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Deadline set to stop overfishing Newsletter, 17 June 2011  ClientEarth gets politicians to agree on overfishing crisis Selfridges' Project Ocean culminated in World Ocean's Day, an event organised by GLOBE International, ClientEarth, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Synchronicity Earth. The GLOBE World Oceans Day Forum was opened by Queen Noor of Jordan and resulted in strong commitments to change from EU fisheries ministers, including Richard Benyon, and particularly EU Commissioner Maria Damanaki. It ended with a Globe Parliamentarians' Declaration calling on leaders in the EU to deliver an ambitious and radical fisheries reform which secures a sustainable future for Europe's fish and fishing industry. ClientEarth worked with GLOBE International, drafting the declaration and other documentation and facilitating the negotiations. James Thornton spoke on The State of Europe's Fisheries and the Common Fisheries Policy Reform. The politicians' final draft mandates an end to overfishing by 2015 and an end to discards. You can download the full declaration from the day here You can read James Thornton’s Huffington Post blog here  Photo: healthserviceglasses European Chemicals Agency sued for witholding names of toxic producers ClientEarth and ChemSec are taking the European Chemicals Agency (ECA) to court for failing to release names of manufacturers producing hazardous chemicals. By withholding the names of companies who produce these chemicals, ECHA is denying people the right to know who the polluters are. Health & Environment lawyer, Vito Buonsante says: "We have exhausted all avenues to make ECHA meet its transparency obligations and are now compelled to go to court." ECHA immediately responded to our threat of legal action; they said they would release some, but not all, names of toxic producers. To read more on this case see: Euractiv and ENDS Europe. For a video of the story, see Euronews.  Photo: Wak1 ClientEarth sues European Commission over transparency on biofuels policy ClientEarth, along with Friends of the Earth Europe, Corporate Europe Observatory and FERN, are taking the European Commission to court for failing provide information on decisions relating to the sustainability of Europe’s biofuels policy. In 2010, we asked the European Commission for information on the organisations applying to operate Voluntary Certification Schemes (VCS). Such schemes would form part of the EU regulatory framework for enforcing sustainability criteria for biofuels. Despite a deadline of 4 February 2011 to release this information, the Commission have still not done so. James Thornton, CEO of ClientEarth, says "We need to know which organisations have applied to run voluntary certification schemes, and how they’ve been chosen, so that we can be certain that they will provide robust and reliable information." A spokesman for the Commission has recently announced that the information would be "released imminently over the coming weeks". For more on this story, please see the Guardian and European Voice. Green Investment Bank The UK government's Green Investment Bank will be the first of its kind, attracting private sector finance and supporting the massive scale of green investments necessary to transition the UK's economy to a green economy. ClientEarth argues that the bank must be established by legislation as soon as possible, and we have developed a full model bill urging the government to deliver a truly transformative institution. David Holyoake explains. Check out our latest blog posts... Deforestation of Brazil’s Amazon will continue to rise if legislation and policies persist on promoting it - here The future of fish still looks uncertain - here Justice between generations and a plan to save the planet - here |
