This week, the European Commission published the Staff Working Paper Analysis of options to move beyond 20% greenhouse gas emission reductions: Member State results. The paper provides concrete data showing that an increased push to a 30% emission reduction target by 2020 will deliver financial, health and environmental benefits for member states. It complements the Communication adopted in May 2010 which outlined the costs and benefits at EU level of a higher emission reduction commitment by 2020.

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This week began with some fantastic news as we read in the Guardian about the sharp rise in the sale of sustainable seafood products in the UK throughout 2011. This shows that people really do care about where their food is coming from and what effect that has.

Consumers have the power to help avoid an ecological disaster by choosing to buy sustainably caught or sustainably farmed fish. This seems relatively simple, but it’s not always clear which fish really have been sustainably caught, or responsibly farmed, or otherwise. Harmonised labelling for these kinds of terms, which are often used but are not regulated, is crucial to help consumers take action.

image: Flickr/CIFOR

Forests are key to ensuring that the climate remains stable enough so that life on Earth can continue as we know it. The ability of a forest to hold (or sequester) carbon is one of the key functions it provides globally. This function is undermined by increasing temperatures in tropical forests as well as by forest degradation and deforestation. The Amazon forest has already started to emit increasing amounts of carbon dioxide as the region becomes drier, thus contributing further to climate change. A resilient forest has a greater adaptability to changes in climatic conditions, e.g precipitation, temperature etc.

image: NS Newsflash

This blog originally appeared on Huffington Post on 25 December 2011

Why aren't we seeing more coverage of climate change in the media? The issue is hardly going away. And now that world governments after Durban are not planning to take action 'til 2020, we need more coverage, not less.

Yet environmentalists reported a drop off in climate change reporting in 2009 and 2010, and we may well see this again when we look back at 2011.

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In the Republic of Congo, the civil society platform for the sustainable management of forests has just held a three day workshop, (from 19-21 January 2012). It was facilitated by Client Earth (Nathalie Faure), Well-Grounded (Cath Long), FERN (Indra van Gisbergen) and international forest legislation expert Robinson Djeukam, financed by the European Forest Institute and co-organised by FERN and the Observatoire Congolais des Droits de l’Homme (OCDH).

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Yesterday saw the end of the consultation on the new levels of support for different renewable electricity technologies proposed by the UK Government under the Renewables Obligation scheme. According to the proposal, more than £850m per year will be handed out to new large-scale biomass plants as well as to coal plants that convert to biomass or to co-fire it with coal, with the aim of achieving 30 to 40% of large-scale electricity generation from biomass in 2020.

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Access to information is a human right. It is also a great lever for the implementation of other rights and underlies any other activities civil society aspire to conduct. Without access to information there is nothing the NGO community may achieve. That is why the current review of  the laws on access to documents held by EU institutions is so important.

A few weeks from now, the European Parliament’s Committee for Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) will vote on the Commission's proposal for an Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). The proposal is based on a review of two overlapping pieces of legislation: the Cogeneration Directive (2004/8) and the Energy Services Directive (2006/32).

ClientEarth met with two Fang communities in the north of Gabon to study the land tenure regime in the Woleu-Ntem province’s rural areas. What is striking is that so few people have so far secured legal ownership over their lands. Why?

ClientEarth is engaged in working with forest communities and civil society in Africa to offer legal and strategic support to secure communities’ rights and promote fair and sustainable management of forests and land. We are working closely with local partners in Gabon, Ghana and the Republic of Congo.

Yesterday (7 December) the Committee on Climate Change, an independent advisory body to the UK Government, published a report stating that burning biomass could result in emissions “significantly higher than alternative forms of low-carbon power generation, and only slightly lower than those from gas-fired power generation”. The report comes at a time when the UK Government is consulting on its proposals to review public support levels for renewable electricity technologies under the Renewables Obligation scheme.

This post appeared on the Collaborative for Health and the Environment Blog in 17 November 2011.

The smallest car in the world is one billionth of a metre. 60,000 times smaller than the thickness of a hair. And is self-propelled. Instead of carrying people or freight, it could transport molecules and atoms and be used to reconstruct damaged cells.

Nanoparticles can perform tasks that were previously never thought possible.

Yesterday’s article in the Guardian revealed fresh grounds for concern that the government may fail to deliver a real bank with powers to borrow from the capital markets. The State Aid application sighted by the Guardian is indeed a good indication of critical design features of the Bank and once lodged with the European Commission, certain features will not be easy to revise. In particular, the article mentioned further uncertainty that the Green Investment Bank (GIB) will ever be allowed to borrow any time soon – with roll back on the dates previously announced in the official May update for the design of the GIB. 

Last year in Cancun, the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreed on a set of 7 social and environmental safeguards to ensure that REDD+ activities do not adversely affect human rights and biodiversity and promote multiple benefits. In addition, a mandate was given to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) to provide guidance for the establishment of a Safeguards Information System (SIS), which would serve as means to ensure that the implementation of the REDD+ safeguards is monitored and reported on.

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COP17 is undoubtedly a ‘big deal’, with major publications covering up to date news coverage, the factual breakdown of the talks in Durban is easily accessible.

ClientEarth's senior lawyer on marine issues Sandy Luk has written an op-ed for the website www.cfp-reformwatch.eu. In the piece Sandy explains that although Commissioner Maria Damanaki has said she wants an ambitious CFP reform that ends overfishing, as a legal document, the CFP reform proposal does not define clearly enough the terms and provisions to realise its goal.

Read the piece HERE

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Daniela Rey, Climate and Forests Lawyer for ClientEarth, shares her views on what are the sticking points on the current REDD+ safeguards negotiations at Durban. Below are her recommendations for ensuring that the design of the Safeguards Information System (SIS) is transparent, participatory and accurate.

Last year in Cancun, the Parties to the UNFCCC agreed on a set of 7 safeguards to ensure that REDD+ activities do not adversely affect human rights and biodiversity and promote multiple benefits. In addition, a mandate was given to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) to provide guidance for the establishment of a Safeguards Information System (SIS), which would serve as means to ensure that the implementation of the REDD+ safeguards is monitored and reported on.  Leading up to Durban and as we write this blog, Parties have been sharing their views with regards to the design of the REDD+ Safeguard Information System.

As the negotiations progress in Durban, there are several major issues being negotiated. These include:

Two very different  fishy stories in the news this week. Firstly, from the USA, further evidence that mis-labelling of fish is still rife, with 48% of fish DNA tested as part of an investigation by the Boston Globe labelled as a different species. Secondly, Fish2Fork (the UK campaigning fish restaurant guide which marks restaurants based on where their fish comes from and their approach to sustainable sourcing) have published the results of their first major review since launching in 2009, with over 45% of restaurants improving their rating in this time; a hugely encouraging sign of change in the food service sector.

As State Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (KP) prepare to meet at the Conference of the Parties in Durban, South Africa, from November 28 to December 9, we expect they will be moving forward towards a decision on REDD+ that offers the opportunity to ensure the effective implementation of the REDD+ safeguards. Daniela Rey and Josh Roberts from our Climate and forests team discuss.

This week, ClientEarth’s Sandy Luk and Susie Wilks gave a presentation to European politicians in Brussels on whether the European Commission’s reform proposal for the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) will achieve sustainable fisheries. The event, hosted by Chris Davies MEP and Struan Stevenson MEP, who are both working actively on the CFP reform proposal, was well attended by a cross-party audience of UK MEPs and MEPs’ assistants.

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Last night saw the Parliamentary launch of ClientEarth’s legislative proposals for the legislation establishing the Green Investment Bank. It was the culmination of nearly a year’s work by ClientEarth in collaboration Transform UK. We joined the fight for a strong and effective Green Investment Bank because we immediately recognised the huge potential for the GIB to be game changing.

Worrying signals from Europe on maintaining sustainable fish stocks: in recent days the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs released this statement. It supports the Commission’s decision to abandon plans to limit fishing in areas where there is currently inadequate data about fish stocks. The plans would have seen an automatic cut in total allowable catches (or TACs) in such areas.  TACs are the the limits on the amount of fish that can be taken from any particular fish stock, and the cancelled plans would have applied across the board - offering vital protection for stocks about which too little is known to confidently fish sustainably.

photo: ALBOWIEB

Good access-to-information news! This year we helped NGO TransparentSea in an access to documents case regarding EU Fisheries Partnership Agreements (FPAs) with third party states. We requested access to all the reports held that provide evaluations and audits of EU fisheries agreements with non-EU countries.  TransparentSea had originally been refused access on the grounds that the documents are confidential to protect commercial interests of the European fishing fleet and preserve the international relations of the EU.