Sustainable Societies

Consumption

The past decade has witnessed a global increase in the consumption of goods, services, energy, and natural resources, particularly due to the advancement of information technology and globalization. These changes have increased the generation of waste and have widened the gap between rich and poor. While 20% of the world's population, in high-income countries, account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures, the poorest 20%, in low-income countries, consume a mere 1.3% of it. Consumption per capita has increased steadily in industrialized countries at about 2.3% per year over the past 25 years while the consumption expenditure of the average African household is 20% less than it was 25 years ago. While globalization has meant that consumers' demands are met more rapidly, including demands for environmentally-minded production and "Fair Trade," it has also intensified the consumption of natural resources, the generation of waste and the use of transportation, leading to problems such as surges in the use of agro-chemicals, unsustainable fishing practices and tropical timber harvesting.