The substantive segment of the session will be on:
Towards the Circular Economy - Innovation Policies for Sustainable Production and Consumption

Sustainable consumption and production is about promoting resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and a better quality of life for all. The circular economy model offers a profitable opportunity to move away from resource-intensive processes, maximising the use of existing assets and creating new revenue streams. Innovation is already driving the move to the circular economy and to sustainable consumption and production patterns. However, the move towards the circular economy is still at an early stage in most of the ECE region, and the potential of innovation to make production and consumption fully sustainable is far from being fully exploited. Fully realizing the potential of innovation in this critical area will require dedicated and sustained policy efforts to create enabling frameworks and incentives for private innovation efforts in circular economy fields and to encourage consumers to rapidly and broadly adopt innovative sustainable consumption patterns. 

The substantive segment will provide a platform for discussion and policy learning among private and public sector stakeholders in the UNECE region to understand and agree on how better to promote and use innovation to move towards sustainable production and consumption and eventually a circular economy. 

The results of the conference are also intended to contribute a regional perspective towards the global discussions on UN Sustainable Development Goals 11 and 12 at the 2018 Multi-Stakeholder Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development.