Published: 12 Oct 2007
- The EEA is thrilled with the decision
of the Norwegian Nobel Committee on awarding
the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the
United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change. 'This is great news for
us all, climate change has topped the world
news for some years now, through the IPCC's
regular reports and others that alongside
with Al Gore have lead a tireless climate
change awareness campaign. The rapid melting
of the Artic is putting great pressure on
how to proceed with a more ambitious plan
after Kyoto and I look forward to seeing
how countries like the United States, China
and India will commit to addressing this
problem!', says Professor Jacqueline McGlade,
Executive Director of the EEA.
The Nobel Committee has, in recent years,
broaden its views and interpretation on
peacemaking and also recognising environment
alongside with human rights, democracy,
elimination of poverty and sharing of resources.
This was shown already in 2004 when the
Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Wangari
Maatai for her contribution to sustainable
development, democracy and peace and the
set up of the Green belt movement. When
announcing the award, the Norwegian Nobel
Committee praised the recipients' efforts
to 'lay the foundations for the measures
that are needed to counteract (climate)
change'.
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New toolkit for biodiversity conservation
— SEBI 2010 set of indicators launched
Published: 12 Oct 2007 - To help policy-makers
halt the loss of biodiversity in Europe,
the European Environment Agency today launched
a report proposing 26 biodiversity indicators
— the so-called SEBI 2010 set — to measure
progress towards policy targets. The work
with biodiversity indicators was given further
recognition in the Biodiversity Declaration
adopted on Thursday at the UNECE ministerial
conference in Belgrade.
More on biodiversity Back to the future
at Green Week 2007 Europe's nature changing
rapidly due to climate change Proposed new
classifying tools capture condition of Europe’s
forests The pan-European initiative, SEBI
2010 (Streamlining European 2010 Biodiversity
Indicators), was launched in 2004 to develop
a European set of biodiversity indicators
for assessing and informing about progress
in halting biodiversity loss. The Agency
has worked on developing this set since
2005, in collaboration with countries, international
organisations, non-governmental organisations,
the European Commission and the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP). What is now
ready is a detailed description of each
of the indicators, complete with methodological
data, i.e. how to calculate and use them.
Some of the indicators such as the abundance
and distribution of selected species directly
track the impact on a part of Europe's biodiversity.
Others reflect threats to biodiversity such
as the presence of invasive alien species.
Some, like the status of commercial fish
stocks look at sustainable use of biodiversity
resources and some, like fragmentation of
natural and semi-natural areas, address
the issue of ecosystem integrity. Taken
as a whole, the set can help policy-makers
assess the impact that various economic
sectors and sectoral policies have on Europe’s
biodiversity.
One challenge when developing the set of
indicators has been to find indicators with
good geographical coverage, that is to say
indicators which can be calculated for many
pan-European countries. Other challenges
have been to boil the set down to a manageable
number of indicators, and to choose the
ones that are most helpful to reach policy
objectives.
As the availability of data from public
bodies varies, use has been made of data
from non-governmental environmental organisations
(NGOs). Monitoring, conservation and assessment
of biodiversity depend to a much greater
degree on NGO activities than what other
environmental issues do. Funding for biodiversity
monitoring also lags behind national investments
in other environmental issues, like air
and water quality, and air emissions. The
Agency hopes that the existence of the set
of biodiversity indicators and the recognition
in the Biodiversity Declaration will motivate
countries to improve their data collection.
Policy backgroundFifteen years after the
adoption of the UN's Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) in 1992, the recognition
of biodiversity loss has gained in political
profile both at global, national and regional
levels. This has resulted in commitments
for action by heads of states, initiated
in 2001 in the European Union. While at
global level, the target is 'to achieve
a significant reduction of the current rate
of biodiversity loss', the one set at EU
and pan-European level is even more ambitious,
namely to 'halt the loss of biodiversity'
by 2010.
The SEBI 2010 activities are relevant in
several policy contexts:
European Union: by implementing the biodiversity
indicators, the EU follows up on the message
from a major stakeholder conference in 2004
on what was needed to reach the 2010 objectives.
This message was later endorsed by the EU
Environment Council. The biodiversity indicators
also support the Lisbon Agenda, the sustainable
development strategy, the habitats and birds
directives and the biodiversity strategy;
Pan-European: as a follow-up to the 2003
Kiev Resolution on Biodiversity, SEBI 2010
supports the UNECE Environment for Europe
process and the PEBLDS;
Global: the EU biodiversity headline indicators
are based on the CBD indicators, customized
to the European needs. Therefore SEBI 2010
also responds to CBD Decision VII/30 on
the future evaluation of progress with the
convention;
National: many countries have also developed
indicators to monitor their biodiversity.
SEBI 2010 proposes indicators that may be
adopted at the national level if this has
not yet been done, though there is no obligation
for countries to do so.
Sustainable consumption and production
— key challenge for post-Soviet, post-Yugoslav
countries — legacies of the past offer opportunities
for a sustainable future
Published: 11 Oct 2007 - Breaking the link
between economic growth and its environmental
impacts is one of the key challenges facing
economies in South
'Sustainable consumption and production
in South East Europe and Eastern Europe,
Caucasus and Central Asia’, released today
in Belgrade, Serbia was jointly prepared
by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) and the European Environment Agency
(EEA). The report was launched at the Sixth
Ministerial Conference 'Environment for
Europe' taking place in Belgrade.
'The economic restructuring in these regions
offers a unique opportunity to 'leapfrog'
towards more sustainable production patterns
and also to guide consumption patterns towards
sustainability before consumption reaches
the levels observed in Western Europe' said
Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Executive
Director of the EEA.
The report provides detailed analysis in
selected economic sectors: industry, food,
building, transport and waste. The analysis
is illustrated with examples of implementation
of sustainable consumption and production
(SCP) initiatives at the local level, through
18 city studies commissioned specifically
for this report.
Many SEE and EECCA countries face similar
problems and there is huge potential to
share knowledge and experiences and work
towards a common path to sustainability.
Cities have acted as potential catalysts
for change as shown by a large number of
local sustainability initiatives. These
need support from national policy, if they
are to spread throughout the region.
Elements left-over from the past have the
potential to support more sustainable production
and consumption patterns in some of the
countries studied. These include:
• widespread existence of district heating
systems, railway infrastructure, and operational
reuse and recycling systems;
• tradition of using public transport, low
car ownership and extensive collective transport
networks;
• various business opportunities exist for
more sustainable practices, such as organic
farming or improvement of energy efficiency
of buildings.
However, rapid economic growth since the
beginning of the decade presents potential
environmental challenges as consumption
and production increase, the report says.
'Policy effort should not only focus on
the technical 'fix'. Experience from western
countries shows that technological improvements
and efficiency gains are not sufficient
on their own. They must be supported by
measures, both economic and information
based, aimed at influencing consumer behaviour.
Without this, technological and efficiency
gains risk being undermined by the ‘rebound
effect’ where increased consumption resulting
from reduced prices cancels out technological
gains,' Professor McGlade said.
