Consumers International

12/02/2024 | Press release | Archived content

World Consumer Rights Day 2025: A Just Transition to Sustainable Lifestyles

World Consumer Rights Day 2025: A Just Transition to Sustainable Lifestyles

02 December 2024

The past decade has been the warmeston record, and extreme weatherhas become routine in many nations,disrupting lives and livelihoods.At the same time, biodiversity loss and pollution are posing a growing threat to planetary and human health.It is increasingly clear that the impact of these crises is not just environmental, but economic and social tooand is undermining progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).

To remainwithin planetary boundaries, we will need to make fundamental changes to the waywe eat, how wetravel, how we heat, cool, and power ourhomes, and the products and services webuyand use.Yet it isessential that sustainable and healthy choices for consumers are made more available, accessible, and affordable. And that thistransition is not at the expense of people's basic rights and needs, but is insteadan opportunity for advancement, delivering sustainable lifestyles for people as well as planet.

For World Consumer Rights Day 2025 on 15 March,Consumers International, together with its Membersand partners, will unite in a global call for A just transition to sustainable lifestyles. Together we will demandgreater protectionand empowermentforconsumers insupport of the dramatic turnaround we need toachieve global goals.

Our Shared Challenge

The vital importance of sustainable consumption is widely recognised. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that action on consumption or 'demand-side strategies'could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40-70% in key sectors by 2050. Similarly,'enabling sustainable consumption' is one of the key targets establishedby the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework.

It is also clear that without urgent action to protect ourenvironment, many of the most serious challenges facing consumers will escalate substantially.Our failing food systems and dependence on fossil fuels have contributed significantly to rising food and energy pricesaround the world,while environmental pollution (including air, chemical, and plastic pollution) is already responsible for at least 9 million premature deaths each year.

There issignificant public supportfor action. In a report published with GlobeScan and with data from 30,000 consumers across31 countries,wefoundthat 94% supported a shift to more sustainable lifestyles. Yet consumers face significant barriers to taking action. Our research showed that over 80% said they need stronger support from governments, businesses, and international organisations to make sustainable lifestyles more available, accessible, and affordable. Costs of living rises over the past five years has made it increasingly difficult for many to afford basic necessities, leaving little room for discretionary spending or lifestyle changes that require additional costs.

It is essential that we act now to deliversustainable lifestyles - meetingpeople's rights and needs without exceeding planetary boundaries.

We will call for a just transition to sustainable lifestyles that

  1. Upholds the legitimate needs of consumers. The includes access to essential needs such as food and energy, and the protection of people's health and safety.
  2. Makes sustainable and healthy choices more available, accessible, and affordable for all, rather than placing the onus of responsibility on individual consumers.
  3. Ensures consumer voices are heard at all levels of governance, as well as by businesses, with a focus on including and protecting vulnerable and low-income consumers.
  4. Recognises that pathways to a sustainable lifestyle vary across contexts, what works in one setting may not be feasible or relevant in another, as local priorities and challenges shape unique approaches.

Our campaign will focus on sustainable lifestyles across core sectors including food, water, energy, mobility, consumer goods, housing, finance, and leisure.

UNITE WITH US

Campaign

On March 15 consumer advocates will run diverse campaigns and activitiesworldwide. We build on our success in previous years with the scope of activities being wideyetrelevant to national contexts. This can include anything from mobilisingindividuals and communitiesto take sustainable actions,toawarenessraising in schools,universities, workplaces topop-up standsin towns or roadshows to rural remote regions,to dialogues with policy makers, to open letters, social mediacampaigns, photography exhibitions,special video messages from officials,or the release of research or technology.

We invite all those committed to sustainable lifestyles to join our call on 15 March. Contact usfor campaign guidance.

Sustainable Lifestyles Summit: a global platform for exchange, accountabilityand action

This includes building strong bridges between consumer advocates, business, government, multilateral forumsand academia. During the week ahead ofWorld Consumer Rights Day (10-14 March), we willhost a series of discussions, panels, addressesand sprints. Here, leaders will share insights, challenges, innovationsand commitmentsto progress sustainable lifestyles. We will soon announce how partners can join and benefit from thisplatform.

World Consumer Rights Day has been celebrated for more than four decades, and year on year it reaches new breadth and depths. We have typically united 600+ leaders in dialogues for our clean energy transition campaign, and the first ever consumer centric forum on fair digital finance.Last year 100+ consumer advocacy organisations and partners united to demand fair and responsible AI.

WHY IS THIS WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY UNIQUE?

Next year is a landmark moment for commitmentsand actionacross government and other stakeholders.

  • At thesixth session of theUnited Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) in March 2024, a historic resolution on Promoting Sustainable Lifestyleswas passed. In December 2025, UNEA-7will be an important moment to explore countries' progress towards this goal, and strengthen commitments towards sustainable lifestyles.
  • Sustainable living will also be on the agenda at COP30 in Brazil in November 2025. At COP29, Consumers International called for countries to include action on sustainable living in their national climate commitments (Nationally-Determined Contributions, NDCs), and it will be important to build on this ambition in November.
  • Importantly, we will be five years from the delivering of the Sustainable Development Goals, many of which areoff track.

World Consumer Rights Day will help todrive action on these areas. Beyond 15 March, we will use the insights, commitments and coalitions establishedto help turn aspiration into action.