Geneva, 28 September 2016 - Voluntary standard schemes (VSS) are like a low-hanging fruit that governments should use to move towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but they are not yet seizing this opportunity. The sheer number of such schemes, such as the Marine Stewardship Council, the Rainforest Alliance, and the Better Cotton Initiative, is growing fast, but their number and complexity overwhelms some developing country exporters, for whom they can act as a barrier to market entry.
In 2012, exports of VSS-certified products were worth $36 billion, mostly composed of products from the cocoa, coffee, cotton, forestry, soya, sugar, and tea sectors.
"Voluntary standards are one of the most exciting trade developments, providing a new level of engagement with the private sector on consumer and B2B products," UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Joakim Reiter said at a public meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
"But developing country producers risk becoming victims of the schemes' enormous success and governments all around the world must work harder to seize this low-hanging opportunity," he added, launching the 2nd flagship report by the UN Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS).
The report notes how, in some regions of the world, voluntary standards have become a must-have for brands that wish to build trust with consumers. In a 60-country survey, for example, over 60% of respondents said they were willing to pay a premium for sustainable brands, up from 55% in 2013, and 50% in 2014.
VSS aims to make production and consumption more sustainable for the environment, society, health, and the economy too. The growth of VSS highlights how the private sector has a critical role to play in meeting the SDGs, including Goals 12 and 15 on sustainable consumption and production, and the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.
Serious challenges remain, however. The proliferation of VSS means that producers can find compliance more complex and sometimes costly. Companies are desperate to differentiate themselves from their competition, and so in creating new VSS they fragment the market. Governments also have an important role to play to ensure the schemes remain accountable and somewhat harmonized.
"We have enough experience to see how powerful these schemes can be, but governments will have to do more so that more schemes are more powerful," Mr. Reiter said.
Trade policy instruments, such as sustainability standards and certification, government procurement, subsidies, and tariff reductions for environmentally sound technologies, can – if applied properly– contribute in terms of climate adaptation, resilience, sustainable consumption and production and to several SDGs. These include SDG 1 on poverty elimination, SDG 2 on food security and sustainable agriculture, SDG 7 on energy, SDG 12 on Sustainable Consumption and Production, SDG 13 on climate change and SDG 14 on marine resources.
UN Environment has launched the Environment and Trade Hub as a new mechanism to offer capacity building and policy advice on sustainable trade and investment. As a demand-driven mechanism, the Hub offers capacity building and related policy advice on sustainable trade and investment that are tailored to local needs and circumstances. It will also help to engage and encourage collaboration between different stakeholders that only through exchange, better mutual understanding and partnership can make a difference. Particularly, alliances and partnerships among public and private sector, civil society and financing institutions will be key in scaling up green trade.
Set up in 2013, the UNFSS is a joint initiative by five UN organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), UN Environment, and the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It helps countries by providing analysis and building capacity. In India, for example, the UNFSS helped to establish the National Platform on Private Sustainability Standards.
The full report can be accessed here
For more information, please contact:
Dominika Dor-Skrobot
UNIDO, Industrial Development Officer
email: d.dor@unido.org
email: tii@unido.org
Anja Von Moltke
UN Environment, Environment and Trade Hub
email: anja.moltke@unep.org
Chiara Moroni
UN Environment, Economics and Trade branch, Communications
email: chiara.moroni@unep.org
