Consumers urged to increase self-awareness of Covid impact

Mon, May 11, 2020

ISLAMABAD: The countries in Asia-Pacific region need an urgent and profound transition in its production and consumption patterns to ensure a sustainable future, suggests a new report published by the United Nations.

The 2020 economic survey of UN Econ­omic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific suggests that consumers should choose sustainable lifestyles. Consumers should also increase self-awareness of the impact of coronavirus from lifestyles, while governments must play a significant role in influ­encing consumer behaviour by nudging them to change their lifestyles, it says

“The time has never been this urgent as now to rethink how we consume and produce, even if changing the current ways of doing things could be inconvenient. For this to happen, everyone must step forward to take responsibility and act consciously,” the UN survey stresses.

Pointing out that increased production is accompanied by declining use of products, the survey explains that globally, assets worth about $4.5 trillion are underutilised, of which 80 per cent are used just once a month. In the United Kingdom, a ten-year old child, on average, owns 238 toys but plays with only 12 of them daily. Cars, on average, are parked rather than being driven 90pc of the time.

Annually, $500 billion is lost due to clothing being hardly worn and rarely recycled. Whether it be parked cars and empty properties, building spaces and unused electronic items, if something remains unused, it becomes idle and redundant, according to the survey.

Survey suggests people should choose sustainable lifestyles

Nudges are positive reinforcements, small suggestions, or changes in choice, which consist of framing information, changing the physical environment and developing eco-labeling of products. Governments must incentivise the sharing of consumer goods and services, which are underutilised by providing strong digital infrastructure and supporting businesses that have positive environmental impacts, the survey emphasises.

Policymakers should maintain accommodative macroeconomic policies to sustain the economic health of the region, as it is fundamental to sustainable development. In the wake of the pandemic, fiscal and monetary policies should be focused on upholding economic activities by supporting affected enterprises and households and preventing economic contagion.

The survey says economic policies to solely concentrate on GDP growth are no longer sufficient to deliver sustainable development. The region faces significant headwinds in sustaining gro­wth momentum in 2020, while Covid-19 has brought unexpected and serious disruptions to productive activities.

Initial urgent measures to contain the outbreak before it became a pandemic led to a sudden slowdown in manufacturing, trade and tourism activities, with many spillover effects. Additionally, unresolved trade tensions continue to weigh on the region’s manufacturing activities and weaken businesses and investors’ confidence.

The bright side is that the region still has ample policy room to boost economic growth. That being said, policymakers should be careful in choosing the policy mix. . In the wake of Covid-19, monetary and fiscal policies should be focused on supporting the affected enterprises and households and preventing economic contagion.

In particular, fiscal policies need to play a major role in enhancing health services to contain the further spread of coronavirus, cure infected people and strengthen future health emergency preparedness.

When Covid-19 has been successfully mitigated, policies should continue to address weak aggregate demand. Reviving private investment could be a key area, which can be supported by accommodative fiscal and monetary policies, financial market development, enhanced trade inte­gration and better governance, survey suggests.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2020

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