UN/ECE: Sustainable Energy

The report of the 20th Annual Session of the Committee on Sustainable Energy is available at: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/energy/se/pdfs/comm20/ECE.ENERGY.87_e.pdf

 

 

Vienna Convention/Montreal Protocol

Described as one of the most difficult meetings in the Protocol's recent history,

COP-9/MOP-23 adopted more than 25 decisions, including:

- a US$450 million replenishment of the MLF for the period of 2012-2014;

- issues related to exemptions;

- mitigation of ozone depleting substances (ODS) emissions from feedstock and process-agent uses;

- updating the nomination processes and recusal guidelines for the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP);

- the treatment of ODS used to service ships; and

- additional information on alternatives.

 

Decisions beginning on page 27

UN/EMG tackles green economy

"Working towards a balanced and inclusive green economy: A UN system-wide perspective” has been released by the UN Environment Management Group (EMG). The report was prepared by 40 UN entities, is the first inter-agency report on the topic and offers guidance to UN agencies and member States on coherently supporting the transition at international and country levels.

Rio+20: Last regional preparations

The Chairs' Summary of the UN/ECE Regional Preparatory Meeting for UNCSD (Rio+20)  has been transmitted to New York to serve as input for the 2nd Intersessional Meeting from 15-16 December 2011.

FAO: Renewed efforts for Plant Genetic Resources

The 2nd Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) has been adopted by the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization, to accelerate the implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR); and strengthen conservation and sustainable use of plants and seed systems through:
-  better management of crop diversity in farmers’ fields;
-  developing strategies to protect, collect and conserve crop wild relatives and wild food plants that are under threat,
- support use of a wider range of traits for plant breeding, and
- strengthen seed systems especially of locally adapted varieties.

Publication: Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

ITTA 2006 In Force

The International Tropical Timber Agreement, 2006 entered into force on 12 December 2011. With the ratification by the Government of Benin, the new agreement takes the place of its predecessor.

Press release

UNFCCC/COP-17

After extended weekend negotiations, COP-17 concluded with the adoption of the "Durban Platform," a set of decisions that lay the ground for adopting a legal agreement on climate change as soon as possible, and no later than 2015.

All decisions

FAO: Climate Change and Wildlife

Focusing on tropical terrestrial wildlife and habitats, this report notes that the biodiversity crisis is likely to be made worse by climate change and explores issues related to:
- ecosystem change;
- species interactions;
- human-wildlife conflicts;
- wildland fires; and
- health and diseases.

As potential mitigating factors, it highlights goals related to:
- maintaining current ecosystems;
- adaptive management;
- restoring ecosystems; and
- landscape approaches.

The paper also calls for developing and communicating information on the value of species and ecosystems to humanity, describes the role of protected areas, and discusses mainstreaming biodiversity needs.

Publication: Wildlife in a Changing Climate

Costa Rica: Implementing CBD

The World Future Council (WFC) and the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) have launched a new report titled Crafting Visionary Biodiversity Laws: Costa Rica’s Biodiversity Law 1998.

IPBES During Intersessional Process

An International expert workshop titled "Policy support through relevant tools and methodologies in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services convened in Bonn (Germany) from 7-9 December.

The workshop intended to stimulate new ideas and rationale on the IPBES policy support function and conceptual discussions arose on the relationships between the different policy tools (indicators, risk analysis and cost-benefit analysis, modelling and scenarios, assessments, networking) and the different policy functions (strategic policy development, policy implementation, policy evaluation, raising awareness) across the global, national and local scales.

Documents circulated and produced during the workshop are available at: www.bmu.de/ipbes

The next IPBES plenary session will be held in Panama City (Panama) on 16-20 April, 2012.

CMS/COP-10 Outcome

Delegates to the 10th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species adopted 29 Resolutions including on: synergies and partnerships; overview of the process regarding the “future shape” of CMS, budget, enhanced engagement with the Global Environment Facility (GEF); wildlife disease and migratory species; migratory terrestrial species; global programme of work for cetaceans; and bird flyway conservation policy.

New Approach to MPAs in ABNJ

A new report entitled "A legal scenario analysis for marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction" is the product of a seminar using foresight methodologies to stimulate discussions on pathways to ensure efficient governance through strong, long-term and articulated strategies.

WHO: "Health in the Green Economy"

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a report on the health benefits of low-carbon transport measures, such as rapid transit, walking or cycling. Recommended strategies include:
- integrating urban residential and commercial areas through more compact land use;
- including health and equity costs in cost-benefit analyses of transport projects; and
- improving active transport, rapid transit and public transport as cost effective measures to mitigate GHG emissions.

The report further stresses that healthier transport can help close the health equity gap in low- and middle-income countries by:
- reducing air pollution;
- providing benefits to women, older adults, children, people with disabilities and lower income groups;
- reducing the need for biofuels and related threats to food security; and
- reducing the use of older, more polluting vehicles.

Report: Health Co-benefits of Climate Change Mitigation - Transport Sector

Japan (ICR) vs. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

According to media reports, Japanese whalers filed a lawsuit on December 8 in the US District Court of Seattle to prevent "acts of violence" by Sea Shepherd activists during this year's whaling operations in the Antarctic. In a statement, Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), and Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd, which operates the whaling vessels, said they had filed the lawsuit to establish legal protection of their ships and crews. A spokesman for the whalers said the lawsuit would only target violent activities and did not seek monetary compensation from Sea Shepherd, but did seek a permanent stop to the activists' actions. Sea Shepherd founder, Paul Watson, said the ships his organisation used in past years were not owned by Sea Shepherd USA, nor were they US-flagged vessels and thus, the US government and courts have no authority over the ships.

Joint Press Release from Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), and Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd

Cartagena Protocol: National Reports

The CBD Secretariat has has released the second national reports on implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, as well as an interactive tool for information search and analysis of the reports. According to a notification, the Secretariat has received 124 reports to date, which are made available through the "Finding Information" section of the Biosafety Clearing House (BCH).

National Reports Website

Marine Biodiversity BBNJ

The IUCN Environmental Law Centre (IUCN-ELC) in collaboration with the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) recently organized an international seminar with the objective of making substantive progress in the further development of ideas and concepts regarding recommendations from the 4th meeting of the UN Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group to study issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Three main issues discussed, amongst others, that play a key role in the BBNJ process included:
- Possible ways of sharing benefits from the utilization of marine genetic resources accessed in areas beyond national jurisdiction;
- Possible governance frameworks for the establishment and management of a network of Marine Protected Areas on the High Seas; and
- Possible role of and consequences for an UNCLOS implementing agreement.

The workshop report will be published at the beginning of 2012.

Background information and presentations

Gorilla Agreement/MOP-2

Delegates to MOP-2 of the Agreement on the Conservation of Gorillas and their Habitats discussed:
-  the outcomes of the International Year of the Gorilla (YoG) 2009;
- elected three experts in forest management and conservation, environmental law and wild animal health to the Technical Committee (TC);
- agreed on a draft reporting format; and
- adopted resolutions on institutional arrangements for the Agreement, the review of Action Plans, and cooperation on law enforcement.


Documents

FAO Report: Land and Water

"The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture" calls for improved efficiency of water use, better knowledge development and training, the integration of climate-smart production models, increased investment in agricultural development and harmonization of national policies and actions. It also includes examples of successful actions that may be scaled, as well as a broad typology of land systems at risk, including to climate impacts.

View into Rio+20

In a guest article for IISD-SDPP, Brice Lalonde, Executive Coordinator, UNCSD (Rio+20) discusses "Development and Environment: The Nexus".

Applying Ecosystem Services

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Division of Environmental Policy Implementation (DEPI) has circulated a series of Ecosystem Services Economics Working Papers. The Papers, which are not formal publications of UNEP, aim to reflect the broad range of research activities on economics of ecosystem services, and to encourage discussion on ecosystem services economics among economists, scientists and policy makers.

Rio+20: Call for Action from Lawyers and Environmental Law Organizations

Following the 3rd Worldwide Conference of Environmental Law NGOs and Lawyers from September 29-1 October in Limoges (France), more than 300 environmental lawyers have submitted a "call for action" as their contribution to the preparation of the Zero Draft of the outcome document for UNCSD (Rio+20). Of special note, is the call for:

World leaders to commit themselves to negotiating new Conventions or similar instruments on the environment that respond to urgent needs in regard to health, preservation of biodiversity and human rights, namely :
- An international Pact on environment and development
- A Convention on protection of soils
- A Convention on environmental impact assessment that includes consideration of social and cultural impacts and impacts related to energy consumption
- A Convention regarding pollution of the oceans and seas from terrestrial sources
- A Convention on marine protected areas on the high seas
- A Convention on exploitation of offshore oil
- A Convention on landscapes
- A Convention on environmental protection in the context of armed conflict
- A Convention on ecological catastrophes
- A Convention on the legal status of persons displaced for environmental reasons

 

CMS/COP-10 Outcomes

Delegates to COP-10 adopted 27 resolutions, including on: synergies and partnerships; the future shape of the CMS; budget; enhanced engagement with the Global Environment Facility (GEF); and climate change and migratory species.

UNEP: EM Policy Series

This sixth issue is titled "Restoring the natural foundation to sustain a Green Economy: A century-long journey for Ecosystem Management,” and focuses on key actions for the transition period of the next 20 years, after UNCSD (Rio+20).

UNCTAD: Climate Change and Ports

The Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on "Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: A Challenge for Global Ports Building" has published its main outcomes and summary of discussions. The event builds on related activities carried out by the UNCTAD secretariat, including the first session of the Multi-year Expert Meeting on Transport and Trade Facilitation in 2009 with a focus on "Maritime Transport and the Climate Change Challenge", and a Joint UNECE-UNCTAD Workshop on "Climate Change Impacts on International Transport Networks" in 2010.

ITTO Council 47th session

At this session, the Council considered:

- implementation of the Biennial Work Programme (BWP) 2010-2011, and activities to be included under the BWP for 2012-2013;
- the current status of implementation of the International Tropical Timber Organization Thematic Programmes,
- and the administrative budget for 2012.
- the status of the deposit of instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession to the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA)

Although ITTO has made significant efforts to link its work with that of other forest-related multilateral environmental agreements, namely CBD, CITES and UNFCCC, the meeting was overshadowed by concerns over the long-term financial viability of the organization.

Decisions

9th Meeting of ACTO Foreign Ministers

The Ministers representing Member States of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) adopted a declaration to be forwarded to the UNCSD (Rio+20) and a "Manaus Commitment" pledging new actions for ACTO cooperation.

Birds and Power Grids

Two reports have been published highlightingt the impact of power lines on migratory birds in the African-Eurasian region.The two reports, titled Review of the Conflict between Migratory Birds and Electricity Power Grids in the African-Eurasian Region and Guidelines for Mitigating Conflict Between Migratory Birds and Electricity Power Grids make recommendations for mitigation measures to reduce bird mortality including legislative and policy actions.

Agrobiodiversity and Law: Regulating Genetic Resources, Food Security and Cultural Diversity

This new book analyzes the impact of the legal system on agrobiodiversity and the emergence of the concept and its relationship with food security, nutrition, health, environmental sustainability and climate change. It assesses the impacts of key legal instruments, discussing the interface between the free software movement, the 'commons' movement and seeds, and the role of protected areas.

ACTO: Declaration and Commitment

At their 11th meeting, the Foreign Ministers of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) countries adopted a declaration to be forwarded to the UNCSD (Rio+20) and a "Manaus Commitment" pledging new actions for cooperation.

Bukhara Deer MOU/1st Meeting

Meeting for the first time, Parties to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Bukhara Deer, committed to an Action Plan outlining increased efforts to, inter alia, pursue economic incentives to encourage people to manage natural resources sustainably, such as through sharing income from controlled hunting and eco-tourism.
Report and associated documents

FAO: REDD+ and Sustainable Agriculture

A new policy brief titled "Building bridges between REDD+ and sustainable agriculture:Addressing agriculture's role as a driver of deforestation" recommends, inter alia: promoting inter-sectoral policies; including integrated landscape approaches in the activities covered under different carbon finance funds; promoting evergreen agriculture, which combines agroforestry with conservation farming; reflecting on tenure rights, governance and other potential socioeconomic impacts during cross-sectoral REDD+ planning processes; and improving methods for landscape level carbon accounting.

Guide to Better Urbanization

As guidance to leaders of the world's cities, UN/DESA and partners released “The Shanghai Manual: A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development in the 21st Century,” Management strategies include coordination of the formal and informal sectors, city-scale rainwater harvesting and zero-waste applications. Some of the technological innovations highlighted include distributed renewable energy, smart city applications including remote sensing and smart grids, as well as analytical tools such as carbon-footprinting, eco-mapping and city sustainability dashboards.

Publication: Shanghai Manual: A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development in the 21st Century

Toward IPBES/SOP-2

In a guest article for IISD-BPP, Neville Ash, Chief of the Biodiversity Unit, and Coordinator of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Branch at UNEP discusses the work being done to operationalize the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

OECD: Interactive Tool for Policy Coherence

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched the “International Platform on Policy Coherence for Development (PCD)”  aiming to act as a “one-stop-shop” with four primary types of resources for users.
Website

Green Growth in Slovakia

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a working paper titled “Reaping the Benefits of a Transition to Greener Growth in Slovakia” describing changes necessary to move towards a green economy by fostering eco-innovation.

Biodiversity and the Bottom Line

The Natural Value Initiative, a collaboration between Fauna & Flora International and the UNEP Finance Initiative recently launched a new report titled: Tread Lightly exploring the risk and opportunity management of the extractive sector in regards to biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Regulating Markets for Ecosystem Services

An international interdisciplinary conference on regulatory and institutional frameworks for markets for ecosystems services will be held at the School of Law, University of Surrey on 6-7 June 2012. The goal of the conference is to "enable outcome-oriented interaction between experts, innovators, and front-end users of these evolving market models to learn about recent progress, what strategies can be adopted to encourage cross-learning between different models for regulatory and institutional frameworks, and how to design new institutional and regulatory mechanisms that can help preserve ecosystem services."

Themes of the conference will include:

•Critiques of the latest concepts in developing markets for ecosystem services;

•Examination of international case studies on markets involving ecosystem assets and services;

•The consideration of questions regarding appropriate avenues of public participation in the design and operation of markets for ecosystems services;

•Identification of potential partners and investments associated with emerging markets for carbon, water management and biodiversity habitat;

•Considerations of the role of legitimacy, accountability and equity in institutional and regulatory design

•Proposals for new legislative or regulatory mechanisms that would place a price on ecosystems services and provide payments to preserve those services

•Identification of methodologies that highlight institutional and policy lock-ins that prevent markets in ecosystems services from working efficiently and equitably and suggestions for strategies for unpicking those lock-ins.

More information

Rio+20 Participation

The president of the 66th UN General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, emphasized the importance of small States' participation at UNCSD (Rio+20) in a statement to the Forum of Small States (FOSS).

Food Security and Climate Change

The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, an independent commission of scientists, has released a summary for policy makers, including a set of seven recommendations calling, inter alia, for significantly raising global investments in sustainable agriculture, intensifying agricultural production on existing land base while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and reducing losses and waste in the food system.

CMS: Importance of Ecological Networks

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) has published,  "Living Planet: Connected Planet - Preventing the End of the World's Wildlife Migrations through Ecological Networks" highlighing the importance of ecological connectivity and corridors, and the threats they face from human development, exploitation of natural resources and other factors. Therein, the authors suggest that the Mean Species Abundance, which measures both the diversity of species and their numbers, will decrease from 0.70 in 2000, to about 0.63 by 2050. According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), this is equivalent to losing all fauna and flora in an area of 9.1 million square kilometers, approximately the size of the US or China.

During its launch at COP-10, Elizabeth Mrema, CMS Executive Secretary, also stressed the importance of international cooperation to manage large transboundary networks. Some of the largest countries are not Parties to the CMS, which creates challenges for protecting migratory species worldwide.

UN and ASEAN: Joint Declaration

On occassion of the 4th ASEAN-UN Summit, the organizations concluded a Joint Declaration on a Comprehensive Partnership including sections on: food and energy security; climate change; disaster risk reduction; and economy and development.

New Water Initiative

The Bonn2011: Water Energy Food Nexus Conference, brought together high-level stakeholders from the water, energy and food sectors in an effort to improve understanding of the interdependencies among these sectors and to develop a joint "Nexus perspective" to common and interlinked challenges. Among a number of commitments, the “International Water Stewardship Initiative” is a collaboration between the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), WWF, and SAB Miller. It aims to encourage companies to take responsibility for tackling water problems, has €6 million in initial funding and is planned to run for six years.

IRENA: 2nd Council Meeting

Attended by 142 participants from 65 Member and Observer States, the Governing Council of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)  concluded its second meeting on 14 November. Among other items, the Council considered the draft Work Programme and Budget for 2012 and the draft Mid-term Strategy for 2012-2015, as well as the views and recommendations from the Governance and Legal Committee; Finance Committee; and Policy and Strategy Committee. Furthermore, the Council elected the UAE as Chair and Sweden as Vice-Chair for 2012. IRENA's Second Assembly will be held from 14-15 January in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

Press Release

UNEP: Final Findings on Green Economy

Expanding on previous green economy publications resulting from a three year research effort, this last report is titled "Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication."

Green Economy and Trade

The Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on the Green Economy: Trade and Sustainable Development Implications was convened by UNCTAD and UNEP from 8-10 November focussing on the themes:

1. Moving beyond the green economy discourse
2. Transition to a green economy
3. Technology and finance
4. Trade issues in the green economy
5. Formulating a message to Rio + 20

More information and background documents