ABSTRACT
A number of public policy areas related to sustainable development have in recent years brought changes in consumption and production patterns to the fore. This expression was highlighted in Chapter 4 of Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992). This chapter was brief in part because it gave rise to conflict, particularly the idea that the consumption patterns of the developed nations would not be sustainable: ‘In many instances, this sustainable development will require reorientation of existing production and consumption patterns that have developed in industrial societies and are in turn emulated in much of the world’ (4.15).
