Sustainable consumption and production

The consumption and production patterns are also the cause of several of today's most serious environmental problems. Friends of the Earth Norway therefore gives high priority to the field of sustainable consumption and production.The unfair situation of today is a challenge to our sense of morals and ethics, as well as our determination to work for genuine solidarity.

We focus on four areas:

• Agenda 21, especially Local Agenda 21
• Food security, especially the management of marine resources, and the FAO process
• "Safe food", especially biotechnology, genetic engineering, biosafety and the use of pesticides
• Environmentally hazardous chemicals, in particular man-made oestrogens and other substances with oestrogenic or anti-oestrogenic properties released into the environment.

What do the authorities do?

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Norwegian authorities were front runners internationally, suggesting, advocating and adopting environmental agreements. To some extent Norway is still regarded as playing an important role internationally, for instance by following up chapter 4 of Agenda 21 and putting sustainable production and consumption patterns on the international agenda.

However very little is done nationally. The government's long-term plan indicates a 100 % increase in consumption by the year 2035. Plans to reduce or stabilize CO2 emissions have been abandoned. The authorities work actively to introduce recycling programmes. But more concrete action is required as the voluntary agreed recycling programmes are not introduced fast enough to compensate for the growth in the production of municipal waste.

It is a trend in Norway that more and more responsibility for environmental issues and development is delegated from central to local authorities. Even though they are too few, at least some municipalities take this very seriously.

Our strategy

We aim at motivating, inspiring, advising and assisting decision-makers in the private and public sectors as well as the average person who nurtures some concern for the environment. Realizing that we cannot do everything ourselves, we have developed "make others do the job" as an important principle to follow in the field of sustainable consumption and production, as well as in the other areas of our work.

On home ground Friends of the Earth Norway focuses mainly on local level work. We have two main target groups: a) local authorities and b) individuals at home, at work, as consumers and as members of organizations. Local authorities are chosen to match the trend in the government's priorities as described above. For individuals, the other main target group, much of our work is channelled through a campaign umbrella "The Environmental Home Guard".

On an international level, we work under the Friends of the Earth name, and often in cooperation with Friends of the Earth International and Friends of the Earth Europe. Our main priorities are the work to raise international support for the concept of environmental space, and we also take active part in the "Sustainable Societies" project. Our international involvement is dealt with in the next chapter.