Citizens' Dialogue in Berlin with Youth on Sustainable Consumption

Commissioner Vera Jourová said in her message to the assembled Youth representatives that “the European Parliament elections demonstrated that citizens want a Europe, which is doing much more to preserve the environment and face the climate change. EU is supportive of the Paris agreement and Consumer policy could and should play a strong role to ensure that resources are used in a sustainable way. We must make the sustainable choice easier and cheaper for consumers.” 

Rita Hagl-Kehl, Parliamentary State Secretary for Consumer Protection and Consumer Protection Policy in German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumers said: “It is good that you participate today. It is important that the young generation stands-up. This is very good  and great for society. Consumer Policy has always been a grassroots driven policy - Your interest as young consumers is important for us policy makers.” 

This Consumer Dialogue was the first Thematic Dialogue linked to the future Consumer Policy Priorities and focused on a discussion with Youth representatives on Sustainable Consumption.

In front of an audience of representatives of Youth organisations from across Europe and from different parts of Germany, representing different interests of young students, academics, workers from different professions, consumer organisations and other activists, including representatives from the Fridays for the Future, arriving straight from the Friday demonstration, but also Consumer Policymakers from Germany and visiting European Member States as well as the European Economic and Social Committee and representatives of new Business models Commissioner Vera Jourová explained that: 

The consumption patterns of European households in mobility, housing and food generate most of the EU Greenhouse Gas emissions. The Commission has adopted an ambitious new Circular Economy Package plan that will help us to reach the Climate Targets, while helping European businesses and consumers to make the transition to a stronger and more circular economy. This is important because household consumption represents almost 60% of the EU GDP. Consumers are increasingly willing to contribute to protect the environment but they face many obstacles. Greener products and services may be less affordable, reparability of consumer goods is limited and so on. The transition to a more sustainable consumption will therefore require a comprehensive mix of measures but “Sustainability cannot be brought about by regulation and corporate social responsibility alone, it needs the market pull from consumers” the Commissioner said and encouraged Youth to help policymakers identify the most promising approaches to enable everyone in the EU to make green choices and contribute to curb emissions and waste.

Parliamentary State Secretary Rita Hagl-Kehl welcomed the variety of interests represented by the Youth present in the Dialogue. “I am myself from the countryside in southern Germany. I used to be a teacher and am still in contact with youth in my constituency – very good way of keeping in touch with what is going on. I have learnt e.g. that youth is Car-sharing in rural areas” she said.  

The panel discussion on sustainable consumption that followed was lively and included frank interventions from both panellists and participants, who also had the opportunity to cast their vote by answering questions, using the internet based Sli.do application (the results are presented separately).

The main messages from panellists and participants to the question on what the main challenges and possible solutions to achieve a more Sustainable Consumption were the following: 

• Ms Mariana Nicolau from the “think-and-do-thank” Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) presented facts and figures on our environmental impacts (slides presented separately) and explained that the changes needed are mostly inside our homes. ”The way we live, connected, our homes, how we move, eat and drink, are important factors but practical issues such as price, how things look and feel, changing habits are obstacles to our change towards a more sustainable lifestyles”. Food has the second biggest impact on climate in the EU (meat and dairy) followed by the size of our homes and heating. Fashion and clothes have a big impact and fast fashion has made things cheaper and has increased “our throw away kilos”; Designing for reparability but also reusing and leasing are solutions to be explored, she said. 
• Ms Franziska Wessel, Activist from the "Fridays for Future" stated that “Government rules and regulations behind the change are limiting consumers rather than industry….” She explained that consumers are sometimes very limited in what they actually can do to contribute. It is also important to also respect people’s freedom but more awareness is needed. She warned that the Climate Change the worst crisis in modern history and that we have on 11 years left to get it right again and concluded that rules limiting the effects on the climate are not enough and more incentives are needed. EU Regulations also needed for more influence. Behaviour of industry is very important and governments therefore have to be more stringent with industry.
• Mr Tobias Köck, Chairman of Deutscher Bundesjugendring (DBJR) stressed that “The Economical system has to change. The EU economic model is currently depending growth and  the “producing more” approach , so consuming is the first thing to do – industry having to produce. This has to change and become a sustainable economic model”. To change this he proposed: Less planned obsolescence, instead durability which would require pressure on industry. He pointed to Chargers as an example of positive change. Concerning Mobility he criticised the “cheap flight tickets” and questioned why railway companies are under big energy taxation, but not airlines! “You cannot even travel from Berlin to Brussels by train in one-go, there are no night trains any more and there are more examples where we have no existing sustainable options, he concluded.
• Ms Kathrin Krause, Sustainable Consumption Officer, Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VZBV) said “Our position is that responsibility must be assumed, but not just by consumers, there is also the production side.  Consumer can indeed “pull the market“, but often not enough… often due to insufficient information”. She pointed to the Ecodesign directive as a good approach of Sustainability by design and said that it needs to be extended to additional measures - to save resources for example; Ecolabels on products are not visible enough in supermarkets. Incentives would be needed to improve this. Anna Svec from the Austrian Arbeits-Kammer intervened saying that more effort needs to be made when creating sustainable offers to people factoring in what their economic situation actually is ? This is even a Class question. So making new such offers, and working on improving the infrastructure is necessary; for consumers it is more than just “being aware on things”. - Consumers can change things, but they need realistic options and explained how it is economically impossible for people she knows to make the sustainable choices they would like to make.
• Ms Marie-Paule Benassi, Acting Director for Consumers, European Commission, DG Justice and Consumers said that “one thing we can do, is improving the information about the total cost of the product – the price transparency”, explaining that the Commission and Member States are working to make sure that the prices offered and other relevant information to make a sustainable choice are clear. It is also part of our sustainability policies. 
  In addition, she concluded that to move on we will have to resolve a lot of different contradictions, many already mentioned by participants; New models of production and consumption are needed to accelerate the transition and to push us forward towards new objectives. We have a big chance right now, as we have a stronger position of greens in EU Parliament. Electors clearly stated that they wanted more green. “HOPE is very important in this process” and now more than ever will we also have to ensure that laws are effective, and respected. “It is not ok to have cartels bluffing consumers by greenwashing the product information, and it is not ok to ignore law. Legislation must be respected, including legislation on emissions and green claims”. She underlined that companies producing in the EU and selling to EU consumers do not have an easy task at this point, because of various interests going in opposite directions. It is therefore Important to have a clear model helping us to have a better environment. “This should not be at the expense of the consumer,  but evidence-based, and building on the engagement of everybody. We also need to make sure that the elements in place are working and then we need to add a few very effective accelerators” she concluded.

To sum up: 

• The very varied backgrounds of the Youth representatives made for a very interesting and dynamic exchange that demonstrated that Consumer Policy has a role of Consumer Policy in the context of sustainable consumption. 
• The input of participants also confirmed the need for:
  - simpler information
  - goods that are more durable 
  - emphasis of accessibility and affordability of more sustainable goods and services
• Participants signalled strongly that even though we as citizens and consumers will have to make sacrifices to lower the emissions, at the same time it will be necessary to “push” developments in industry and trade through different policy measures.
• The sense of urgency was strong amongst the participants and they expressed in particular disappointment availability of realistic options, e. g. with the slow mobility changeover, especially from airlines to railways and the prices and problems of charging electric vehicles and the safety risks in the cities for those using bikes, scooters etc.

The ambiance was very good throughout the Dialogue and the participants on all sides expressed that it had been a fruitful discussion

The Consumer Dialogues will continue travelling outside the Brussels bubble for more targeted discussions with Youth representatives and other interest groups about future Consumer Policy priorities, and how they can contribute to the overall Strategic Agenda for Europe.

The full report, together with the Sli.do results and presentation with facts and figures, are available to download below.