This paper provides good practice examples of strategies that governments have already implemented to contribute to a sustainable and resilient recovery from COVID-19 and to a longer-term redesign of their economies, which align with global goals and makes recommendations for further action. The target audience is national- and subnational-level...
Between the 1990s and early 2000s, large-scale illegal dumping and improper treatment of medical waste was a common occurrence in Japan, and became a serious social issue owing to the potential human health risk and environmental damage resulting from the waste itself, which could be infectious or contained sharps or chemical and toxic substances...
This case study reports on the development of a healthcare waste management (HCWM) system at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Nepal where the intervention began in 2014 with support from HECAF 360, a local NGO, and Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), an international NGO, and WHO Nepal. It describes the approach and path followed by...
The focus of SCP policy has shifted from management of environmental pollution to wider socio-technical change including infrastructure, lifestyles and business models that are sustainable over decades. This paper first examines the expansion of the SCP policy domain through changes in focus of the following two aspects; product lifecycle policy...
Ensuring sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns in the Asia region is a high-priority policy issue but challenged by a number of obstacles and the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. This article argues that not only conventional policy approaches but also alternative approaches are needed in Asia to decouple socio...
Our longing for incessant and rapid economic growth came at a cost of inefficient and wasteful use of resources and environmental pollution. The consequences are immense and far exceeding the planetary capacities to regenerate itself at such a fast pace. It became clear that a transition to sustainable societies cannot occur with our current linear...
Water pollution caused by microplastics generated from land-based sources (e.g. as tire-wear particles, broken road markings, synthetic textile microfibre from washing, microbeads from personal care products, discharged domestic wastewater from households, and others) is attracting attention in many countries and regions around the world as an...
Current commitments in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are insufficient to remain within the 2-degree climate change limit agreed to in the Paris Agreement. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that lifestyle changes are now necessary to stay within the limit. We reviewed a range of NDCs and national climate change...
This article asks how to achieve food waste prevention in Asia from a governance perspective by looking at Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam as case studies. Aligning stakeholders behind preventive measures on food waste requires a context-appropriate mix of hierarchical, market, and network modes of governance. This article analyzes current food waste...
Intensifying ecological crises, such as climate change, the melting Arctic, and uncontrolled destruction of habitat and biodiversity, are increasingly exposing the shortcomings of resource-intensive development models. One of the concepts helping policymakers steer a course change is sustainable consumption production and consumption (SCP). A...