from left to right: Harald Bayer, City of Wuppertal; Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, UNEP; Monique Barbut, UNEP; Hans-Joachim Reck, Member of NRW Parliament, Wuppertal; Minister Eckhard Uhlenberg, MUNLV; Michael Kuhndt, CSCP; Vice-Minister Dr. Michael Stückradt, MIWFT; Prof. Dr. Peter Hennicke, Wuppertal Institute

“We should not be afraid to wish that everyone in the world became a consumer. The poor need more than food and shelter. They ultimately need to be able to make choices for their material and immaterial well being, just like we all can do so. This is of course an enormous task. We call it the challenge of sustainable consumption and production. And nothing less is the focus of the new Wuppertal Centre” declared Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, the Executive Director of UNEP. Contributing to poverty eradication and sustainable consumption and production will be the focus of the Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production – CSCP. The Centre was founded on 25 November 2005 as a joint ‘Collaborating Centre’ of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.