Agriculture and forestry will part-take EU’s climate policies and emission reduction process, according to a proposal issued by the Directorate General for Climate Action.

The proposed new rules will  be submitted to the European Parliament and the European Council, together with an obligation for member states to adopt action plans for greener forestry, soil and agriculture.

A proposal for national emission reduction targets for these sectors is due to be issued later this year.

Forestry and agriculture are the last two major sectors without common European rules, nor specific climate policies.

Efforts to mitigate rural carbon dioxide emissions have only been partly recognized by the EU, due to a lack of common accounting rules and problems associated with robust carbon data collection from forests and soils.

“The proposal will also contribute to protect biodiversity and water resources, support rural development and have a more climate-friendly agriculture,” stated the EU climate commissioner, Connie Hedegaard.

On Poland’s Rebel Stance

”Poland’s no to the European Commission low-carbon Roadmap is unfortunate, but it will not stop Europe from moving on with its transition to a low-carbon economy,” added Hedegaard.

“The bad news was that Poland blocked Council conclusions for the second time. The good and encouraging news is that Poland was the only country to block. The Presidency and the other 26 member states explicitly asked the Commission to move on, and that is what we will do.

The day before the Council the Polish minister signed off an op-ed saying that EU should only have the 2050 reduction objective. How to achieve it should be up to members states themselves as a matter of “subsidiarity”.

Let’s imagine that we said the same about the economic crisis, that the EU defined the economic target for 2050 but how to reach it and whether anything happened in the next 38 years would be an exclusive matter for individual member states. Everyone can see that this wouldn’t work. This is also true when it comes to our climate policies,” she added.

The EU can’t work like this. The EU is a democratic community where negotiations are about give and take to get a good result for all. We can’t move forward if the most reluctant one dictates the pace to the rest.

The Commission’s job is to take care of the common European interest. As late as last week all EU Heads of States and Government urged us to move forward on the low-carbon transition. This is what we will do. There are already a number of proposals from the Commission paving the way, e.g. the energy efficiency directive that the European Council wants to be adopted already in June and the Commission’s budget proposal with an ambitious climate mainstreaming.

Now the Commission will work on further measures needed to reach the cost-efficient milestones that will lead us to a low-carbon future”.

Australia and Japan told delegates in Durban that they support a new legally binding deal, during an edgy meeting at the UN climate change talks yesterday evening. “The role of the forest is not for carbon stocks” said the head of the Bolivian delegation, as REDD+ talk’s progress at COP17.

The two countries, which have both rejected a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol after it expires next year, are willing to look at a new agreement encompassing “major economies”. Australia said a deal must set obligations for a broad set of parties.

They were joined in their calls by the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and the EU during talks, which one delegate inside the room described to RTCC as “calm but tense”.

Colombia and the Marshall Islands demanded that work on the text of a deal should begin immediately. China sought to limit the conversation to the mere possibility of a deal, rather than its actual substance.

Grenada, representing the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) said it preferred a second commitment period of Kyoto and accused some nations of having “a 2012 vision rather than a 2020 vision”. Venezuela went one step further saying that the failure to produce a second commitment period would represent “a wrongful act”.

There were also calls for a voluntary set of pledges, as suggested ahead of the Durban conference. These were dismissed by the representative of Bolivia as “untrustworthy”.

Bolivia: No to REDD+!

While REDD+ talks pick up speed at the negotiations in Durban, some delegations have suggested bringing forward issues that were intended for consideration at COP18, the Bolivian delegation spoke out in opposition of the scheme in its first press conference of the talks.

Rene Orellana, head of the Bolivian delegation said: “As people who live in the forest, we are not carbon stocks. We disagree with REDD because we oppose the commoditisation of the forest.”

“It’s a complex and dangerous situation to see forests as carbon stocks. The forest provides a role as food security, a water source and biodiversity for our indigenous population. REDD reduces the function of the forest to just one, carbon stocks.”

Currently the discussions around REDD+ are focussing on three main barriers to the implementation and scaling up of the scheme; how to monitor the carbon stored and saved in trees, how to safeguard populations in forest areas and questions remaining around the financial side – including how much finance will be available and where it will come from (i.e. market mechanisms, public finance etc).

Bolivia – a country which has 50% forest coverage – aims at putting forward a different proposal based on finding different sources of finance other than carbon credits, the recognition of multiple forest functions and methodologies for integrated forest management.

However, the Bolivian delegation said that no attention was being paid to the proposals they had put on the table.

Source: RTCC

The Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water (MEW) has allowed the construction of a new repository for disposal of radioactive waste. The proposal was made by the public company Radioactive Waste and accepted by the Ministry on September 21st, 2011. The terrain selected for the repository is near the nuclear power plant at Kozloduy and will stretch over 36 hectare and is to be completed by 2015.

The new site will be for the proper disposal of low- and intermediate- level radioactive waste. According to the World Nuclear Association, the former is generated from hospitals and industry, as well as from nuclear reactors. It constitutes 90% of all waste generated from atomic energy but contains only 1% of the total radioactivity. The latter is the result of dismantled internal structures of the reactor core and arise after prolonged operation. It is treated by the addition of cement or an organic solid and then situating it in containers for shielding and underground storage. According to specifications for the new disposal facility, all international standards will be met in its construction.

However, some environmental concerns remain on the agenda. For instance, 400 m from the site of the planned waste dump is an area called “Zlatiyata” which is protected under the eco-network Natura 2000. The official report by the MEW states that an ecological investigation shows that the radioactive burial site’s possible effects on the protected zone are “unlikely” to be negative. However, any problem that might occur in the disposal of waste would definitely harm the surrounding environment.

Furthermore, the planned site is currently covered by forest which will have to be cleared before construction can begin. Although the National Ecological Council has requested that the forest be re-planted in a different area, there is no guarantee that this will happen. In the worst-case scenario, Bulgaria is set to lose 36 hectares of forest to make way for an atomic waste dump.

In addition to this, the decision to allow the construction was prematurely taken under pressure from the European Union. The Minister for Environment and Water, Nona Karadjova, signed the agreement because of a commitment Bulgaria has made to the EU to construct such a repository before 2015, which is legally embedded in the national strategy for nuclear waste disposal. The commitment was made after the decommissioning of two reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

Overall, the construction of a radioactive waste disposal facility is a necessary evil for a country using atomic energy. The decision for its placement and the pressure to construct it as quickly as possible are concerns that have to be monitored by the authorities. If not, an environmental disaster of epic proportions could occur.

Even the skeptic champion, Bjorn Lomborg, told me more than two years ago that we are “the first ever generation to to burn its own food”. This declaration was taken in the very context of the food crisis in 2008, a year in which a third of the world population was on the brink of famine. Also noteworthy is that meanwhile the financial crisis had already raged in the United States.

While the Danish skeptic was not preoccupied with emissions, tens of studies are bringing forth proofs that biofuels are pressurizing ecosystems. The indirect land use change is one of the most intricate emission generators currently on the UN table.

In Cancun, on the  land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) front, less progress has been made. Developed and developing countries remain divided over the so-called “logging loophole”, which has blocked negotiations for years and lets developing countries choose which activities they will and will not include in accounting for emissions.

Under the current proposals developed countries would be able to hide up to 5% of their 1990 emissions, a loophole as big as the aggregate Kyoto Protocol reduction target, announced Climate Action Network. Due to a few forestry-heavy Member States, the EU, at its turn, is internally split on this issue and therefore cannot push for environmentally sound accounting rules. There is great concern that in order to be able to finalize the negotiations on the Kyoto negotiating track, developing countries will allow rich countries to cheat their way out of accounting for real emissions.

Wikileaks

Kenneth Richter posted a summary of secret cables on Friends of the Earth blog. Wikileaks reveal some yet more evidence about US attempts to push GM crops onto Africa. The cables also contain notes from an international meeting called by Gordon Brown on biofuels and the food crises in 2008.

In a meeting Joachim Von Braun, Director General of the Inter Food Policy Institute Research (IFPRI) suggested a moratorium on maize for biofuels. Their modeling showed it would immediately slash maize prices by 20 per cent and wheat prices by 10 per cent, with further reductions because it would discourage speculation.

But this idea was dismissed by other participants. Cargill’s Ruth Rawling predicted that wheat prices would come down quite quickly without the moratorium. The Overseas Development Institute estimated that prices would fall back from their 2008 peak to roughly what they had been in the early 1990s.

Wheat has now risen in price by nearly two-thirds in the past six months. Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever’s chief supply chain officer acknowledges: “The world is losing arable land at a rate of about 40,000 square miles a year. That is land being used for biofuel production, while climate change is eroding away topsoil.”

FAO now predicts another major global food crisis for 2011. It is outrageous that the main effects of what was considered the panacea of emissions and energy consumption, biofuels, are currently sky high emission levels, destroyed ecosystems, and hunger.

A new report funded by the European Commission makes a strong case for integrating biodiversity into private sector business plans and core activities around the globe. The report reveals considerable recent growth in eco-certified products and services, growing consumer concerns for sustainable production, and shows how biodiversity can provide a substantial business opportunity in a market that could be worth US$ 2-6 trillion by 2050. It makes seven key recommendations for businesses, and calls on accounting professions and financial reporting bodies to develop common standards to assess biodiversity impacts, and develop new tools for this purpose. “TEEB for Business” will form part of the TEEB synthesis report to be launched at a meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010.

European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potočnik said: “Despite some local successes, and in spite of a growing awareness of the problem, the global rate of biodiversity loss does not appear to be slowing. But this report shows that businesses can help, and I am heartened to see these tangible examples of companies that are flourishing without damaging the only planet we have.”

TEEB Study Leader Pavan Sukhdev said: “Through the work of TEEB and others, the economic importance of biodiversity and ecosystems is emerging from the invisible into the visible spectrum. It is clear that some companies in some sectors and on some continents are hearing and acting on that message in order to build more sustainable, 21st century businesses.”

Key proposals for businesses

TEEB for business recommends a series of actions to help companies minimise their biodiversity risks and seize the business opportunities ecosystems services create:

• Identify the impacts and dependencies of your business on biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES)
• Assess the business risks and opportunities associated with these impacts and dependencies
• Develop BES information systems, set SMART targets, measure and value performance, and report your results
• Take action to avoid, minimize and mitigate BES risks, including in-kind compensation (‘offsets’) where appropriate
• Grasp emerging BES business opportunities, such as cost-efficiencies, new products and new markets
• Integrate business strategy and actions on BES with wider corporate social responsibility initiatives
• Engage with business peers and stakeholders in government, NGOs and civil society to improve BES guidance and policy.

Biodiversity is good for business

The report finds that while a majority of companies still treat biodiversity superficially in their reports, growing numbers are aware of the potential benefits. Biodiversity and ecosystem services offer opportunities for all business sectors, and their integration can bring significant added value by ensuring the sustainability of supply chains, generating new products, creating and penetrating new markets and attracting new customers.

Policies to manage biodiversity and ecosystem risks can also help to identify new business opportunities, such as reducing input costs through improved resource efficiency, developing and marketing low impact technologies, managing and designing projects to reduce ecological footprints, and providing professional services in risk assessment and management/adaptation.

Estimates developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers for “sustainability-related global business opportunities in natural resources (including energy, forestry, food and agriculture, water and metals)” suggest a potential market in the range of US$ 2-6 trillion by 2050 (at constant 2008 prices). About half of this is “additional investments in the energy sector related to reducing carbon emissions”. Markets for biodiversity and ecosystem services are growing, as shown by data compiled by Forest Trends and the Ecosystem Marketplace:

• The certified agricultural products market was valued at over US$ 40 billion in 2008 and is expected to reach up to US$ 210 billion by 2020, and may reach US$ 900 billion by 2050.
• Payments for Ecosystem Services for water-related ecosystem services and watershed management account for only US$5 billion in 2008, but are expected to total more than 30 billion by 2050.

Background

The planet’s natural and nature-based assets – from individual species to ecosystems such as forests, coral reefs, freshwaters and soils – are declining at an alarming rate. Biodiversity loss costs billions to the global economy every year, undermining economies; business prospects and opportunities to combat poverty.

TEEB – The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity – is a project funded by the European Commission and governments including Germany, Norway and the UK, dedicated to building the economic case to assist economies make transformational policy choices and changes in order to address this crisis and bring greater intelligence to the way nature-based assets are managed. TEEB will publish a final synthesis report in advance of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s meeting in Nagoya, Japan later in the year.

Further information:

The TEEB for Business report is available at

http://www.teebweb.org/

The EU Business and Biodiversity Platform:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/biodiversity/business/index_en.html

by Raul Cazan.

Building on the legacy of Chico Mendes‘ socio-environmentalism, in the last twenty years his followers in the state of Acre have developed and implemented the most successful sustainable development strategy in the Amazon basin.

The pioneering work of the father and martyr of Brazil’s environmental movement has flourished in a series of innovative approaches guided by the concept of florestania, or forestinzenship, which brings together the expansion of citizenship rights with demands for better quality of life for the peoples of the Rainforest.

Development in the Amazonian region does not merely lie in laws and consultancy programs; “it presupposes a social pact, a permanent dialogue, that comprises all layers of the society in the region,” said Binho Marques, governor of the Brazilian state of Acre.

This type of developmental pattern is named Ecological Economic Zoning – EEZ. It is defined by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) as a form of land use planning that takes into account all elements of the physic and biotic environment on the one hand and the socio-economic

environment on the other. It then matches both of them through multiple goal analysis, thereby providing a neutral tool for the various land users to arrive at a consensus on the optimal use or non-use of the land

The Acre developmental system is based on a strong social capital, assessment of environmental vulnerability, and an excellent educational system. “The main base of sustainability is education”, stresses Marques. The government of Acre has practically created a “digital jungle” of libraries, modern computers, and access to information and knowledge.

“Ecosystem services” is the economic concept that revolves around the development of Acre. “We are manufacturers for the forest,” stresses the governor, “an industrial park that takes good economic advantage of the forest’s resources functions as a mix of public and private investments.” The condom factories use natural rubber and enjoy successful exports, while a poultry processing plant involves a vast number of local households. Agro-forestry is at the center of both agricultural and environmental development of the small Brazilian state, giving as outcomes reforestation of the world’s most important carbon sink and sustainable exploitation of rubber and fruits.

As governments and environmental, scientific and business organizations prepare to launch the negotiations of a new global protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in December, in Copenhagen, the governor of the state of Acre militates for a global deal to be sealed in the Danish capital. “We need our sustainable practices related to forest conservation to be internationally assessed and recognized in order to lead to a certification of our products and services.”

Following Chico Mendes’ heritage, Foster Brown, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center, expert on the Acre experience, spoke on the capacity building given to the indigenous people in the Amazon under the REDD mechanism. Their observances of the regional changes are extremely accurate and noteworthy for any scientist, even though they are not published in Science Magazine.

A UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s program, REDD – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation mechanism – addresses incentives for conservation in tropical forests, so it does not maximize the carbon sequestration potential of natural systems worldwide – nor their social and biodiversity benefits. The mechanism is an important part of the solution, and leaving conservation out of REDD would be a monumental missed opportunity. It now looks as if REDD+ is in place for the climate talks in Copenhagen this December. This is an important step in the right direction for people, for biodiversity, and for climate.

Chico Mendes (1944 – 1988) was a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist in the state of Acre. He fought to stop the burning and logging of the Amazon Rainforest to clear land for cattle ranching, and founded a national union of rubber tappers in an attempt to preserve their profession and the rainforest that it relied upon. He was murdered in 1988 by ranchers who opposed his activism.