The purpose of the RAMSAR convention is to protect wetland habitats such as coral reefs, marshes, swamps, underground cave systems, peat bogs and mangroves (plus many more). To date, 170 countries have ratified The RAMSAR Convention and an estimated 250 million hectares of wetlands are protected under it.
In Part 1, we explored the context and content of Silent Spring, investigating the relevance of the post-war period in the history of environmentalism. We also considered the threat agricultural DDT poses to ecosystems as well as Carson’s gentle scholarship. Today, we discuss the fallout from the chemical industry, see how it mirrors the persisting climate denial of today, as well as Carson’s enduring legacy in the field of environmentalism.
Non-state actors may not be Parties to the UNFCCC but they still play an important role in international climate politics. The Lima-Paris Action Agenda was an important milestone to strengthen Party - non-state actors collaboration. The Marrakech Partnership institutionalises cooperation.
What is MockCOP 26? Read on to find out! ClimaTalk speaks with Mock COP26 activist Kelo Uchendu about his involvement. Mock COP hopes to not only host their ministerial summit, but showcase ‘My Climate Reality’, a virtual reality project in which youth on the front lines of the climate crisis can share their stories with UN leaders during the November conference.
If the ownership of negative externalities is assigned, parties can negotiate to reach the best deal. Negotiation is often more efficient than relying on the justice system due to costs and time constraints. Coase Theorem is hardly applied in reality, as one party will often be stronger than the other.
In the past few years, there has been a strong increase in ESG reporting requirements around the world. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. They are a set of standards for a company's operations that have become a popular way to indicate a firm’s sustainability performance. There are various issues reported by companies under each of the three pillars, comprising a variety of metrics. The environmental criterion considers how companies manage their environmental impact and use resources. Some of the factors include greenhouse gas emissions, water use, land-use, biodiversity, pollution management, and climate change adaptation. Social criteria focus on how the company fosters its people and engages with the wider society. Examples of social criteria include workforce diversity and inclusion, community engagement, customer satisfaction, and human rights. Governance considers the company’s internal system of practices and policies. Factors include business ethics and code of conduct, risk governance, supply chain management, and tax strategy.
‘Carbon trading’, ‘emissions trading’ or ‘carbon markets’ refer to an approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which turns the right to emit greenhouse gases into a commodity with economic value. This approach is called a ‘cap and trade system’, in which a ‘cap’ or upper limit on greenhouse gas emissions is chosen, and then an accordant number of permits is distributed among emitters (any companies in the industries targeted by a system). Emitters can only emit the amount of CO2eq (CO2 or equivalent) specified by the number of permits they have, else they receive a financial penalty. The cap is designed to limit emissions, whilst the ‘trade’ part of the mechanism is implemented for economic reasons.
The Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition was inspired by Greta Thunberg’s school strike for climate, but takes a different approach to climate advocacy The coalition focusses on bringing climate education into Taiwanese classrooms, rather than promoting strikes outside of school In this article, Yan-Ning Kuo, a member of the coalition, discusses their aims and some of the challenges they face
Published in 1962, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is credited as being one of the first books that took the chemical industry head-on, critiquing the environmental orthodoxy of its time[1]. Its poetic use of language sought to properly engage the general public in environmentalism for the first time. For this, Silent Spring received raucous applause from environmentalists and has since never been out of print [2]. But what made its content so compelling? And, as we reflect on the six decades that have passed since its publication, what impact has Silent Spring had on how we think about conservation today? Over the next 2 articles, we will begin to answer these questions. However, to properly understand Silent Spring, we first need to understand the period in which it emerged.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) publishes two annual flagship reports assessing the global advance in two of the main topics of the Paris Agreement: Mitigation and Adaptation. Both reports are coordinated by UNEP DTU Partnership with its office in Denmark, a partnership between the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Read on for an overview of the Adaptation and the Emissions Gap Reports.