Evaluating Sustainable Consumption Policies and Practices: gaps, white spots and future developments. Oksana Mont (International Institute of Industrial Ecological Economics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden), 1 Arnold Tukker, Fernando Diaz-Lopez, Martin van de Lindt (TNO, Delft, the Netherlands), Sylvia Lorek, Joachim Spangenberg, Stefan Giljum (Sustainable Europe Research Institute, Cologne/Vienna, Germany/Austria) Results of the EU FP6 SCOPE2 project paper presented at the JAOCC Conference, 8- 10 June 2009, Aalborg, Denmark 1 Introduction A new mandate for sustainable consumption and production (SCP) was created at the Johannesburg Summit in 2002 by calling for the development of a 10-year Framework of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production. In 2006 EU Sustainable Development Strategy was revised to include sustainable consumption and production and last year, in 2008, European Commission published an Action Plan on sustainable consumption and production (EC, 2008). Thus, the issue of sustainable consumption and production has been finally gaining momentum in the European policy arena. There is therefore a great demand for insight into what existing and potential policy instruments are best suited to support SCP. A European project Sustainable Consumption Policies Effectiveness Evaluation (SCOPE2) has been conducted under the EU s 6 th Framework Programme to assist with this task. The project included an inventory and analysis of the effectiveness of policy instruments, voluntary business initiatives for sustainable consumption and production and more systemic approaches to realise SCP. A gap analysis was then performed that focused on gaps of effectiveness (how instruments and approaches can be applied more effectively, alone or in combination), on sectoral (housing, mobility and food) and geographical gaps and on white spots of new instruments and approaches that seem necessary for furthering sustainable consumption and production, but are not applied yet anywhere. The project identified short, middle and long-term goals, means and problems with reaching various levels of sustainable consumption and production from a systemic perspective. It furthermore developed recommendations for how policy, business and more systemic efforts can be undertaken to promote SCP and which political actors should be involved in specific activities. This contribution reports the outcomes of the project. 2 Gaps in the existing toolbox of policy instruments This section aims to identify the main gaps in the existing toolbox of policy instruments. The analysis will identify whether new instruments and initiatives are needed, or new mixes of thereof, or whether an extensive use of existing instruments will suffice for greening of the market and setting conditions and incentives for businesses to invest in innovation that stimulates more sustainable consumption patterns and contributes to greening of the markets. 2.1 General gaps Various types of gaps have been identified in this study, both gaps of general nature and gaps located within individual consumption domains of food, mobility and housing. The general gaps include: 1 Corresponding author: oksana.mont@iiiee.lu.se