SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Although our planet offers abundant natural resources, they remain finite. Decades of mismanagement, excessive use, and overconsumption have surpassed the Earth's capacity to sustain them. Although, environmental efforts are progressing, with countries taking on their environmental commitments, the sharp rise in fossil fuel funding since 2015 is hindering the path to net-zero emissions. By focusing on resource-efficiency and innovation at every stage of production, we can foster energy conservation and reduce emissions. Learning how to use and produce materials in sustainable ways can significantly reverse the harm that we have already inflicted on the planet. SDG 12 encourages responsible consumption and production practices that reduce waste, preserve resources, and help build a sustainable economy.
SDG's targets
Target 12.1: Implement the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns, all countries taking action, with developed countries taking the lead, taking into account the development and capabilities of developing countries.
Target 12.2: By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources.
Target 12.3: By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.
Target 12.4: By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.
Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.
Target 12.6: Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle.
Target 12.7: Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities.
Target 12.8: By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature.
Target 12.a: Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production.
Target 12.b: Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products.
Target 12.c: Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances, including by restructuring taxation and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and minimizing the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities.
To achieve SDG 12, NTU contributes to implementation of the following projects: