Greening the Danes? Experience with consumption and environment policies

Toke Christensen (), Mirjam Godskesen (), Kirsten Gram-Hanssen (), Maj-Britt Quitzau () and Inge Røpke ()

Journal of Consumer Policy, 2007, vol. 30, issue 2, 116 pages

Abstract: Consumer-oriented environmental policies came high on the political agenda during the 1990s. Internationally, consumers were assigned a key role in environmental policies; also in Denmark, political initiatives were taken to promote sustainable consumer behaviour. In this article, the results of Danish policies related to consumption and environment are assessed by considering first, the environmental impacts of the political measures, and second, whether the policies have succeeded in addressing the dynamics behind increasing consumption. The study combines a theoretical understanding of consumption as an inseparable part of daily practices with empirical analyses of three fields of consumption: housing, transportation, and information and communication technology. It is pointed out that policies to promote sustainable consumption are successful only when technological development, economic structures, and information are all in accordance with each other, and this is the case only when sustainable consumption does not conflict with economic growth. A more fundamental critique thus concerns the failure of Danish consumer-oriented environmental policies to address consumption growth and the rising standards for “normal consumption.” Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Keywords: Consumer-oriented environmental policy; Sustainable consumption; Housing; Transport; Information and communication technology; Denmark (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10603-007-9029-2

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