What are governments doing to address global environmental crises?

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United Nations 

 

• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) (1992) was the first step taken by the UN to address climate change. Today is has near-universal membership, with 197 countries ratifying the Convention. Preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system is the ultimate aim of the UNFCCC
   

• In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, legally binding industrialised countries to limiting and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with agreed targets. Currently, there are 192 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.
   

• In 2015 the parties to the UNFCC agreed the landmark Paris Agreement, building upon the UNFCC and undertaking new and ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. The central aim of the agreement was to keep the global temperature rise below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase further to below 1.5°C . To date, 186 parties countries have ratified the Paris Agreement.

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• The 2019 UN Climate Action Summit took place in New York in September 2019. UN Secretary General António Guterres called on all leaders to come to the Summit with concrete and realistic plans to address the climate emergency and on increasing climate action. The Summit reinforced the global understanding that 1.5°C is the socially, economically, politically and scientifically safe limit to global warming by the end of this century, and to achieve this, the world needs to work to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

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• COP26 - The 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference (known as COP25) took place in December 2019, but achieved little. The 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) was due to take place in Scotland in November 2020. It was postponed due to COVID-19, and the UK will now host COP26 in Glasgow on 1 – 12 November 2021. These climate talks will be the biggest international summit the UK has ever hosted, bringing together over 30,000 delegates including heads of state, climate experts and campaigners to agree coordinated action to tackle climate change. https://www.ukcop26.org/
   

• Despite growing recognition that long-term, comprehensive, and multilateral action is necessary, no international agreement exists that focuses primarily on combating plastic pollution. (https://www.ciel.org/issue/plastic-global-law-policy/)
   

• [Global Ocean Treaty - In 2017 the UN General Assembly decided to convene an Intergovernmental Conference on marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction to consider the recommendations of an earlier-established preparatory committee on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. The third session of the conference took place in New York in August 2019. Over 190 countries came together at the United Nations to negotiate a historic Global Ocean Treaty that could help protect at least 30% of our oceans by 2030. However, the third round of UN negotiations drew to a close without serious commitment from most countries.
  
  The fourth session of the UN Intergovernmental conference will take place at UN Headquarters from 23 March to 3 April 2020.
  
  A Global Ocean Treaty doesn't specifically address plastic pollution, but it would help to preserve the biodiversity of ocean and marine areas for future generations and give areas heavily impacted by human activity the necessary time to recover. ]

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UK  

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The UK Government is committed by law under the Climate Change Act 2008 to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which appears consistent with a global effort to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. But is this enough? The UK Green Party has committed to reducing climate emissions to net zero by 2030 (Green Party 2019 manifesto). Extinction Rebellion is demanding a target date of 2025 and have drafted their own bill - the Three Demands Bill - requiring the government to declare a climate and ecological emergency, specify a 2025 target date, and establish a Citizens Assembly to determine the wide-ranging policy changes needed to transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. 

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The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill

The Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill is a Private Member’s Bill introduced to Parliament in September 2020 by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas. The CEE Bill was developed by members of Extinction Rebellion alongside members of the Big Ask campaign (a Friends of the Earth initiative that led to the Climate Change Act 2008) with contributions from scientists, lawyers, academics and activists. The key aims of the bill are to ensure the UK plays a fair role in ensuring global temperature increase is limited to 1.5°C, and to actively conserve the natural world, with a focus on biodiversity, carbon sinks and soil degradation.

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Environment Bill 2020

The Environment Bill 2020  sets out a new legal framework for how the government intends to protect and improve the natural environment in the UK. It also establishes a new environmental watchdog (the Office for Environmental Protection) to hold governments and other public bodies to account when the natural environment is under threat.  The Bill was first introduced into parliament on 15 October 2019 and was then re-introduced to parliament following the general election on 30 January 2020. The passage of the bill was paused in March 2020 due to COVID19 and progress stalled. The bill was due to return to Parliament in January 2021 for the report stage, but the Government has now delayed the Bill for the third time and has confirmed that it will be rolled over into the next Parliamentary session. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environment-bill-2020

In its current state, the Environment Bill only gives the government new powers to introduce a target on reduction of plastic, but there is no detail about what kind of target could be introduced or how ambitious would it be. As yet, there are no provisions to make plastic reduction a legal requirement.

Read more here:-

https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/will-the-government-keep-its-promise-to-reduce-plastic-waste/

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Environmental Protection (Plastic Straws, Cotton buds and Stirrers) (England) Regulations 2020

Legislation to ban the supply of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds was laid in Parliament on 3 March 2020. 

Environmental Protection (Plastic Straws, Cotton buds and Stirrers) (England) Regulations 2020 (draft)

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Read more here:-https://www.gov.uk/government/news/legislation-to-ban-plastic-straws-stirrers-and-cotton-buds-enters-parliament

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Climate Change Act 2008

Legal framework for the UK's approach to tackling and responding to climate change. The Act commits the Government by law to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 100% of 1990 levels (net zero) by 2050 (including reducing emissions from the devolved administrations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/contents

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Committee on Climate Change (CCC)

Independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008 to advise the UK Government on emissions targets and report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for climate change. 

https://www.theccc.org.uk/

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Climate Assembly UK

The Assembly was comprised of over 100 individuals randomly selected from households across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They met in the spring of 2020 to hear balanced evidence on the choices the UK faces, and to discuss and make recommendations on how the UK should meet its target to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. Their final report was published on Thursday 10 September 2020.

https://www.climateassembly.uk/

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Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

UK Government department responsible for climate change policy in the UK

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy

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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

UK government department responsible for safeguarding the UK's natural environment, supporting the food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/about

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Resources and waste strategy for England  

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/resources-and-waste-strategy-for-england

UK Government strategy setting out how it intends to preserve material resources by minimising waste, promoting resource efficiency and moving towards a circular economy as well as minimising the damage caused to our natural environment, in line with the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan (see below). 

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25 Year Environment Plan

Read about DEFRA's 25 year plan to improve the environment here:-

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/25-year-environment-plan

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EUROPEAN UNION

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Single-Use Plastics Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/904)

The Single-Use Plastics Directive aims to prevent and reduce the impact on the environment of certain plastic products and to promote a transition to a circular economy. It includes an EU-wide ban on single-use plastic products wherever alternatives are available. Members States have until 3 July 2021 to enact the necessary laws to comply with most of the Directive (with longer deadlines for certain provisions). The Directive also requires the EU to publish guidelines on what is considered to be a single-use plastic product for the purposes of the Directive, by 3 July 2020.

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The Directive includes:-

• a ban on single-use plastics including

  • cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks);

  • plates;

  • straws;

  • cotton bud sticks;

  • beverage stirrers;

  • sticks to be attached to and to support balloons;

  • food containers made of expanded polystyrene;

  • products made from oxo-degradable plastic.

• a requirement that countries take measures to reduce the consumption of certain single-use plastics for which there is no alternative (e.g. drinking cups and immediate-use food containers) and report their progress to the European Commission

• separate collection and design requirements for plastic bottles including a collection target of 90% for plastic bottles by 2029 (with an interim target of 77% by 2025), and a requirement that these bottles contain at least 25% recycled ​plastic in their manufacture by 2025 (for PET bottles), and 30% by 2030 (for all bottles).

• Compulsory marking on the packaging of certain disposable plastic products (e.g. sanitary items; wet wipes; tobacco products with filters; and drinking cups) informing consumers about appropriate waste management options, the presence of plastics in the product and the negative environmental impact of littering.

• Extended producer responsibility - the Directive incorporates the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Producers will have to cover the costs of:

  • waste management clean-up (with the exception of balloons and wet wipes;

  • data-gathering; 

  • awareness raising for food and beverage containers, bottles, cups, packets and wrappers, light-weight carrier bags and tobacco products with filters​

EU countries are also required to ensure rules on extended producer responsibility (EPR) for fishing gear containing plastic are in place; and monitor and assess plastic fishing gear with a view to establishing EU-wide collection targets.

• Awareness raising - EU countries must also take measures to inform consumers and to encourage responsible consumer behaviour in order to reduce litter from such products; and make consumers aware of reusable alternative products and the impact of inappropriate disposal of single-use plastic waste on the sewage system.

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