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IES News
'Illegal Trade in Natural Resources. What can Brussels do?'
A two-day event in Brussels to debate on this issue and on the role played by the European Union
On 29-30 September 2010 the issue of illegal trade in natural resources will be discussed by IES and its partners during a two-day event in Brussels.
The event, organised in the framework of IES Pathfinder project and in collaboration with BICC, GLOBE EU and Europe, International Alert, IISD, Madariaga – College of Europe Foundation, SIPRI, Transparency International and Worldwatch Institute, will be kick-started by an opening dinner on the evening of 29 and will be followed by the conference on Thursday 30 September.
Hosted at the European Economic and Social Committee, the conference will be developed around four main sessions with the aim to provide a global overview on the issue at stake through various perspectives, and to define what the EU can do to contribute to this struggle.
Starting with an assessment of the problems created by illegal trade in commodities and its implications for the environment, development, peace & security and international trade, the debate will then focus on the politics and economics that allow such commodities to be sold as legally-owned assets to importing countries. The afternoon sessions will feature an analysis of the governmental & legal actions and the Public & Corporate Initiatives undertaken to curb the import of illegally extracted commodities, with an attempt to identify the gaps. Finally, a panel of speakers will explore what the European Union could do to contribute to the fight against illegal trade in natural resources involving EU Member States and whether a general legal mechanism can be set up to efficiently address this issue.
The conference will represent an important opportunity for policy makers, researchers, representatives of NGOs, IGOs and the private sector to participate and exchange ideas on how to improve the fight against the import of illegally extracted natural resources in the European Union. For queries and additional information please contact the Pathfinder Secretariat.
Security and the Environment
New publication by IES Fellow Rita Floyd reflects on US environmental security policy
21 July 2010
IES Fellow Rita Floyd publishes a new book on environmental security with Cambridge University Press. Security and the Environment: Securitisation Theory and US Environmental Security Policy traces United States’ environmental security policy over time from its early beginnings in 1993 when the first Clinton administration declared environmental security a national security issue, to the end of the Bush administrations in 2009, when environmental security had vanished from the US government’s agenda.
Floyd uses this changing US environmental security policy to revise the Copenhagen school’s influential ‘securitisation theory’, so that this theory allows the analyst to gain insights into the intentions of securitising actors. This revision reveals surprising findings regarding the intentions of key actors behind the Clinton day US environmental security policy; findings that are relevant especially also in the context of today’s push for ‘climate security’.
Floyd’s concludes her analysis with a moral evaluation of different types of environmental security (national, human and ecological) offering a useful guide to theorists and practitioners alike.
Drawing on original interviews with former key players in United States environmental security, "Security and the Environment" is a significant and original contribution to environmental security studies and security studies more generally. The book will be of interest to international relations scholars and political practitioners concerned with security, as well as students of international environmental politics and US policy-making.
Water and Human Security in Central-South Asia
IES fellow Michael Renner speaks about the issue of access to water in south Asia
20 July 2010
The quantity and quality of available water play a crucial role in the politics of central-south Asia, and more specifically the Indus and Amu Darya water basins. Access to clean drinking water is a major, though largely unmet, objective and poor management lies at the heart of many problems.
Many areas in the region are already experiencing physical water shortages – recent studies estimate per capita water availability in the densely-populated Indus basin at around 1,000 cubic metres per year – and climate change will only exacerbate this.
The region’s water challenges do not inevitably lead to armed conflict. Unalleviated, however, they threaten to undermine human security and bring different communities into dispute. Cooperative approaches have been sparse and institutional structures in the region remain fragmented. Yet cooperation will be critical for the region to meet its water challenges in the years and decades ahead.
In Afghanistan, three decades of armed conflict have displaced a large portion of the population, impeded access to farmland, and destroyed irrigation systems. The livelihoods of at least 80% of the population are agriculture-related, but poorly constructed canals translate into water losses as high as 70%.
Recurring drought and floods have led to the loss of rural livelihoods and food insecurity. These desperate conditions have triggered local conflicts and migration to cities. Water contamination has become a severe public health threat, owing to poor waste management practices and a pervasive lack of modern sanitation.
The nations sharing the Amu Darya are locked into seemingly irreconcilable sets of interests. Tajikistan and Afghanistan look to the river for hydropower as well as irrigation while Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan depend heavily on the river to irrigate their cotton, rice, and wheat fields.
Upstream, Tajikistan releases reservoir water in the winter months to generate hydropower for heating, frequently causing downstream flooding and damage to infrastructure. In the summer months, it builds up its reservoirs — at precisely the time when the irrigation needs of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are most acute. All these countries plan to increase water extraction, which may exacerbate tensions.
In Pakistan and India, extensive irrigation is also placing Indus basin water resources under heavy stress, with about 90% of the available flow utilised. Overpumping and inefficient irrigation has caused sharply declining groundwater levels and salinisation of agricultural lands. Pakistan’s per capita water availability is forecast to fall to a critically low level of just 800 cubic metres annually by 2020. Although millions of Pakistanis do not have access to safe drinking water, the government spends 47 times as much on the military budget as on water and sanitation.
Rising water demand in the region is causing trans-border issues as well as internal conflicts. Although the 1960 Indus Water Treaty offers an important dispute arbitration mechanism, India and Pakistan need to increase their collaboration on watershed stewardship.
Climate change will dramatically raise the challenges in central and south Asia—including reduced rainfall and runoff, increased heat stress, drought and desertification. Glacier melt will have serious consequences for the drinking water supplies of hundreds of millions of people, as well as for hydropower generation. Significant changes to monsoon patterns are also expected.
The governance systems for much of the region’s water are challenged by conflicting interests, mutual suspicions and a reluctance to cooperate, as well as the lack of an overarching institutional structure. One of the most pressing needs is greater efficiency in water use. Better watershed management, rainwater harvesting, urban water conservation, investments in sanitation, and more integrated planning are vitally important.
Michael Renner is a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C. and senior advisor to the Institute for Environmental Security in Brussels.
Experts Debate on Illegal E-Waste Trade Around the Globe
IES takes part in debate on e-waste exports and dumping
7 June 2010
On 25-27 May, IES Fellow Chad Briggs, participated in a meeting hosted by INTERPOL, the US EPA and Swedish government in Alexandria, Virginia on the topic of e-waste exports and dumping. Over 100 experts from police, environment, customs and trade agencies, including several NGOs, met at the largest-yet gathering to address the environmental and health problems of dumped electronic waste. E-waste is often generated when electronic goods are discarded rather than recycled, often ending in unregulated dumps in West Africa or Asia. Nearly 50 million tons of personal computers alone are disposed of each year, the E-Waste Crime Group estimates, a number which will grow significantly in the future.
E-waste contains numerous heavy metals, with a standard CRT-monitor containing up to several kilograms of lead. The assembled group was interested in how to prevent exports of such waste from North America and Europe, and force proper recycling of the materials. US EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson flew back to Washington from the Gulf Coast oil spill to address the meeting, calling on countries to enforce stricter toxic waste regulations, many of which are covered under the Basel Convention (which the US has not ratified).
IES was represented by Fellow Chad Briggs, who spoke on the first day about joint monitoring programmes of IES, University College London, and The Hague Environmental Law Facility. Dr. Briggs explained the possible use of satellite monitoring and GPS tracking to assist police agencies in identifying potential waste sites, and tracking movement of e-waste. With most shipping containers passing without inspection, the use of better data to identify and track potential e-waste shipments frees resources and allows targeted inspections of exports. Briggs also emphasized the importance of integrating non-security experts in information networks, drawing upon his previous experience as a senior advisor for the US Department of Energy. "We can't just rely upon established methods of information gathering," Briggs explained, "as environmental issues are too complex to understand without support from the wider community."
IES will soon release a final report and the related proposal for the Hague Environmental Law Facility for the compliance and enforcement of international environmental law. At various previous conferences the application of earth observation technologies for better enforcement was stated and IES conducted a workshop with attendance from the legal and technical community on satellite monitoring for the enforcement of environmental law in The Hague in April 2010. The next step is a case study which practically shows the importance on using the tools of GPS and satellite imagery in investigations and legal proceedings.
Download presentation | INTERPOL Press Release
Climate Change and Social Order - Evolution or Revolution
Students and personalities define specific action lines addressing sustainable solutions for global challenge
7 June 2010
On 17 May some outstanding personalities and forty selected students from all over Europe gathered at the St Gallen University for an internationally unique event to exchange their experience and ideas on the shift in social order in response to climate change.
IES research assistant Jonathan Solomon joined the event and actively dealt with the latest research from social, economical and political perspective. They were introduced by Prof. Dirk Lehmkuhl and Dr. Andreas Koestler who presented his work for the UN Disaster Assessment Coordination at the forefront of climate change impacts. Among the theoretical inputs Mrs Koko Warner from the United Nations University Bonn presented the latest results of their study on climate change and migration. Mrs Lindene Patton explained the strong influence of insurances on economic transactions, which are related to societal and natural risks. Finally Prof. Pattberg from the VU University Amsterdam gave an update about the changing architecture in climate change governance towards different agents from the private sector and civil society determining regulation.
Professor Sir Brian Hoskins of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, member of the IPCC fourth assessment report and advisor to the Stern report, showed the impacts water, ecosystems, food security and coastal regions by mapping surface temperature and precipitation projections. The problems and solutions to Climate Change and food systems were elaborated by Dr. Herren, president of the Millennium Institute, by presenting necessary shifts to reconnect farming and the environment, producers and consumers and policies and their consequences.
An impressive keynote from economic Nobel Prize laureate Eric Maskin explained how a climate change treaty has to be designed to be self-enforcing. He assured the realistic possibility of creating a treaty that includes the incentives for every country to sign by delivering their economic mitigation costs to certain international reduction goals.
Challenge the Best was an outstanding event for intergenerational communication and learning in an excellent organised environment to build the necessary bridges between people who are commited to take the societal challenges ahead.
