FEED Validator

Congratulations!

This is a valid Atom 1.0 feed.

Recommendations

This feed is valid, but interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendations.

• line 1, column 118: Use of unknown namespace: http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008 [help]

  ... r.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2 ...
                                               ^

• line 1, column 118: Unable to validate namespace: http://schemas.google.com/g/2005. See the Google Data specification at https://developers.google.com/gdata/docs/1.0/elements [help]

  ... r.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2 ...
                                               ^

• line 1, column 1367: Self reference doesn't match document location [help]

  ... feeds/11927202/posts/default?alt=atom'/><link rel='alternate' type='text ...
                                               ^

• line 1, column 0: content should not contain trbidi attribute (25 occurrences) [help]

  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blog ...
  

• line 6, column 0: content should not contain imageanchor attribute (40 occurrences) [help]

  <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsE ...
  

• line 339, column 0: Non-html tag: o:p (14 occurrences) [help]

  Kremlin! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
  

• line 477, column 0: style attribute contains potentially dangerous content: mso-ansi-language (62 occurrences) [help]

  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height:  ...
  

Source: http://chezremi.blogspot.com/atom.xml

1. <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202</id><updated>2024-02-20T20:51:04.670+01:00</updated><category term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category term="Where is Rémi?"/><category term="Biodiversity"/><category term="Whales"/><category term="Politics"/><category term="Miscellaneous"/><category term="Spain is different"/><category term="Public health"/><category term="Floating nuclear reactors"/><category term="Tobacco"/><category term="Arctic grab"/><category term="Ocean"/><title type='text'>Chez Rémi</title><subtitle type='html'>My Planet-अपने ग्रह-Ma Planète-私の惑星-Mi Planeta-我的星球-Planet μου-Il Mio Pianeta-Моя Планета-Meu Planeta-بلدي كوكب-mia Planedo-benim gezegen-Meine Planete</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default?alt=atom'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default?alt=atom&amp;start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>611</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-92070043000762259</id><published>2016-10-07T12:59:00.004+02:00</published><updated>2016-10-07T13:04:41.558+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Politics"/><title type='text'>Virtual world vs. real world - What really counts?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
2. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
3. <br /></div>
4. <br />
5. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
6. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCbTYXxHlYs7aiIMhweF7gkP_aMIbsYBsVvsrnIxM1rU50VTqFSphHdm0B0uA5u6Cg6BavQXdV16jQkAXP34S8VbcNKuTXMtfLGM11XHl9gNXq-u5CigrUV4KBTCHQoc6A75RT7Q/s1600/2016-10-07+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCbTYXxHlYs7aiIMhweF7gkP_aMIbsYBsVvsrnIxM1rU50VTqFSphHdm0B0uA5u6Cg6BavQXdV16jQkAXP34S8VbcNKuTXMtfLGM11XHl9gNXq-u5CigrUV4KBTCHQoc6A75RT7Q/s400/2016-10-07+%25281%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
7. Apparently, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/05/antonio-guterres-next-un-secretary-general" target="_blank">Antonio Guterres</a>, the new UN Secretary General-Elect, has no Twitter account. The two accounts I could find under his name are unofficial, and opened only a few hours or days ago. <a href="https://twitter.com/AGuterres_UNSG" target="_blank">One </a>(with 27 tweets to date) may have been opened by friends or fans of his (with or without his knowledge), the <a href="https://twitter.com/AGuterresUN" target="_blank">other one</a> (1 tweet) could have been created by anyone who had nothing better to do.<br />
8. <div style="text-align: right;">
9. <div style="text-align: left;">
10. So, were the other candidates campaigning for the UNSG post via Twitter wasting their time? Obviously, the P5, the permanent members of the Security Council were not impressed.</div>
11. </div>
12. <br />
13. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
14. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0tH4C1f7JCo0YNNeXEar3xBkQPJnM4rAaUItUPJjfsLa5nm1SjNV-1VafslfUXlTnjdUhYaRMzIFxYvjpBYY0rSz8UHQ3iALfcg3QvpgcHWxHXOl1XaTY979xit9hb-meEwz6FA/s1600/2016-10-07.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0tH4C1f7JCo0YNNeXEar3xBkQPJnM4rAaUItUPJjfsLa5nm1SjNV-1VafslfUXlTnjdUhYaRMzIFxYvjpBYY0rSz8UHQ3iALfcg3QvpgcHWxHXOl1XaTY979xit9hb-meEwz6FA/s320/2016-10-07.png" width="320" /></a></div>
15. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
16. <br /></div>
17. <br />
18. <br />
19. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
20. <br /></div>
21. </div>
22. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/92070043000762259'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/92070043000762259'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2016/10/virtual-world-vs-real-world-what-really.html' title='Virtual world vs. real world - What really counts?'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCbTYXxHlYs7aiIMhweF7gkP_aMIbsYBsVvsrnIxM1rU50VTqFSphHdm0B0uA5u6Cg6BavQXdV16jQkAXP34S8VbcNKuTXMtfLGM11XHl9gNXq-u5CigrUV4KBTCHQoc6A75RT7Q/s72-c/2016-10-07+%25281%2529.png" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-7848544907933869308</id><published>2016-03-12T08:56:00.000+01:00</published><updated>2016-03-12T09:13:08.104+01:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Persistent</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
23. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
24. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCh2Je9SDN20tHkFuDBwCemfDxPggyGUZenIHGwPyd9m5bzmZwwucuPQhRCf4ygP0U0zUvg864BMFpuhDGcmwT_pOEPvaRLyQsuUYoxoSyjVkPIrvYeQFwJzCqqlPU7v7ssuorVw/s1600/Fuku_Tent_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCh2Je9SDN20tHkFuDBwCemfDxPggyGUZenIHGwPyd9m5bzmZwwucuPQhRCf4ygP0U0zUvg864BMFpuhDGcmwT_pOEPvaRLyQsuUYoxoSyjVkPIrvYeQFwJzCqqlPU7v7ssuorVw/s400/Fuku_Tent_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
25. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
26. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
27. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
28. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
29. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
30. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
31. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
32. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
33. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
34. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
35. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
36. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
37. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
38. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
39. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span>
40. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i style="line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></i></span></span></span><br />
41. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><i style="line-height: 19.32px;">I posted this on my Facebook, on <b>11 March around midnight</b>, a few hours before leaving Tokyo.</i></span></span></span><br />
42. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></span>
43. <br />
44. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn6v4Ub-lYlxmfxU5lbklU4b3TxXvqgcJ4PbTOSqIK4dUH45qBsX2KBk8fLZUKuqdnrQ0_jBt6O_vGUpSvNNuUDpfyj-WGzSaLpWvx_9wS2GWlrURB3k8Mx62ezinmMkpTNdsYxg/s1600/Fuku_tent_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn6v4Ub-lYlxmfxU5lbklU4b3TxXvqgcJ4PbTOSqIK4dUH45qBsX2KBk8fLZUKuqdnrQ0_jBt6O_vGUpSvNNuUDpfyj-WGzSaLpWvx_9wS2GWlrURB3k8Mx62ezinmMkpTNdsYxg/s200/Fuku_tent_2.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">It is past midnight in Tokyo, and today the country will mark the 5th anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami, and of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe that struck Japan on 11 March 2011. </span></span></span><br />
45. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></span>
46. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">As I was walking the street after a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Tokyo yesterday morning and passed the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry (the famous METI), I spotted the anti-nuclear tent installed there and maintained by Japanese activists for 1643 days (if my calculator is correct, that's 4.5 years).</span></span></span><br />
47. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
48. </div>
49. <br />
50. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
51. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1lXrFmBEPoq9pRCsfwQb7WxLTeFbXgB5zywIyJ1RpYakHOqdRErie4xLCFgZEtPDYM48FsLeMNTqUxulyDcNFtOeLrI8_a1aWMxDAarbdxgWx6JiF7MgRJNwIXjkINCyiN4k4mw/s1600/Fuku_Tent_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1lXrFmBEPoq9pRCsfwQb7WxLTeFbXgB5zywIyJ1RpYakHOqdRErie4xLCFgZEtPDYM48FsLeMNTqUxulyDcNFtOeLrI8_a1aWMxDAarbdxgWx6JiF7MgRJNwIXjkINCyiN4k4mw/s200/Fuku_Tent_3.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
52. <br />
53. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">I stopped and chatted for a few minutes with the activists on shift.</span></span></span><br />
54. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></span>
55. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy_P-Kp_XaHmNzM3LeZOwK2fZ_vMfQL9S2VnEEhvgVAJ_MynoXsMK2ip_nSvPYWY1W65ekptMlCFshEHvDKp93S6NmRqGz0WbiX-bhhmvrkxKlXUxdUZBjgSke_8fjCLdOXfI9GQ/s1600/Fuku_tent_6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy_P-Kp_XaHmNzM3LeZOwK2fZ_vMfQL9S2VnEEhvgVAJ_MynoXsMK2ip_nSvPYWY1W65ekptMlCFshEHvDKp93S6NmRqGz0WbiX-bhhmvrkxKlXUxdUZBjgSke_8fjCLdOXfI9GQ/s200/Fuku_tent_6.jpg" width="150" /></a><br />
56. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">This action alone is not going to resolve the issue it addresses (of course). </span></span></span><br />
57. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></span>
58. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">But one thing you can say of anti-nuclear activists is that they are<b> as persistent as Plutonium</b>. </span></span></span><br />
59. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span></span></span>
60. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">And this is good.</span></span></span></div>
61. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/7848544907933869308'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/7848544907933869308'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2016/03/persistent.html' title='Persistent'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCh2Je9SDN20tHkFuDBwCemfDxPggyGUZenIHGwPyd9m5bzmZwwucuPQhRCf4ygP0U0zUvg864BMFpuhDGcmwT_pOEPvaRLyQsuUYoxoSyjVkPIrvYeQFwJzCqqlPU7v7ssuorVw/s72-c/Fuku_Tent_1.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-3473279896860666475</id><published>2015-05-03T17:16:00.002+02:00</published><updated>2015-05-03T22:23:02.967+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Arctic grab"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Floating nuclear reactors"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Ocean"/><title type='text'>The Climate N Test</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
62. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
63. <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8OtZaAzY4yvS362TplbgL133Bg2SEG9iECmSPZDiTmC2Y7RyHih5av2P968sKf0SqWY5YaWzzFuiAW_dYT3SlQYOoGSMcqwaHxYriZ5jxVpVMjUJzPKGIg_Hj2ADHLaknLgbP6Q/s1600/Photo+1+Saint+Petersburg+May+2011+Oceana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8OtZaAzY4yvS362TplbgL133Bg2SEG9iECmSPZDiTmC2Y7RyHih5av2P968sKf0SqWY5YaWzzFuiAW_dYT3SlQYOoGSMcqwaHxYriZ5jxVpVMjUJzPKGIg_Hj2ADHLaknLgbP6Q/s1600/Photo+1+Saint+Petersburg+May+2011+Oceana.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
64. <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photos: Courtesy Oceana 2011 (c)</td></tr>
65. </tbody></table>
66. <div>
67. <br /></div>
68. <div>
69. <br /></div>
70. <div>
71. <br /></div>
72. <div>
73. <br /></div>
74. <div>
75. <br /></div>
76. <div>
77. <br /></div>
78. <div>
79. <br /></div>
80. <div>
81. <br /></div>
82. <div>
83. <br /></div>
84. <div>
85. <br /></div>
86. <div>
87. <br /></div>
88. <div>
89. <br /></div>
90. <div>
91. <br /></div>
92. <div>
93. <br /></div>
94. <div>
95. <br /></div>
96. <div>
97. News from  Moscow and St.Petersburg has it that the launch of the <a href="http://rt.com/news/251709-russian-arctic-nuclear-powerplant/" target="_blank">first Russian floating nuclear reactor</a> in the Arctic is <b>now</b> approaching. </div>
98. <div>
99. <br /></div>
100. <div>
101. Announcements have also <b>now</b> been made in <a href="http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674floating_nuclear_power_plants_promise_major_savings_for_arctic_mines/" target="_blank">Canada</a> and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/29/us-russia-rosatom-idUSKBN0FY1IB20140729" target="_blank">China</a> that these two countries also want to build and operate floating nuclear reactors, </div>
102. <div>
103. <br /></div>
104. <div>
105. And <b>now we know</b> that the main reason to invest in this is to<a href="http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Russia-To-Power-Arctic-Drilling-With-Floating-Nuclear-Reactors.html#oilprice" target="_blank"> supply the energy needed to drill for oil and other minerals</a> in the Arctic and other deep oceanic regions.</div>
106. <div>
107. <br /></div>
108. <div>
109. It would be good to know <b>what the conventional nuclear industry thinks of this</b>. We have all seen in the last two decades the nuclear industry putting itself forward as solution to climate change (notwithstanding unresolved issues of nuclear safety, radioactive waste management, non-proliferation, liability and other costs). But of course, <b>using nuclear technology to extract oil from the deep ocean, including the Arctic, fatally undermines all nukes claims of climate-friendly credentials</b>.</div>
110. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
111. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi8RjWttm_3B8BbzkmCIV0972jYs1AQ3SXK3EPaVGN32hGm20SQ_q9LfEeOAplRUP_0lNLYr24lLxHFYC0-6hocVjTPCJ6XCl055kz2D-Peoeg1U9qIkXUWdZtIHkRkU4XMWlsPA/s1600/Photo+2+Saint+Petersburg+May+2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi8RjWttm_3B8BbzkmCIV0972jYs1AQ3SXK3EPaVGN32hGm20SQ_q9LfEeOAplRUP_0lNLYr24lLxHFYC0-6hocVjTPCJ6XCl055kz2D-Peoeg1U9qIkXUWdZtIHkRkU4XMWlsPA/s1600/Photo+2+Saint+Petersburg+May+2011.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></div>
112. <div>
113. <br /></div>
114. <div>
115. So, I think it'd be interesting to ask nuclear power plant operators like <b>Electricité de France</b>, <b>Areva</b>, <b>Tepco</b> (Japan, of Fukushima fame/shame), <b>Electrabel</b>,  <b>Iberdrola</b>, <b>Endesa</b>, or<b> E.On</b> (to only name a few), and nuclear technology suppliers like <b>Siemens</b>, <b>Toshiba</b>, <b>Mitsubishi</b>, <b>Suez</b>, or <b>Bouygues</b> (to only name a few, again) what they think of that floating reactors business; and to challenge them to say all with one voice: "<i>we don't like that oil drilling and seabed mining business; the global climate system cannot afford Arctic oil drilling; it's a recipe for disaster; the risks are too high; we won't put our fingers in it</i><i>; we ask our colleagues from the nuclear sector in Russia, Canada and China to drop it".</i><br />
116. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
117. </div>
118. <i>
119. </i></div>
120. <div>
121. <i><br /></i></div>
122. <div>
123. <b>Paris</b>, the <a href="http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en" target="_blank">centre of climate policy</a> this year (and also to a large extent the nerve centre of the nuclear industry worldwide -- 80% of the electricity consumed in France comes from nuclear reactors) could be a good place to launch this <b>Climate N Test</b>.</div>
124. <div>
125. <br /></div>
126. </div>
127. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/3473279896860666475'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/3473279896860666475'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-climate-n-test.html' title='The Climate N Test'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8OtZaAzY4yvS362TplbgL133Bg2SEG9iECmSPZDiTmC2Y7RyHih5av2P968sKf0SqWY5YaWzzFuiAW_dYT3SlQYOoGSMcqwaHxYriZ5jxVpVMjUJzPKGIg_Hj2ADHLaknLgbP6Q/s72-c/Photo+1+Saint+Petersburg+May+2011+Oceana.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-9175403347417246467</id><published>2015-01-29T13:37:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2015-01-29T13:37:15.202+01:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biodiversity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>The big deal</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
128. <br />
129. <div>
130. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
131. <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypTuq6SdFDWoJX5EaguALIrE0ZehrWGHqgxzpX63pcQvWDXzHMC7WBvR8DqyqJv3Srh2jhyY3ukFqHQLE8b7Qk_ZwLh-aEzmizvvM1j5b86V0jEZzmT79h7Cq7vlsyOvd4wdSLw/s1600/BBNJ_Night_session_25_01_2015_COPYRIGHT_IISD.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypTuq6SdFDWoJX5EaguALIrE0ZehrWGHqgxzpX63pcQvWDXzHMC7WBvR8DqyqJv3Srh2jhyY3ukFqHQLE8b7Qk_ZwLh-aEzmizvvM1j5b86V0jEZzmT79h7Cq7vlsyOvd4wdSLw/s1600/BBNJ_Night_session_25_01_2015_COPYRIGHT_IISD.JPG" height="160" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
132. <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">  Night-long BBNJ negotiation  last week-end - (C)  IISD/ENB Dan Birchall</span></td></tr>
133. </tbody></table>
134. <br />
135. <br />
136. <br />
137. <br />
138. <br />
139. <br />
140. <br />
141. <br />
142. <br />
143. <br />
144. I was in New York last week at the meeting of the UN Working Group on Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, known to Ocean policy nerds (such as me) as the "<a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/biodiversityworkinggroup/biodiversityworkinggroup.htm" target="_blank">BBNJ</a>", and which was open to all UN Member States. This group has been meeting for nearly a decade, since 2006, to discuss whether a supplementary agreement (known as an "implementing agreement" in legal jargon) to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (<a href="http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/UNCLOS-TOC.htm" target="_blank">UNCLOS</a>) should be adopted to protect the high seas<i>. </i>The high seas, or areas beyond national jurisdiction, are the portion of the global ocean that lies beyond the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of coastal States (generally beyond 200 nautical miles).  This may sound boring or complicated to laypersons, but you'll realize it's a<b> very big deal</b> when you know that the high seas represent <b>64% of the global ocean</b>, and...<b>no less than 45% of our entire planet</b>!</div>
145. <div>
146. <br /></div>
147. <div>
148. Humankind has been interacting with the high seas for a long time, but <a href="http://missionocean.me/decline/" target="_blank">our impact </a>has increased in recent times.<br />
149. <br />
150. We've been <b>sailing</b> and <b>shipping </b>stuff across the high seas since time immemorial, but with the contemporary trends in economic globalization, ocean-based international trade has now grown at a scale that was unpredictable not long ago. Now, more than 90% of all the goods we purchase are moved about the planet by ships.<br />
151. <br />
152. We've also used the high seas as a <b>waste dumping</b> ground until this practice was <a href="http://www.vardagroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/odhistory.pdf" target="_blank">banned permanently</a> in the early 1990s. However,<b> pollutants from land-based activities</b> have not abated, quite the reverse, which dramatically affect the high seas. While floating plastics are the most visible ones and the most in the public eye, micro-plastics (small particles of plastic) are the most pervasive, and have been found in every corner and crevice of the ocean, If that was not enough, there are also high concentrations in the ocean of pesticides and other organochlorine compounds, radioactive substances, and heavy metals.<br />
153. <br />
154. We've been laying <b>underwater cables</b> since the middle of the 19th Century, first to send telegrams, then to make telephone calls and now to send data through the Internet. Those of you who are not at this time in mainland Europe (where I am as I type) are reading this blog after it <i>swam </i>under the ocean. </div>
155. <div>
156. <br /></div>
157. <div>
158. We've also <b>fished</b> the high seas for some time. Until the 1950s most fish stocks were still in reasonably good shape (putting the commercial whaling episode aside -- whales are not fish). Things started to go wrong soon after with the decrease of fish resources in coastal waters, within EEZs, triggered by increased demand which lead to overfishing to meet that demand. Fishing fleets supported by rich government subsidies acquired the capacity to catch, package and freeze their prey in the high seas. That was the beginning of what some called the "cold rush" for fish in the high seas.  Environmentalists often quote a report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (<a href="http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/reviewconf/FishStocks_EN_A.pdf" target="_blank">FAO</a>) which estimated that 80% of fish stocks had been fully exploited, overexploited, depleted or were recovering from depletion. Others dispute this figure, but the truth is that it would already be alarming even if it was the case for only 50% of fish stocks.</div>
159. <div>
160. <br /></div>
161. <div>
162. The most recent and still emerging chapters of human exploitation of the high seas concern mineral and genetic resources.<br />
163. <b><br /></b>
164. <b>Mineral resources</b> found on and under the seabed have been for the mining industry in the last decades a sort of Holy Grail which is now apparently starting to become technically feasible, but it's unclear whether seabed mining is another <i>bubble</i>. Both economic and environmental aspects remain untested with the potential damage and equity issues causing concern. According to UNCLOS, mineral seabed resources found on and under the seabed of the high seas are part of the common heritage of humankind, and their exploration and exploitation are regulated by the International Seabed Authority (<a href="http://www.isa.org.jm/" target="_blank">ISA</a>) headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica. In recent years, ISA has granted exploration licenses to a number of consortia, and - should exploitation begin - ISA is meant to equitably distribute any arising benefits. But equity concerns are not limited to the distribution of benefits; they also include the impact of mining on legitimate uses of the sea such as fishing or genuine scientific research.<br />
165. <br />
166. Unlike mineral resources, the <b>living resources</b> found in the high seas' water column are not considered part of the common heritage of humankind under UNCLOS. Fishing in some high seas areas is regulated internationally by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/documentation/publications/cfp_factsheets/rfmo_en.pdf" target="_blank">RFMOs</a>) but they distribute quotas, not benefits to third parties. The ownership of <b>marine genetic resources </b>found in the deep ocean is subject to debate. Genes from the deepsea, especially the precious few that have been looked at so far,  are known to have important value for the medical and biotechnology sectors (hence for future human health). However, their exploitation (and even their existence) had not been envisaged when UNCLOS was drafted and negotiated in the 1970s and 80s. Developing countries (the so-called Group of 77 plus China) vehemently consider that marine genetic resources are part of the common heritage and they warn against what they consider <b>biopiracy in the high seas</b>. Hence it was agreed in 2011 that the sharing of the benefits resulting from the exploitation of deepsea genetic resources would be addressed, as part of a <i>package</i> of issues that would be taken into consideration if/when negotiation of a high seas legal instrument would take place.<br />
167. <br />
168. The <a href="http://www.cbd.int/abs/" target="_blank">Nagoya Protocol</a>, a recent supplementary agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Biological Diversity (<a href="http://www.cbd.int/" target="_blank">CBD</a>) is meant to guard against biopiracy, but it does not apply to high seas resources. The principle of <b>access and benefit sharing</b> enshrined in UNCLOS (for mineral resources) and in the CBD (for genetic resources within national jurisdiction) is what's behind the US pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporate lobby's aggressive campaign  which to date has prevented the US Congress from ratifying both treaties. By the same token, it's the explanation of  the US' long standing opposition, until early hours of Saturday morning (24th January), to the proposed High Seas Implementing Agreement.<br />
169. <br />
170. After dragging their feet for nearly a decade, UN member States reached <a href="http://www.un.org/depts/los/biodiversityworkinggroup/documents/AHWG_9_recommendations.pdf" target="_blank">consensus</a> at the eleventh hour and negotiations will begin in earnest next year. Other elements of the <i>2011 package </i>include rules to designate and manage m<b>arine protected areas</b> in the high seas [to date, only 1% of the world's ocean is fully protected], a mechanism to conduct <b>environmental impact assessments</b> in the high seas like on the rest of the planet, and provisions for <b>capacity building</b> and <b>information exchange</b>, A <a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/news/life-in-the-high-seas-storing-500-million-tonnes-of-atmospheric-carbon-every-year/" target="_blank">study commissioned by the Global Ocean Commission</a> last year has shown that life in the high seas is providing irreplaceable "ecosystem services", including mitigating human-induced climate change by taking up 500 million tonnes of atmospheric carbon per year. That alone makes high seas protection a big deal.<br />
171. <br />
172. The high seas are often described as the <i>Far Wild Wet </i>or a<i> lawless zone.</i> Frankly, it's a bit of an exaggeration, because certain activities in the high seas are regulated internationally, such as shipping by the International Maritime Organization (<a href="http://www.imo.org/Pages/home.aspx" target="_blank">IMO</a>) or fishing by RFMOs in certain areas of the high seas (but <a href="http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/focus/2004/47127/article_47140en.html" target="_blank">enforcement</a> of fisheries regulations remains weak, particularly in the high seas). The problem with high seas governance, outlined in the recent <a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/news/the-global-ocean-commissions-final-report-is-now-available/" target="_blank">report</a> of the <a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/" target="_blank">Global Ocean Commission</a>, is a mixture of gaps and fragmentation (both geographic and sector-wise). This is what the Implementing Agreement is meant to address and resolve.<br />
173. <br />
174. UNCLOS is often described as the <b>Constitution of the Ocean</b>, and there is no doubt that it represents a milestone in international governance<b>. </b>But it was adopted in 1982 after a decade-long negotiation, and it entered into force in 1994. The political, social and economic contexts and the environmental landscape have changed immensely since that time, and in ways that no one could have predicted. Concepts like biodiversity, sustainable development, the ecosystem approach were in their infancy, let alone our understanding of climate change. The upcoming negotiation of the High Seas Implementing Agreement is the opportunity to bring UNCLOS into the 21st Century. A big deal!</div>
175. <div>
176. <br /></div>
177. <div>
178. <br /></div>
179. </div>
180. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/9175403347417246467'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/9175403347417246467'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-big-deal.html' title='The big deal'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypTuq6SdFDWoJX5EaguALIrE0ZehrWGHqgxzpX63pcQvWDXzHMC7WBvR8DqyqJv3Srh2jhyY3ukFqHQLE8b7Qk_ZwLh-aEzmizvvM1j5b86V0jEZzmT79h7Cq7vlsyOvd4wdSLw/s72-c/BBNJ_Night_session_25_01_2015_COPYRIGHT_IISD.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-2878361043004979166</id><published>2015-01-27T17:17:00.001+01:00</published><updated>2015-01-27T21:09:53.531+01:00</updated><title type='text'>Merde!</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
181. <br />
182. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
183. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1saoiij51ccuGDsWtJMNOzMyr0Grq-3ADa4NWQnhMnWcXUFPycnejjnSQDlMiZvpnaPVqk_9o0uRhyide20E4gaC6KUGWIoDqb3-GfwBt3uJdJTnkQ3Dwq-3DR-jgKC6aOTxQw/s1600/Cabu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1saoiij51ccuGDsWtJMNOzMyr0Grq-3ADa4NWQnhMnWcXUFPycnejjnSQDlMiZvpnaPVqk_9o0uRhyide20E4gaC6KUGWIoDqb3-GfwBt3uJdJTnkQ3Dwq-3DR-jgKC6aOTxQw/s1600/Cabu.jpg" height="320" width="259" /></a></div>
184. <br />
185. <br />
186. <br />
187. <br />
188. <br />
189. <br />
190. <br />
191. <br />
192. <br />
193. <br />
194. <br />
195. <br />
196. <br />
197. <br />
198. <br />
199. <br />
200. <br />
201. <b>Arrgh! </b>As I was preparing a new post (soon to come), and I was disrupted by a domestic affair, and inadvertently wiped out my "Good Mourning" piece about Charlie from earlier this month. <b>Merde!</b></div>
202. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/2878361043004979166'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/2878361043004979166'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2015/01/merde.html' title='Merde!'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1saoiij51ccuGDsWtJMNOzMyr0Grq-3ADa4NWQnhMnWcXUFPycnejjnSQDlMiZvpnaPVqk_9o0uRhyide20E4gaC6KUGWIoDqb3-GfwBt3uJdJTnkQ3Dwq-3DR-jgKC6aOTxQw/s72-c/Cabu.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-5242371852164425760</id><published>2014-08-12T17:06:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2014-08-13T21:11:52.275+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biodiversity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Ocean"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Seal pup on the sand</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
203. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
204. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXR1ywvK49y7wQSm-x5rMetHMxwWRovtxJMSdMZ8AWaTljaXDyptsEOAKRyqf1zgfX-lHjmwMkiO7-kV8jdWgWixoMTiqGdfRFauVNqyz-luKvuCekvo0kJsRcatUrbdlxaZVWfg/s1600/Monk+Seal+1.1+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXR1ywvK49y7wQSm-x5rMetHMxwWRovtxJMSdMZ8AWaTljaXDyptsEOAKRyqf1zgfX-lHjmwMkiO7-kV8jdWgWixoMTiqGdfRFauVNqyz-luKvuCekvo0kJsRcatUrbdlxaZVWfg/s1600/Monk+Seal+1.1+(1).JPG" height="330" width="400" /></a></div>
205. <br />
206. <br />
207. <br />
208. <br />
209. <br />
210. <br />
211. <br />
212. <br />
213. <br />
214. <br />
215. <br />
216. <br />
217. <br />
218. <br />
219. <br />
220. <br />
221. <br />
222. <br />
223. When I decided to spend a few days this month in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samos" target="_blank">Samos</a>, the Greek island in the Agean Sea closest to the coast of Turkey, I knew that it was one of the very last <a href="http://www.monachus-guardian.org/factfiles/medit01.htm" target="_blank">Mediterranean monk seal</a> breeding grounds, but I was not expecting to see any.<br />
224. <br />
225. I knew a few basic things about the Mediterranean monk seal: it is one of the most threatened marine and European mammals; there are only about 50 of them left in the Agean Sea (and there are very few left in the rest of the Mediterranean); and they stay away from humans, spend their days in underwater caves and go out for fish only at sunset. So, to expect a seal sighting in Samos was like planning a holiday in the Pyrenees and expect to encounter a bear, or to go to a fiesta in Andalucia and hope to run into a lynx. The odds were so slim, it was not even within my plans.<br />
226. <br />
227. I had been marginally associated in the late 1970s in advocacy to protect the Mediterranean monk seals, but to say the truth, nearly fourty years later when we arrived in Samos by boat a week ago, I was not even quite sure whether decades of conservation efforts had borne fruit and whether there were any seals left in Samos.<br />
228. <br />
229. So, when a local gave me a tip and told me that a seal pup had been sighted and reported as staying for several months not far from where I was staying, my mind was blown away. Although the explanation was vague, I decided to try and check it out for myself.<br />
230. <br />
231. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
232. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOxf6AAFgJ1lPy9PlJ_9b3lTM8HHmJFXZRGFqvnBb90h_fB491xjdnVf9dEJrFUfd8IqZGrtL9XlnNdFTgDR_VjgYVYINtlIhRgajJGsxBKoRAlb658jq_8_smIA7cUxkcOChuw/s1600/DSCN1913.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOxf6AAFgJ1lPy9PlJ_9b3lTM8HHmJFXZRGFqvnBb90h_fB491xjdnVf9dEJrFUfd8IqZGrtL9XlnNdFTgDR_VjgYVYINtlIhRgajJGsxBKoRAlb658jq_8_smIA7cUxkcOChuw/s1600/DSCN1913.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
233. After getting lost a bit on the road, I made it and ran into the seal pup. Under the protection of Paulos Teka, a volunteer from Finland who works for the <a href="http://archipelago.gr/en/about-us/" target="_blank">Archipielago Institute</a> of Marine Conservation, a Greek NGO that works for biodiversity and ocean protection in the Greek islands, the orphan female seal pup has been spending most of her days on the same small beach since the month of March. Her behaviour is almost unheard of. What's most likely to have happened, Paulos explained, is that the calf's mother got caught as <i>by-catch </i>in a fishnet, and maybe it's a miracle the seal pup survived. So far.<br />
234. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
235. <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6QoBr6eYGmKVQZwD0tcaXgzkOslQkPdsoDBrteyy0LBU1wpDEP7e_R60UKRE39YcoJv3lze2b4KNJpNyZaw3qwQTdEh8UWxOmIX16fqtJ3Sxu9pQaBqqW2bayd7jx6DRBAUsFlQ/s1600/Monk+Seal+1.2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6QoBr6eYGmKVQZwD0tcaXgzkOslQkPdsoDBrteyy0LBU1wpDEP7e_R60UKRE39YcoJv3lze2b4KNJpNyZaw3qwQTdEh8UWxOmIX16fqtJ3Sxu9pQaBqqW2bayd7jx6DRBAUsFlQ/s1600/Monk+Seal+1.2.JPG" height="177" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
236. <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Paulos Teka (seal pup on the bottom right)</td></tr>
237. </tbody></table>
238. <br />
239. The future of the seal pup is uncertain. At first sight, one can see that she may be developing a skin desease (sunburns?). An Israeli vet has been able to examin her hearing functions, Paulos told me. But little can be done because the priority is to prevent interference from humans. So, during the summer months Paulos and his colleagues have fenced part of the beach area and, under a beach umbrella, their job is to maintain tourists at a distance.<br />
240. <br />
241. Paulos confirms that normally Monk seals stay away and hide from humans. But now the Archipielago Institute is concerned that the pup is becoming used to the presence of humans. She even seems to look for it, and that can be a problem when (if) she grows up. Tourists brought by cruise liners take the sun and swim, most of them not knowing that it is a unique nature wonder they have alongside. "It's better this way", says Paulos, "we don't want the seal to become a sightseeing spot". Of course, and that's why I'm not giving details on where the pup is to be found.<br />
242. <i><br /></i>
243. <br />
244. <div style="text-align: center;">
245. <i><a href="http://archipelago.gr/en/donateen/" target="_blank">Click here</a> to support and donate to the Archipielgo Institute of marine Science.</i></div>
246. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
247. <br /></div>
248. </div>
249. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/5242371852164425760'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/5242371852164425760'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2014/08/when-i-decided-to-spend-few-days-this.html' title='Seal pup on the sand'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXR1ywvK49y7wQSm-x5rMetHMxwWRovtxJMSdMZ8AWaTljaXDyptsEOAKRyqf1zgfX-lHjmwMkiO7-kV8jdWgWixoMTiqGdfRFauVNqyz-luKvuCekvo0kJsRcatUrbdlxaZVWfg/s72-c/Monk+Seal+1.1+(1).JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-6202304904983472765</id><published>2014-06-08T14:12:00.001+02:00</published><updated>2014-06-08T19:23:49.029+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biodiversity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Ocean"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>One ocean</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
250. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
251. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0-QAxPV5aINQUPRjA8e-ccuVTyr4IUhGbHrBLGM_O4Vppj-95cMJIV_Xl34RgIdko3_wBzek7U8hiq6_6qljzQdpy8pQMurwGBSR2u_Jx0P4nZilDi8lRkjoiSTXdwUTpKMra2g/s1600/BluePlanet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0-QAxPV5aINQUPRjA8e-ccuVTyr4IUhGbHrBLGM_O4Vppj-95cMJIV_Xl34RgIdko3_wBzek7U8hiq6_6qljzQdpy8pQMurwGBSR2u_Jx0P4nZilDi8lRkjoiSTXdwUTpKMra2g/s1600/BluePlanet.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
252. <br />
253. <br />
254. <br />
255. <br />
256. <br />
257. <br />
258. <br />
259. <br />
260. <br />
261. <br />
262. <br />
263. <br />
264. <br />
265. <br />
266. <br />
267. <br />
268. <br />
269. Today is June 8 - <a href="http://worldoceansday.org/" target="_blank">World Oceans Day</a> on the United Nations calendar. A perfect day to revive my blog which I've kept sleeping for eight months.<br />
270. <br />
271. My message to the UN on this day is "<b>change the name". </b>Today should be called World <b>Ocean </b>Day, <b>not oceans.</b> The ocean supplies the oxygen in every
272. second breath we take; billions of us rely on it for food, fresh water, energy, medicine, transport and trade; it covers 70% of the Earth's surface and supports all
273. life on Earth. If we want people to protect it and use it wisely, we've got to stop managing the ocean on a sectoral basis and <a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/policies/modernising-ocean-governance/" target="_blank">modernize ocean governance</a> to meet contemporary and emerging challenges. And this won't happen if we do not look at the ocean as <b>one single interconnected system</b>.<br />
274. <br />
275. The main reason why I've been very lazy with my blog in the last eighteen months, and completely silent for eight months has been my current responsibility as Deputy Executive Secretary of the <a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/about-the-commission/secretariat/" target="_blank">Global Ocean Commission</a>. In that capacity, I had to write extensively with incredibly tight deadlines, first taking the lead to prepare the Commission's <a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/policies/" target="_blank">Policy Options Papers</a> and other documents, and since the month of March preparing the Commission report which will be made public in New York on 24 June. So much to do, I completely ran out of steam for the blog. On Friday we were able to put the report to rest, which goes tomorrow to the printer and translators.<br />
276. <br />
277. The adjective "global" in Global Ocean Commission does not only refer to the widespread geographical representation of the <a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/the-commissioners/" target="_blank">commissioners</a>. A key message we're trying to convey is that there's <b>only one "global ocean"</b>.<br />
278. <br />
279. If you think that talking of <b> "one ocean" </b>will cost you a bit at the beginning, a very practical thing you can do is update your spell check programme, so that it automatically removes the s in the ocean.<br />
280. <br />
281. <br /></div>
282. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/6202304904983472765'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/6202304904983472765'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2014/06/one-ocean.html' title='One ocean'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0-QAxPV5aINQUPRjA8e-ccuVTyr4IUhGbHrBLGM_O4Vppj-95cMJIV_Xl34RgIdko3_wBzek7U8hiq6_6qljzQdpy8pQMurwGBSR2u_Jx0P4nZilDi8lRkjoiSTXdwUTpKMra2g/s72-c/BluePlanet.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-8020904175681446761</id><published>2013-10-27T11:30:00.000+01:00</published><updated>2013-10-28T11:19:16.658+01:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Arctic grab"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Politics"/><title type='text'>Dima</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
283. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
284. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQS78a94aSGY_3wZ_0r2ALDL61aW3TZrcXIzdfjXZg5ljUVnFss2s8IpONWPzyo9SCCKFao6XB6Q23Dvemosen4lS3jsDlM_y7S87q-3udvEpbfePZDm4DKq1J2HCzkB8jXfhK-A/s1600/Russia_Greenpeace-0f982-1833.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQS78a94aSGY_3wZ_0r2ALDL61aW3TZrcXIzdfjXZg5ljUVnFss2s8IpONWPzyo9SCCKFao6XB6Q23Dvemosen4lS3jsDlM_y7S87q-3udvEpbfePZDm4DKq1J2HCzkB8jXfhK-A/s1600/Russia_Greenpeace-0f982-1833.jpg" height="271" width="400" /></a></div>
285. <div class="MsoNormal">
286. <br /></div>
287. <div class="MsoNormal">
288. <br /></div>
289. <div class="MsoNormal">
290. <br /></div>
291. <div class="MsoNormal">
292. <br /></div>
293. <div class="MsoNormal">
294. <br /></div>
295. <div class="MsoNormal">
296. <br /></div>
297. <div class="MsoNormal">
298. <br /></div>
299. <div class="MsoNormal">
300. <br /></div>
301. <div class="MsoNormal">
302. <br /></div>
303. <div class="MsoNormal">
304. <br /></div>
305. <div class="MsoNormal">
306. <br /></div>
307. <div class="MsoNormal">
308. <br /></div>
309. <div class="MsoNormal">
310. <br /></div>
311. <div class="MsoNormal">
312. <br /></div>
313. <div class="MsoNormal">
314. <br /></div>
315. <div class="MsoNormal">
316. Together with Peter Willcox who is known
317. for having been for the captain of the Rainbow Warrior when we were victims of
318. the <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/the-bombing-of-the-rainbow-war/" target="_blank">French Secret Services bomb attack</a> in Auckland New Zealand in 1985, Dima
319. Litvinov is the other "<i>Greenpeace Arctic 30</i>" that I know personally. The<a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/arctic-impacts/Peace-Dove/Arctic-30/" target="_blank"> Arctic 30</a> are the Greenpeace crew
320. currently jailed in Northern Russia for staging a peaceful protest against a
321. Gazprom oil drilling platform in international waters near Russian waters in
322. the Arctic Ocean.</div>
323. <div class="MsoNormal">
324. <br /></div>
325. <div class="MsoNormal">
326. <span lang="EN-GB">I worked with Dima in Russia two decades
327. ago. First in the late 1980s during the Perestroika when the country was still called
328. the USSR, and we continued in the early 1990s after the country imploded and had become the
329. Russian Federation. Together we uncovered the illegal dumping of radioactive
330. wastes in the Kara Sea and the Sea of Japan. It took us several years of John Le Carre-style campaigning to collect
331. all the evidence, which I distilled each year with official submissions at the
332. meetings of the <a href="http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Environment/SpecialProgrammesAndInitiatives/Pages/London-Convention-and-Protocol.aspx">London
333. Convention</a>, the international treaty that regulates the dumping of wastes
334. at sea, at the Headquarters of the UN’s International Maritime Organization (<a href="http://www.imo.org/">IMO</a>). All the delegates of the countries members of the London
335. Convention were stunned each time we brought more evidence from Russia. The
336. Soviet/Russian delegation maintaned for several years that we were fabricating the
337. data, but after sometime President Boris Yeltsin ordered an official investigation
338. that concluded we were right. All the data we’d collected were validated by the
339. Kremlin! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
340. <div class="MsoNormal">
341. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
342. <div class="MsoNormal">
343. <span lang="EN-GB">At the time, there was a worldwide moratorium
344. on the dumping of radioactive wastes at sea. <a href="http://vardagroup.org/images/odhistory.pdf">I’d worked intensely for a
345. whole decade</a> first to get that moratorium adopted, and then to turn it into
346. a permanent ban, and the evidence we collected with Dima was very important to
347. bring the radioactive waste dumping issue on top of the international agenda.
348. In November 1993, exactly 20 years ago now, our campaign bore fruits and the
349. Parties to the London Convention agreed to ban permanently the dumping of all
350. radioactive wastes at sea worldwide. This permanent prohibition is
351. legally-binding on all the Parties to the London Convention, as well as all the
352. Parties to the Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS). In other words, the ban
353. applies to all countries in the world, even to the Russia Federation who lifted
354. its initial formal objection in 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
355. <div class="MsoNormal">
356. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
357. <div class="MsoNormal">
358. <span lang="EN-GB">Dima’s father <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Litvinov">Pavel</a> has just written <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/facing-russian-prison-for-a-peaceful-protest/2013/10/25/7de96ca6-3cc3-11e3-b7ba-503fb5822c3e_story.html">a beautiful piece in the Washington Post</a> in which he explains that Dima is the third
359. Litvinov generation to end up in a Russian jail for political reasons. Some of
360. the most vivid memories I have from my time in Russia is the excitement and enjoyment
361. of the young Dima for being able to return to his homeland from which he’d been
362. expelled when he was 10 after his dissident father was freed from the Gulag,
363. something he couldn’t have dreamt before Gorbachev started with his reforms. It
364. was a time of optimism for the Russian diaspora to which Dima belonged; he
365. reunited with relatives who’d staid in the USSR while he lived in exile in the
366. US, and he was happy and proud to join Russia’s emerging civil society. Most
367. people don’t know this, but Greenpeace was the very first international NGO to
368. take the risk to settle in the USSR as soon as the Perestroika began. Dima
369. moved to Moscow with his family for several years, and there he helped build Greenpeace
370. Russia. Dima was a Russian/US hybrid, and it was amazing to watch him operate,
371. and to watch how Soviet/Russian citizens were reacting to him.  </span>[Dima’s family
372. name added to the confusion: Dima’s great grand-father was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_Litvinov" target="_blank">Maksim Litvinov</a>, a
373. hero of the October Revolution and Foreign Affairs Minister in the early times
374. of the USSR, who was replaced and sent in disgrace by Stalin before the
375. USSR-Germany Pact of non-aggression of 1939].</div>
376. <div class="MsoNormal">
377. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
378. <div class="MsoNormal">
379. <span lang="EN-GB">It is sad to see how the wind of optimism that
380. was blowing two decades ago in Russia and elsewhere vanished (remember everyone
381. talking of the “<i>dividends of Peace</i>”?).
382. The return to a Russian jail of a member of the Litvinov family summarizes it
383. all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
384. <div class="MsoNormal">
385. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
386. <div class="MsoNormal">
387. <span lang="EN-GB">Beyond the environmental aspects, behind the
388. fate of the Arctic 30 there is a wider <i>right-to-protest
389. </i>and <i>freedom-of-speech</i> issue. If you
390. agree, you can sign up to the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/right2pp">Hands Up
391. for the Right to Peaceful Protest</a> Facebook page. </span></div>
392. <div class="MsoNormal">
393. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
394. <div class="MsoNormal">
395. <span lang="EN-GB"><i>My thoughts of course also go to the beautiful <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/es/node/43299" target="_blank">Pussy Riot</a> which to my mind is the most important music group/movement of the decade.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
396. <br />
397. <div class="MsoNormal">
398. <br /></div>
399. </div>
400. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/8020904175681446761'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/8020904175681446761'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2013/10/dima.html' title='Dima'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQS78a94aSGY_3wZ_0r2ALDL61aW3TZrcXIzdfjXZg5ljUVnFss2s8IpONWPzyo9SCCKFao6XB6Q23Dvemosen4lS3jsDlM_y7S87q-3udvEpbfePZDm4DKq1J2HCzkB8jXfhK-A/s72-c/Russia_Greenpeace-0f982-1833.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-6427311266411157172</id><published>2013-07-26T12:45:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2013-07-27T10:55:36.481+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Spain is different"/><title type='text'>The mad man who thinks he owns the sun</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
401. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
402. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AMZVvc7WmqSM8BCY3_Botu05ByF7pFScOFMlYOKEwzq25_NdXETndnpZbruKpI96tA2O8kfSKankFSyGp0ZSK_qY0gXInxKta19JfH23XL8hKGO45WFpkqj3y0tA0OeX9PyoTg/s1600/Energies+Libres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AMZVvc7WmqSM8BCY3_Botu05ByF7pFScOFMlYOKEwzq25_NdXETndnpZbruKpI96tA2O8kfSKankFSyGp0ZSK_qY0gXInxKta19JfH23XL8hKGO45WFpkqj3y0tA0OeX9PyoTg/s1600/Energies+Libres.jpg" height="400" width="382" /></a></div>
403. <br />
404. <br />
405. <br />
406. <br />
407. <br />
408. <br />
409. <br />
410. <br />
411. <br />
412. <br />
413. <br />
414. <br />
415. <br />
416. <br />
417. <br />
418. <br />
419. <br />
420. <br />
421. <br />
422. <br />
423. <br />
424. Among many other memorabilia of the environmental movement, in the entrance to my office there is a poster in French called "<b>Énergies Libres</b>".  Dating back from around 1976 or 1977 and authored by Jean-Marc Reiser, one of Paris' leading underground artists of the time, the poster was made to promote one of the very first exhibitions displayed in the then brand new Pompidou Centre in the heart of Paris, dedicated to wind, solar and other alternative sources of energy -- pretty much a science fiction-like proposition at the time. Looking back nearly fourty years later, it was not only amazing that we, green pioneers, were already pointing to a future that has now become a reality, but also a daring sign that it was displayed in the museum named after President Pompidou, the very same who'd launched in 1973 (one year before his death) France's massive <i>Tout Nucléaire</i> programme. Of course, conventional wisdom at the time suggested that we were <i>mad</i> to believe that solar, wind and other alternative sources of energy would play a role in the future. But now, with France and the rest of the world desperately looking for the right <a href="http://www.transition-energetique.gouv.fr/" target="_blank">energy transition path</a>, we're paying a high price for the nuclear and fossil fuels addiction <i>madness</i>. Future generations will continue to pay forever for the decommissioning of nuclear installations, the storage of nuclear wastes, and the costs of climate change. As <a href="http://www.ren21.net/" target="_blank">REN21</a>, the global renewable energy multistakeholders platform points out in their Renewables Global Energy Futures report, "<i>the future of renewables is a choice, not a foregone conclusion</i>."<br />
425. <br />
426. Looking at my old framed poster during a visit at my office this week, a Spanish University professor was interested to see that in the 1970s renewables were called "énergies libres"-- <b>free energy.</b> Free like in "<i>good bye to the monthly invoice from your local electricity company</i>", and also free like in "<i>freedom, self-made, autonomy</i>".  "<i>That's why Rajoy has declared war against renewables!</i>", he said, "<i>he doesn't want people to be free!</i>". The professor was referring to the latest of a series of measures taken or proposed by Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to dismantle Spain's renewable energy sector, once one of the most flourishing worldwide.<br />
427. <br />
428. In a surprise move last week, Spain's Industry Ministry announced that <a href="http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/07/09/opinion/1373399842_313999.html" target="_blank">people and businesses producing their own electricity with photovoltaic cells would have to pay a toll 27% higher than the tax consumers pay for conventional energy</a>. In the country that attracts millions of tourists every year with the slogan "<i>Everything under the Sun</i>", the Spanish Government's attempt to privatize sun rays only benefits a handful of electricity corporations and castigates small entrepreneurs and individuals who have invested in good faith to boost clean energy. This is madness. It doesn't make any economic sense in a country where more than 80% of energy needs are covered by foreign imports (fossil fuels and uranium) despite a high tech domestic renewables sector that instead needs enhancing public policies. It doesn't make environmental sense either, in one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change according the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">IPCC</a>) and with an increasingly obsolete and aging nuclear park. As <a href="http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/07/09/opinion/1373399842_313999.html" target="_blank">Teresa Ribera</a>, a former Secretary of State for Climate Change Policy puts it, "<i>charging a toll for self production doesn't make sense; it's like charging for lightening firewood.</i>"<br />
429. <br />
430. I don't know if it's because he's caught a sun burn, but it looks like Prime Minister Mariano <i>Fossil </i>Rajoy has gone mad this summer.<br />
431. <br /></div>
432. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/6427311266411157172'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/6427311266411157172'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-mad-man-who-thinks-he-owns-sun.html' title='The mad man who thinks he owns the sun'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AMZVvc7WmqSM8BCY3_Botu05ByF7pFScOFMlYOKEwzq25_NdXETndnpZbruKpI96tA2O8kfSKankFSyGp0ZSK_qY0gXInxKta19JfH23XL8hKGO45WFpkqj3y0tA0OeX9PyoTg/s72-c/Energies+Libres.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-3835851025693629186</id><published>2013-06-04T20:41:00.001+02:00</published><updated>2013-07-26T18:56:35.852+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Miscellaneous"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Politics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>News from Zaraland</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
433. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
434. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGnVGfvlokC0PxMVBoKaT2nXHZie0f0k7wY-cgZdeYujzOhkV8kaAdtNgiFmwU4shL58SUKwdD0kqdNK5bEvv3bktrp3ho2w8NbP8Lao3FqAkiWSSIQENhXj9QmvCVxGENnvUr6A/s1600/Sol+Vodafone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGnVGfvlokC0PxMVBoKaT2nXHZie0f0k7wY-cgZdeYujzOhkV8kaAdtNgiFmwU4shL58SUKwdD0kqdNK5bEvv3bktrp3ho2w8NbP8Lao3FqAkiWSSIQENhXj9QmvCVxGENnvUr6A/s1600/Sol+Vodafone.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
435. <br />
436. <br />
437. <br />
438. <br />
439. <br />
440. <br />
441. <br />
442. <br />
443. <br />
444. <br />
445. <br />
446. <br />
447. <br />
448. <br />
449. <br />
450. <br />
451. When I read a few weeks ago that the local "government" of the Madrid region in Spain had signed <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/10016166/Madrid-rebrands-metro-in-Vodafone-deal.html" target="_blank">a contract with a telecom company</a> to change the name of Madrid's "kilometre zero" <i>Puerta del Sol</i> metro station, I thought it could only be a joke. It was near the time of April fools day I'd read the news, after all. For weeks I did not see any change at <i>Puerta del Sol</i>, so I'd got convinced that it was only a social media urban legend...Until I took this photo this week! I guess the contract between the government and Vodafone was becoming effective at 1st June.<br />
452. <br />
453. So, if in Spain a local government can decide to change for money the name of its most famous metro station, what's the next step? Change the street names for brand names? [<b>Avenida del GAP</b>] The cities' names? [<b>Toyota-City</b>] And -- why not? -- the name of Spain? [<b>Zaraland</b>, <b>Pepsi-Country</b>, or <b>Kingdom of Bankia</b>].<br />
454. <br />
455. Meanwhile, Madrid's public transport, and Spain's public health and education systems continue to deteriorate...</div>
456. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/3835851025693629186'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/3835851025693629186'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2013/06/news-from-zaraland.html' title='News from Zaraland'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGnVGfvlokC0PxMVBoKaT2nXHZie0f0k7wY-cgZdeYujzOhkV8kaAdtNgiFmwU4shL58SUKwdD0kqdNK5bEvv3bktrp3ho2w8NbP8Lao3FqAkiWSSIQENhXj9QmvCVxGENnvUr6A/s72-c/Sol+Vodafone.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-8008429144577804336</id><published>2013-03-16T02:05:00.000+01:00</published><updated>2013-03-16T08:55:50.051+01:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biodiversity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Hoovering the seabed</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
457. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
458. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOfbZUW73HnMxjSyfnyDeOjEHXogAgK544zmV1HKskXLRV2wU75yZDcOFCtNNfGfAeISCFzAFv3u88IHkQW5a70lET07bCrvK6C8TnTcgckWbAoZVnVhqPZ9ldzulahkyDE4_bA/s1600/periphylla48_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOfbZUW73HnMxjSyfnyDeOjEHXogAgK544zmV1HKskXLRV2wU75yZDcOFCtNNfGfAeISCFzAFv3u88IHkQW5a70lET07bCrvK6C8TnTcgckWbAoZVnVhqPZ9ldzulahkyDE4_bA/s400/periphylla48_500.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
459. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">We'd heard about seabed mining plans and operations in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-04/an-png-mp-wants-no-delays-on-seabed-mining-project/4498588" target="_blank">Papua New Guinea</a>, <a href="http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/seabed-mining-poised-for-takeoff.html" target="_blank">Indonesia, Namibia</a>, the <a href="http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11156" target="_blank">Arctic</a> and elsewhere before. We also heard this week that Japan was developping <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21752441" target="_blank">technology to trap methane hydrate</a> near its coast. And now it looks like the deepsea mining race will soon become a reality. Lookheed Martin UK and the UK Government want a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21774447" target="_blank">licence to hoover the seabed of a large area in the Pacific Ocean</a> to grab valuable minerals. Russia, China and other countries are also on the go for what the British Prime Minister David Cameron describes as the new "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/mar/14/david-cameron-seabed-mining-worth-40bn" target="_blank">global race</a>".</span><br />
460. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><br /></span>
461. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">We need a strong watchdog in place before it starts and irreversible damage could begin. </span><br />
462. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><br /></span>
463. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">Look at the social and environmental damage the mining industry has done <a href="http://www.earthworksaction.org/" target="_blank">on land</a>. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">Do you think they will "behave" under the sea if no-one's watching and if there's no proper monitoring and accountability?</span><br />
464. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><br /></span>
465. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">Maybe someone should raise the issue (raise questions or raise hell?) in Sydney in the month of May when the Extractiive Industries Transparency Initiative (<a href="http://eiti.org/" target="_blank">EITI</a>) holds its <a href="http://eiti.org/sydney2013" target="_blank">Global Conference</a>? I'm sure a lot of "reasonable" people will say "it's not on the agenda". Well, let's take over and set the agenda, then! [Ill send the link to this post to a few Sydney-based friends and colleagues -- like a bottle in the ocean which they might or might not pick up] </span><br />
466. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><br /></span>
467. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">I've just been confirmed as a "<a href="http://www.hautemer2013.lecese.fr/documents/high_sea_program.pdf" target="_blank">special guest</a>" at the French Government conference <a href="http://www.hautemer2013.lecese.fr/" target="_blank">The Hgh Seas, Our Future</a> on 11 April in Paris. Another opportunity to bring up this issue maybe, don't you think?</span></div>
468. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/8008429144577804336'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/8008429144577804336'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2013/03/hoovering-seabed.html' title='Hoovering the seabed'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOfbZUW73HnMxjSyfnyDeOjEHXogAgK544zmV1HKskXLRV2wU75yZDcOFCtNNfGfAeISCFzAFv3u88IHkQW5a70lET07bCrvK6C8TnTcgckWbAoZVnVhqPZ9ldzulahkyDE4_bA/s72-c/periphylla48_500.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-1867496886353487874</id><published>2013-02-12T16:04:00.002+01:00</published><updated>2013-02-15T14:44:49.653+01:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biodiversity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Global Ocean Commission: Sexy and exciting?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
469. <br />
470. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
471. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaLQVkM4KkxsI2d_TFZ50YftHxDna7GSIgCOhCeA-52T3OqzBDPJCpWUJXSqrVt5YJ2_4cwLm3GUlnUR_eYgBPQDp6xAdCgBNcm8YrqXoEsJrq8Yb1w3n3vHB4pB5mGIfPPsQxlg/s1600/Feb+2013+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaLQVkM4KkxsI2d_TFZ50YftHxDna7GSIgCOhCeA-52T3OqzBDPJCpWUJXSqrVt5YJ2_4cwLm3GUlnUR_eYgBPQDp6xAdCgBNcm8YrqXoEsJrq8Yb1w3n3vHB4pB5mGIfPPsQxlg/s400/Feb+2013+001.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
472. <div class="MsoNormal">
473. <br /></div>
474. <div class="MsoNormal">
475. </div>
476. <div class="MsoNormal">
477. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
478. <div class="MsoNormal">
479. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
480. <div class="MsoNormal">
481. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
482. <div class="MsoNormal">
483. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
484. <div class="MsoNormal">
485. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
486. <div class="MsoNormal">
487. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
488. <div class="MsoNormal">
489. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
490. <div class="MsoNormal">
491. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
492. <div class="MsoNormal">
493. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
494. <div class="MsoNormal">
495. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
496. <div class="MsoNormal">
497. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
498. <div class="MsoNormal">
499. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
500. <div class="MsoNormal">
501. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
502. <div class="MsoNormal">
503. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
504. <div class="MsoNormal">
505. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
506. <div class="MsoNormal">
507. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m writing from London where I’m attending today the
508. launch of the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/"><span lang="EN-US">Global Ocean Commission</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">, a project
509. I’ve been working with in an advisory capacity since its inception more than
510. two years ago.</span></div>
511. <div class="MsoNormal">
512. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
513. <div class="MsoNormal">
514. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Co-chaired by the former UK Foreign Secretary </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/the-commissioners/david-miliband/"><span lang="EN-US">David Miliband</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">,
515. the former South African Finance Minister </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/the-commissioners/trevor-manuel/"><span lang="EN-US">Trevor Manuel</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">
516. and the former President of Costa Rica </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/the-commissioners/jose-maria-figueres/"><span lang="EN-US">José María Figueres</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">,
517. the Global Ocean Commission is made up of about a dozen former leaders from the
518. five continents, augmented by business giants. Many are still active in
519. national politics or branches of the UN system. At first sight it may not look
520. like the most <i>sexy</i> international
521. environmental initiative. It’s not the first commission to be set up when the
522. international community faces obstacles in addressing an issue - one of the
523. most pressing here being the sustainable use and conservation of marine
524. biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. And the recommendations
525. these commissions come up with are too often ignored, albeit politely. So, <b>what’s the big deal</b> here? What’s the <b>added value</b>?</span></span></div>
526. <div class="MsoNormal">
527. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
528. <div class="MsoNormal">
529. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Focused
530. mandate:</span></b></span></div>
531. <div class="MsoNormal">
532. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
533. <div class="MsoNormal">
534. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">We’ve seen that one weakness of many past
535. international commissions was a mandate that was too broad, resulting in a
536. message that’s hard to get. For example, some commissions come up with over a
537. hundred recommendations, so it’s hard for a key message to come across (apples
538. and oranges). In contrast, the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/about-the-commission/mandate/"><span lang="EN-US">mandate</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">
539. of the Global Ocean Commission is straightforward: the conservation and governance
540. of biodiversity and a remedy for overfishing on the high seas. The high seas is
541. a very large area (nearly 50% of the surface of the planet), but there are
542. commonalities that impact and concern every single one of us on this planet. The
543. international community can do something there if it wants, because the high
544. seas do not belong to anyone. It’s a question of political will. Overfishing
545. and food security; illegal fishing, piracy and other security issues; human
546. trafficking and other forms of social and labour abuse; unsustainable
547. exploitation of fisheries, mineral and genetic resources and the unfair repartition
548. of the benefits... Hopefully the sharp mandate can lead to sharp
549. recommendations, easy for all to understand and sufficiently practical to make a
550. difference.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
551. <div class="MsoNormal">
552. <br /></div>
553. <div class="MsoNormal">
554. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
555. <div class="MsoNormal">
556. <b>Not the usual
557. suspects:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
558. <div class="MsoNormal">
559. <b><br /></b></div>
560. <div class="MsoNormal">
561. </div>
562. <div class="MsoNormal">
563. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Environmental activists like me, lawyers, marine
564. biologists and climatologists have been drawing attention for years to the fate
565. of the high seas. For example, a decade ago I helped to create the Deep Sea
566. Conservation Coalition (</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://savethehighseas.org/"><span lang="EN-US">DSCC</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">), and more
567. recently I worked with the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://highseasalliance.org/"><span lang="EN-US">High Seas Alliance</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
568. at the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://chezremi.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/other-half-of-earth-summit.html"><span lang="EN-US">Rio+20 Earth Summit</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
569. of June 2012. All that time (let alone previously in my 25 years in leadership
570. positions within Greenpeace) we’ve done great work, and it’s true the state of
571. the ocean and the rest of the planet would be much worse if we hadn’t taken action.
572. But I think it’s meaningful that people such as </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/the-commissioners/sir-ratan-tata/"><span lang="EN-US">Ratan Tata</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
573. of India, </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/the-commissioners/yoriko-kawaguchi/"><span lang="EN-US">Yoriko Kawaguchi</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
574. of Japan and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/the-commissioners/pascal-lamy/"><span lang="EN-US">Pascal Lamy</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> from
575. France are willing to acknowledge the importance of the issues and lead an
576. initiative to tackle them. These and <a href="http://www.globaloceancommission.org/the-commissioners/" target="_blank">the rest of the Global Ocean Commissioners</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> are people who’ve had to deal with
577. extremely complex issues throughout their careers, so it will be interesting to
578. see what their collective expertise brings. People such as me who’ve  been “in that tunnel” since unmemorable times
579. should be interested to see if and how the Global Ocean Commissioners  come up with new ideas that can bring a bit of
580. fresh air to the debate. At the time of writing, the Commission hasn’t even
581. been formally launched yet (it will take place at 1830 GMT on Tuesday), but
582. already a glance at Google and Twitter indicates that that people are intrigued.</span></div>
583. <div class="MsoNormal">
584. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
585. <div class="MsoNormal">
586. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Independent
587. and relevant:</b></span></div>
588. <div class="MsoNormal">
589. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
590. <div class="MsoNormal">
591. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">As former leaders, all the members of the Global Ocean
592. Commission have agreed to join in an independent capacity, regardless of other
593. responsibilities they may hold within their government, parliament, party,
594. organisation or corporation. This is important, because one lesson learned from
595. past commissions and UN high level panels is that it’s important to be clear as
596. to whether participants are there on their own behalf, as truly independent
597. minds, or whether they’re just messengers. But even though many of the
598. Commissioners are described as </span><i style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">former</i><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">,
599. they’re still relevant: they’re people likely to continue to be active and influential
600. in the future, which is important.</span></span></div>
601. <div class="MsoNormal">
602. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
603. <div class="MsoNormal">
604. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Time-bound:</b></span></div>
605. <div class="MsoNormal">
606. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
607. <div class="MsoNormal">
608. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The Global Ocean Commission and its Secretariat,
609. established at Somerville College, University of Oxford, have been set up for a
610. short period of time. The Commission will meet four times between now and
611. March/April 2014 when it is scheduled to issue its final report. In other words
612. it’s a </span><i style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">biodegradable commission</i><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">. Thus,
613. if the recommendations are good, it can empower governments, academics, civil
614. society and private sector organisations to get in motion and come to grips
615. with key high seas governance issues, both existing and emerging. As the
616. Co-chairs are already acknowledging, the Commission will need the input of all
617. these sectors if it is to make balanced, pragmatic recommendations, and the
618. support of all these sectors to turn them into reality.</span></span></div>
619. <div class="MsoNormal">
620. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
621. <div class="MsoNormal">
622. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Right timing:</b></span></div>
623. <div class="MsoNormal">
624. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
625. <div class="MsoNormal">
626. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">At the Rio+20 Summit last year, governments already
627. agreed that the session of the UN General Assembly that will begin in September
628. 2014 will consider the issues the Global Ocean Commission is set to address. As
629. a result, the timing of the Commission’s final report is optimum, six months
630. before the UN General Assembly. It can be the curtain-raiser that all important
631. debates need, to help governments get the right focus. So, there’s a good
632. chance that the Global Ocean Commission report doesn’t end up buried under a
633. thick layer of dust.</span></span></div>
634. <div class="MsoNormal">
635. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
636. <div class="MsoNormal">
637. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">All the ingredients are there, it seems.</span></span></div>
638. <div class="MsoNormal">
639. <br />
640. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available i<u>n español</u>, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-ambiental-de-efeverde/cdo-creadores-de-opinion/la-comision-oceano-mundial-algo-sexy-y-excitante-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ)</a> on</em></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em><b> the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</b></em></span></div>
641. </div>
642. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/1867496886353487874'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/1867496886353487874'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2013/02/global-ocean-commission-sexy-and.html' title='Global Ocean Commission: Sexy and exciting?'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaLQVkM4KkxsI2d_TFZ50YftHxDna7GSIgCOhCeA-52T3OqzBDPJCpWUJXSqrVt5YJ2_4cwLm3GUlnUR_eYgBPQDp6xAdCgBNcm8YrqXoEsJrq8Yb1w3n3vHB4pB5mGIfPPsQxlg/s72-c/Feb+2013+001.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-2269972434518128542</id><published>2012-10-08T13:14:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-23T20:50:20.696+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biodiversity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Poster Child</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
643. <br />
644. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
645. <br /></div>
646. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
647. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnTADCiIFsZSwU4TetcQOjAqeA67R-hk-Y0ox6o1myvXCQWDqR7JKE4h0re3L77xtmBg_MrHh4dhCLriVIGCW9GJwW5a48H5zJeOx3Y_-lktUkQ4aXWDFa1PMGjG4fvW3n4smzQ/s1600/Tokyo3001+122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnTADCiIFsZSwU4TetcQOjAqeA67R-hk-Y0ox6o1myvXCQWDqR7JKE4h0re3L77xtmBg_MrHh4dhCLriVIGCW9GJwW5a48H5zJeOx3Y_-lktUkQ4aXWDFa1PMGjG4fvW3n4smzQ/s320/Tokyo3001+122.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
648. <div class="MsoNormal">
649. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
650. <div class="MsoNormal">
651. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
652. <div class="MsoNormal">
653. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
654. <div class="MsoNormal">
655. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
656. <div class="MsoNormal">
657. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
658. <div class="MsoNormal">
659. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
660. <div class="MsoNormal">
661. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
662. <div class="MsoNormal">
663. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
664. <div class="MsoNormal">
665. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
666. <div class="MsoNormal">
667. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
668. <div class="MsoNormal">
669. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
670. <div class="MsoNormal">
671. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
672. <div class="MsoNormal">
673. <br />
674. <br /></div>
675. <div class="MsoNormal">
676. <span lang="EN-US">Mediterranean
677. Bluefin tuna ranchers are believed to be at the origin of the </span><a href="http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2012/09/23/actualidad/1348422134_753348.html"><span lang="EN-US">publication by the Spanish newspaper
678. El País</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> two weeks
679. ago of a draft report of the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics
680. (SCRS) of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (</span><a href="http://www.iccat.int/"><span lang="EN-US">ICCAT</span></a><span lang="EN-US">). The SCRS report, the tuna
681. ranchers said in a nutshell, shows that environmentalists had it all wrong:
682. there are plenty of Bluefin tunas in the Mediterranean; so many that
683. restrictions ought to be reviewed and fishing quotas increased at ICCAT’s
684. annual meeting next month in Agadir, Morocco.</span></div>
685. <div class="MsoNormal">
686. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
687. <div class="MsoNormal">
688. <span lang="EN-US">I’ve been following
689. the work of ICCAT’s SCRS quite closely in the last few weeks, and I was at the
690. experts meeting where the report leaked by the Bluefin tuna industry was
691. drafted at the beginning of September, so maybe I can help throw some light on
692. what’s actually going on.</span></div>
693. <div class="MsoNormal">
694. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
695. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
696. </div>
697. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
698. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGdbAy9klS2R3XIrYAS5J3AqAl2oUC9Iij_spigcN81gAcXzStYKUUh2JDh0l-HwWvYdZcWtgPjdZH_vva7MpGisANPCFxqpWRnaoD-YD2qVzDLDP9Ko0EIyGlJZz10eFALltPQ/s1600/Tokyo3001+089.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaGdbAy9klS2R3XIrYAS5J3AqAl2oUC9Iij_spigcN81gAcXzStYKUUh2JDh0l-HwWvYdZcWtgPjdZH_vva7MpGisANPCFxqpWRnaoD-YD2qVzDLDP9Ko0EIyGlJZz10eFALltPQ/s320/Tokyo3001+089.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
699. <div class="MsoNormal">
700. <span lang="EN-US">Until 2009,
701. the 48 member governments of ICCAT used to ignore the advice of their own
702. scientists when setting Bluefin catch limits and quotas for the Eastern
703. Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. This led to the severe depletion of the
704. species’ Eastern Atlantic stock which spawns in the Mediterranean Sea. That’s
705. why the Mediterranean Bluefin tuna became the <i>poster child</i> of marine biological diversity loss. Bluefin tuna had
706. become in the 1980s a high value commodity worth over one billion dollars annually on the international
707. market, and a large network of tuna ranchers with tentacles in many
708. Mediterranean countries (France, Spain, Libya, Turkey, Croatia, Malta, Tunisia,
709. Greece, etc. and of course with links in Japan and other consumer countries)
710. routinely extracted and towed millions of juveniles and adults from their
711. spawning grounds into large cages to fatten and ship them to Japan and other
712. countries.</span></div>
713. <div class="MsoNormal">
714. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
715. <div class="MsoNormal">
716. <span lang="EN-US">As a
717. regional fisheries organization set up to secure “conservation” of the species,
718. ICCAT was put on the spot and – recognizing that the situation was out of
719. control – in 2006 it said it would enact regulations to seek the recovery of
720. the species by 2022. A reporting scheme known as the Bluefin Catch Document
721. System (BCD) was set up by ICCAT after 2007 to track down how many fish are
722. caught, and in 2010 quotas were set to 12,900 metric tons for the Eastern
723. Atlantic (including the Mediterranean). As a result, there’s an overcapacity of
724. the fleet of large purse seiners catching the fish in the Mediterranean spawning
725. grounds; in only two to three weeks they normally fulfill their quotas. The
726. Bluefin tuna purse seine fishing season every year in May looks like the <i>gold rush</i>, and there’s a strong industry
727. lobby in Brussels and elsewhere to increase the catch limits.</span></div>
728. <div class="MsoNormal">
729. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
730. <div class="MsoNormal">
731. <span lang="EN-US">It’s true
732. that the SCRS believes that Bluefins in the Mediterranean are likely to be on
733. their way to recovery. But what they’re recommending unanimously now is that
734. the catch restrictions stay where they are – at least for now. <b>Do not increase the quotas</b> is the key
735. message from the governments’ experts.</span></div>
736. <div class="MsoNormal">
737. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
738. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
739. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxkgR_urzUphLdDjQB8cN3AOfrqo3N0xtEyhS93ipVO4ErUdBwsIzw9brMBKMASzE1AjsTAYMqNojxTjYyxsops3hWVyr73Dx6kxCYFg8OKfz3mfj8gk9kJdKeI1sYHzlydP_BJA/s1600/Tokyo3001+121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxkgR_urzUphLdDjQB8cN3AOfrqo3N0xtEyhS93ipVO4ErUdBwsIzw9brMBKMASzE1AjsTAYMqNojxTjYyxsops3hWVyr73Dx6kxCYFg8OKfz3mfj8gk9kJdKeI1sYHzlydP_BJA/s320/Tokyo3001+121.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
740. <div class="MsoNormal">
741. <span lang="EN-US">I’ve read
742. this experts’ final report; <b>in the
743. Executive Summary alone (8 pages)</b> <b>I
744. found the word “uncertainty” mentioned 18 times</b>. We’re talking of very big
745. fish but nevertheless it’s impossible to count them one by one even with
746. spotter planes, photo or satellite tracking, so the experts are working with
747. complex computer models fed with data which include assumptions which
748. policy-makers need to take into consideration. In its conclusions the report
749. says that there’s “at least a 60% chance” that the species is on its way to
750. recovery.  This is why they’re calling
751. for precaution and are asking governments not to increase the quotas, at least
752. until a more complete assessment can be made in 2015. It would be wrong to
753. relax the efforts now, just when they appear to start bearing fruits.</span></div>
754. <div class="MsoNormal">
755. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
756. <div class="MsoNormal">
757. <span lang="EN-US">A key issue
758. is whether the industry is actually respecting the catch limits. It’s widely
759. known that the current manual Bluefin Catch Documentation system (BCD) adopted
760. in 2007 is insufficient (there can be mistakes and errors, deliberate or not);
761. in 2010 it was agreed to replace it by an electronic system (EBCD) that would
762. allow ICCAT to track down in real time what’s going on. But this electronic
763. system is not yet in place.</span></div>
764. <div class="MsoNormal">
765. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
766. <div class="MsoNormal">
767. <span lang="EN-US">ICCAT has
768. received in the last couple of years at least four studies comparing the
769. reported catch data with international trade records, and there’s always a big
770. difference that remains unexplained. According to these studies, quite a lot
771. more fish is traded than officially caught. At the meeting I went to at the
772. beginning of September, the SCRS formed a small working group to look at these
773. reports in detail, and their recommendation calls for an independent review of
774. the trade data. Under these circumstances, it’s no surprise that the SCRS
775. unanimously believes that there should be no quota increase.</span></div>
776. <div class="MsoNormal">
777. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
778. <div class="MsoNormal">
779. <span lang="EN-US">After years
780. of being the <i>poster child</i> of marine
781. biodiversity loss, I really hope that the Mediterranean Bluefin can become the <i>poster child</i> of marine biodiversity
782. recovery. That we can soon say that when we all pull up our sleeves and take
783. environmental issues seriously, we can change the course of History. That’s
784. particularly important because the environment needs victories. But we’re not
785. quite there yet.</span><br />
786. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
787. <span lang="EN-US"><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available i<u>n español</u>, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos-ambientales/blogueros/la-blogosfera-ambiental-de-efeverde/cdo-creadores-de-opinion/atun-rojo-figura-emblematica-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ)</a><a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/lecciones-de-rio-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank"> </a></em></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em><b>on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE. And also, </b><u><b>en français</b></u><b> on <a href="http://www.wikiocean.org/2012/10/thon-rouge-totem-ou-tabou/" target="_blank">WIKIOCEAN</a></b><b>.</b></em></span></span></div>
788. <div class="MsoNormal">
789. <br /></div>
790. </div>
791. </content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/feeds/2269972434518128542/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/10/poster-child.html#comment-form' title='8 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/2269972434518128542'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/2269972434518128542'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/10/poster-child.html' title='Poster Child'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnTADCiIFsZSwU4TetcQOjAqeA67R-hk-Y0ox6o1myvXCQWDqR7JKE4h0re3L77xtmBg_MrHh4dhCLriVIGCW9GJwW5a48H5zJeOx3Y_-lktUkQ4aXWDFa1PMGjG4fvW3n4smzQ/s72-c/Tokyo3001+122.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>8</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-7458130448282558643</id><published>2012-09-23T15:29:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-08T17:21:58.501+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Arctic grab"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Software update</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
792. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
793. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqGvdM8q2HeQ3B-CefBo4F57Hvp7gWxhXGTCd7IXpHNXHuq06ewfsStGFe5iou2F8WUct3yVfRRtmoJlvl7DMQEl8Whe8iDx7GXb_3j1rjYST71-2YUmdGTxuZltRoiYf3ntDkAA/s1600/September+2012+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqGvdM8q2HeQ3B-CefBo4F57Hvp7gWxhXGTCd7IXpHNXHuq06ewfsStGFe5iou2F8WUct3yVfRRtmoJlvl7DMQEl8Whe8iDx7GXb_3j1rjYST71-2YUmdGTxuZltRoiYf3ntDkAA/s400/September+2012+004.JPG" width="362" /></a></div>
794. <br />
795. <br />
796. <br />
797. <br />
798. <br />
799. <br />
800. <br />
801. <br />
802. <br />
803. <br />
804. <br />
805. <br />
806. <br />
807. <br />
808. <br />
809. <br />
810. <br />
811. <br />
812. <br />
813. <br />
814. <br />
815. <br />
816. <br />
817. <br />
818. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.999998092651367px;">As I was flying from Madrid to New York yesterday, I noticed that airline companies need to update their software: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19652329" target="_blank">there isn't much of that Arctic ice left</a> in summer now. Watch out for <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/science/earth/arctic-resources-exposed-by-warming-set-off-competition.html?_r=3" target="_blank">big trouble</a> dead ahead.</span></div>
819. </content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/feeds/7458130448282558643/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/09/software-update.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/7458130448282558643'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/7458130448282558643'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/09/software-update.html' title='Software update'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqGvdM8q2HeQ3B-CefBo4F57Hvp7gWxhXGTCd7IXpHNXHuq06ewfsStGFe5iou2F8WUct3yVfRRtmoJlvl7DMQEl8Whe8iDx7GXb_3j1rjYST71-2YUmdGTxuZltRoiYf3ntDkAA/s72-c/September+2012+004.JPG" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-6498202495793191538</id><published>2012-07-04T12:22:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-08T18:05:32.266+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Politics"/><title type='text'>Fourth of July Quiz</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
820. <br />
821. <div>
822. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
823. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiaxR7D7bx1QEuO-zgDZ99a-yW3t9MSUvoh16Pg0BUC9KA8EJCRQDs9a-L6m_g4kCg-Hv9KswG31zj4J-uSy18J_rM_rAdRPSmtTxw_m4m__MgkBf4qoXVtMCJhkv-EHHG-EdHQ/s1600/Abril+2012+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiaxR7D7bx1QEuO-zgDZ99a-yW3t9MSUvoh16Pg0BUC9KA8EJCRQDs9a-L6m_g4kCg-Hv9KswG31zj4J-uSy18J_rM_rAdRPSmtTxw_m4m__MgkBf4qoXVtMCJhkv-EHHG-EdHQ/s400/Abril+2012+005.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
824. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><br /></span>
825. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><br /></span>
826. <br />
827. <br />
828. <br />
829. <br />
830. <br />
831. <br />
832. <br />
833. <br />
834. <br />
835. <br />
836. <br />
837. <br />
838. <br />
839. <br />
840. <br />
841. <br />
842. <br />
843. <br />
844. <br />
845. <br />
846. <br />
847. <br />
848. Here's a <b>Fourth of July Quiz</b> for you.<br />
849. <div>
850. <br /></div>
851. <div>
852. The following international instruments all have something in common. What is it?</div>
853. <div>
854. <br />
855. <div>
856. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">The <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm" target="_blank">UN Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> -- the <a href="http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/UNCLOS-TOC.htm" target="_blank">UN Convention on the Law of the Sea</a> -- the <a href="http://www.cbd.int/" target="_blank">UN Framework Convention on Biological Diversity</a> -- the <a href="http://www.who.int/fctc/en/" target="_blank">WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control</a> -- the<a href="http://www.basel.int/" target="_blank"> UNEP Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal</a> --- the <a href="http://chm.pops.int/default.aspx" target="_blank">UNEP Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants</a> -- the <a href="http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php/" target="_blank">Kyoto Protocol</a> to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change -- the <a href="http://www.icc-cpi.int/" target="_blank">Rome Statute of the international Criminal Court</a> -- the <a href="http://www.unog.ch/80256EE600585943/(httpPages)/CA826818C8330D2BC1257180004B1B2E?OpenDocument" target="_blank">UN Convention in the Prohibtion of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction</a> -- the <a href="http://www.ctbto.org/" target="_blank">Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty</a> -- The <a href="http://www.clusterconvention.org/" target="_blank">UN Convention on Cluster Munitions</a> -- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">[I'll stop here -- this list isn't exhaustive]</span></div>
857. </div>
858. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;"><br /></span>
859. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">We all know that the 4th of July is <a href="http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Independence-Day.shtml" target="_blank">Independence Day</a> in the USA. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">I wish they'd make it </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">Interdependence Day</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.27272605895996px;">.</span><br />
860. <br /></div>
861. </div>
862. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/6498202495793191538'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/6498202495793191538'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/07/fourth-of-july-quiz.html' title='Fourth of July Quiz'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiaxR7D7bx1QEuO-zgDZ99a-yW3t9MSUvoh16Pg0BUC9KA8EJCRQDs9a-L6m_g4kCg-Hv9KswG31zj4J-uSy18J_rM_rAdRPSmtTxw_m4m__MgkBf4qoXVtMCJhkv-EHHG-EdHQ/s72-c/Abril+2012+005.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-2810452278703847715</id><published>2012-06-22T19:09:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-08T13:16:08.539+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Lessons from Rio</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
863. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
864. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitS7_Ji54hWzsRHMtrvIm-06KphEKnR1Vxu0SYEt4sSmPcl4AakK8WJ5OuiXMIFLaYpDdHzhZGrRastywrbnZ8LZhSk9SId1ZIG58a5YtT3Rx42qH_8gJ4MTAA48kKW6x-FAbrnA/s1600/June+2012+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitS7_Ji54hWzsRHMtrvIm-06KphEKnR1Vxu0SYEt4sSmPcl4AakK8WJ5OuiXMIFLaYpDdHzhZGrRastywrbnZ8LZhSk9SId1ZIG58a5YtT3Rx42qH_8gJ4MTAA48kKW6x-FAbrnA/s400/June+2012+001.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
865. <div>
866. <br /></div>
867. <div>
868. <br /></div>
869. <div>
870. <br /></div>
871. <div>
872. <br /></div>
873. <div>
874. <br /></div>
875. <div>
876. <br /></div>
877. <div>
878. <br /></div>
879. <div>
880. <br /></div>
881. <div>
882. <br /></div>
883. <div>
884. <br /></div>
885. <div>
886. <br /></div>
887. <div>
888. <br /></div>
889. <div>
890. <br /></div>
891. <div>
892. <br /></div>
893. <div>
894. <br /></div>
895. <div>
896. <br /></div>
897. <br />
898. <br />
899. <br />
900. I have refrained from blogging for three days until today, the final day of the Rio+20 Earth Summit. Not only because I have been (and continue to be) extremely busy with a multitude of tasks here. But also because I wanted to wait for the dust to start settling. There has been a quasi-universal condemnation of the <a href="http://uncsd2012.org/thefuturewewant.html" target="_blank">Summit outcome</a> and the way it was conducted by the Brazilian Presidency. What Ban Ki-moon had rightly called a one-time-in-a-generation opportunity has failed us (and him). I understand and share the frustrations -- especially from those who attended such a summit for the first time, and in particular for the youth groups. But life goes on (or -- rather -- <b>Life <i>has to</i> go on</b>).<br />
901. <div>
902. <br /></div>
903. <div>
904. So, what lessons have we learned, and what are the next steps?<br />
905. <div>
906. <br /></div>
907. <div>
908. <b>Waste of time?</b></div>
909. <div>
910. <br /></div>
911. <div>
912. Now that the conference is almost over, many are asking whether such summits are a waste of time, and whether they are always doomed to failure. This is not new. For example I remember that even after the first Earth Summit in 1992 many commentators from NGOs were complaining that Agenda 21 was too weak, that it would not do the job, that the Rio 92 conventions had loopholes, etc. Yet, nowadays Rio 92 is always described as a milestone by the environmental movement. In Johannesburg ten years ago (Rio+10), frustration reached another level; even the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan  himself said on the final day that <i>"the era of large summits is over." </i>But<i> </i>when the UN General Assembly decided in December 2009 to organize Rio+20, there was renewed interest and broad participation, even though it is true that many people envisaged that governments in 2012 would not have the ambitions we need.</div>
913. <div>
914. <br /></div>
915. <div>
916. "Waste of time" are the words that Sarah Palin and her cronies from the Tea Party like to hear. Rio+20 has drawn considerable attention to the need to protect our environment and to build a more equitable and just world, even if it has not delivered. But it is true that in future it's got to happen differently.</div>
917. <div>
918. <br /></div>
919. <div>
920. <b>Reverse order?</b><br />
921. <div>
922. <br /></div>
923. <div>
924. Listening to the litany of speeches by the Heads of State and Government here in the last three days, and hearing all of them say that the environmental crisis is upon us, that we need action and not just words, effective targets and measurable progress are urgent, that we owe it to our children, etc, etc. reminded me that the way these summits are conducted needs a thorough re-think. Until now, the appearance of Heads of State and Government at such summits has taken place at the end, after a lengthy process where civil servants represent their countries (this time it started in New York in January, 2011). Civil servants are hard pressed to reach agreement before their bosses (Heads of State and Government, Ministers...) turn up. The result is a <i>race to the bottom</i>, the search for compromise at all cost, also known as the <i>lowest common denominator </i>which<i> </i>reflected this time in the document called "The future we Want" which oddly everyone says is not <i>the future we need</i>.</div>
925. </div>
926. <div>
927. <br /></div>
928. <div>
929. So, why not invite next time the Heads of State and Government to <i>speak first</i>? They would share their bold vision ("<span style="background-color: white;"><i>we need action and not just words, effective targets and measurable progress are urgent, we owe it to our children, etc."</i>). This would empower the negotiators to act more in conformity with what their bosses said, and they would presumably be less inclined to dive into the lowest common denominator pool. That would make a lot of sense; after all aren't the Heads of State and Government elected to lead?</span></div>
930. <div>
931. <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
932. <div>
933. <span style="background-color: white;"><b>Now What?</b></span></div>
934. <div>
935. <span style="background-color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
936. <div>
937. It's taking some time to develop strategies to work from the 49 page "Future we Want" document. But already there's a lot to build from in the document. Here are just a few examples:</div>
938. <div>
939. <ul style="text-align: left;">
940. <li>Heads of State and Government have given their benediction to the idea that a set of <b>Sustainable Development Goals</b> (SDGs) should be developed and launched before 2015. We'll have to push the envelope to make sure that the SDGs deliver the future we want;</li>
941. <li>Heads of State and Government have entrusted the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to launch a ten-year <b>Action Programme on Sustainable Production and Consumption</b>, something that the two President Bush had fiercely opposed at Rio 92 and Johannesburg 02 respectively. The future will tell if this Action Programme will be significant, but clearly Bush & Bush thought it could be, otherwise they would not have opposed it so fiercefully.</li>
942. <li>The section on <b>Oceans and Seas</b> contains important commitments to respect science-based management, eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing and fleets overcapacity, to combat illegal fishing, to guarantee access to fishing resources to small-scale artisanal fishers including indigenous peoples; </li>
943. <li>Also on Ocean, we were disappointed that -- due to the opposition of the US and Venezuela (strange bed fellows...), Russia, Canada and Japan -- there was no agreement to launch immediately negotiations of an international instrument for <b>high seas biodiversity conservation </b>(the areas beyond national jurisdiction that represent 45% of the surface of the planet and are subject to Wild West grab), but the importance of this issue is emphasized and the Future we Want includes the consideration of the development of this agreement in two years and a half;</li>
944. <li>Governments agree that it is wrong to measure wealth just on the basis of countries' <b>Gross National Products</b>; potentially this could be what the History books our grand-children will read may remember of the Rio+20 Summit.</li>
945. </ul>
946. <div>
947. Because I've been at many summits and international fora, maybe I've got a tough skin and once the initial anger has passed I'm ready to go on. But what's most important is that all the young people who've been here don't get discouraged. They've got to be back the next time!</div>
948. <div>
949. <br /></div>
950. <div>
951. A metamorphosis takes more time than a revolution. But maybe it will have more lasting effects. </div>
952. </div>
953. <div>
954. <span style="color: #330066; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
955. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/lecciones-de-rio-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ) </a></em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</em></strong>
956. </div>
957. </div>
958. </div>
959. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/2810452278703847715'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/2810452278703847715'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/06/lessons-from-rio.html' title='Lessons from Rio'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitS7_Ji54hWzsRHMtrvIm-06KphEKnR1Vxu0SYEt4sSmPcl4AakK8WJ5OuiXMIFLaYpDdHzhZGrRastywrbnZ8LZhSk9SId1ZIG58a5YtT3Rx42qH_8gJ4MTAA48kKW6x-FAbrnA/s72-c/June+2012+001.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-4574040572729881075</id><published>2012-06-19T22:24:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-03T13:58:47.563+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Saving face or saving the Planet?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
960. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
961. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMqyefZI89q_8MyyuywYb_vRv1Hc1sklBl9854PD62bX7NaXz9VscA6Vo7EAE-4phXiqV_0cFto0YMA2VaRL5johSbYICaFJ23UgHj0XQLSufs13xC685puCIwyNCVXBeuteH6yw/s1600/June+2012+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMqyefZI89q_8MyyuywYb_vRv1Hc1sklBl9854PD62bX7NaXz9VscA6Vo7EAE-4phXiqV_0cFto0YMA2VaRL5johSbYICaFJ23UgHj0XQLSufs13xC685puCIwyNCVXBeuteH6yw/s400/June+2012+009.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
962. <br />
963. <br />
964. <br />
965. <br />
966. <br />
967. <br />
968. <br />
969. <br />
970. <br />
971. <br />
972. <br />
973. <br />
974. <br />
975. <br />
976. <br />
977. <br />
978. <br />
979. <br />
980. <br />
981. There was general disappointment last night when the Brazilian presidency of the Rio+20 Earth Summit bullied delegations into accepting a considerably watered down draft of the declaration to be brought forward for approval by Heads of State and Government tomorrow.<br />
982. <br />
983. <span style="background-color: white;">And there was shock at the way the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Patriota banged the gavel at the beginning of the plenary this morning to declare the text adopted without giving any time to delegations to react or take the floor.</span><br />
984. <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
985. <span style="background-color: white;">The group of African countries demanded during the Plenary that the text be amended to include a decision to adopt a new name, UN World Environment Organization,  for the 40 year old UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which the document pledges to strengthen. But Patriota completely ignored them.</span><br />
986. <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
987. However, I have now heard that the Brazilian Communication Minister recognized publically this afternoon that the Heads of State and Government could introduce amendments to the text tomorrow. And I just came from the press conference of the US delegation, where Todd Stern, US Special Envoy on Climate Change also recognized that this was possible, even though of course he said he did not hope so and thought that -- as we know -- the Brazilian presidency would do everything in its power to prevent this from happening.<br />
988. <br />
989. Our hope has been that the Heads of State and Government come to Rio to save the Planet, not to save face. Technically this is still possible. But do they have the political will?<br />
990. <br />
991. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ)</a> </em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</em></strong>
992. </div>
993. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/4574040572729881075'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/4574040572729881075'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/06/saving-face-or-saving-planet.html' title='Saving face or saving the Planet?'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMqyefZI89q_8MyyuywYb_vRv1Hc1sklBl9854PD62bX7NaXz9VscA6Vo7EAE-4phXiqV_0cFto0YMA2VaRL5johSbYICaFJ23UgHj0XQLSufs13xC685puCIwyNCVXBeuteH6yw/s72-c/June+2012+009.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-204449172124441933</id><published>2012-06-17T16:17:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2013-03-05T11:56:16.751+01:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biodiversity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>The other half of the Earth Summit</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
994. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
995. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmmaxXKIjKKBiPuOlyeSk1NPWGzdWLgA1r2ZeSFAIEYsa49ez4w7nnI0267PJG3CSRSj3q6IOUX3vUn3RGmuTnhVCYVIjJPWALAPjYuJDzcJV06073PzXaiYfPeZRmVTIhEBADqw/s1600/Seafood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmmaxXKIjKKBiPuOlyeSk1NPWGzdWLgA1r2ZeSFAIEYsa49ez4w7nnI0267PJG3CSRSj3q6IOUX3vUn3RGmuTnhVCYVIjJPWALAPjYuJDzcJV06073PzXaiYfPeZRmVTIhEBADqw/s400/Seafood.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
996. <b><br /></b>
997. <b><br /></b>
998. <b><br /></b>
999. <b><br /></b>
1000. <b><br /></b>
1001. <b><br /></b>
1002. <b><br /></b>
1003. <b><br /></b>
1004. <b><br /></b>
1005. <b><br /></b>
1006. <b><br /></b>
1007. <b><br /></b>
1008. <b><br /></b>
1009. <b><br /></b>
1010. <b><br /></b>
1011. <b><br /></b>
1012. <b><br /></b>
1013. <b><br /></b>
1014. <b><br /></b>
1015. <b>Rio de Janeiro --</b> One of the organizers of the Rio+20 Earth Summit saw the smile on my face yesterday afternoon when I was reading the new negotiating document prepared at the 11th hour by the Brazilian presidency to shake and advance the negotiation. So, knowing that my main priority during the nearly two years of preparation and negotiation in New York and Rio has been to secure a strong outcome for ocean conservation, he came to me and said <i>"the ocean text is fine? That's a good news, because the rest is a pity!"</i><br />
1016. <i><br /></i>
1017. Since the Rio+20 process began I've been working on Oceans with the <a href="http://highseasalliance.org/" target="_blank">High Seas Alliance</a>, a large coaltion of  23 organizations formed to promote high seas conservation, to push the Ocean conservation agenda at Rio+20. So we're excited now that the Brazilian Government signaled yesterday that the Ocean is one of their four priorities for the summit, together with the Sustainable Development Goals (targets to be achieved between 2015 and 2030), the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development (international governance), and the Means of Implementation (money and financial mechanisms). The Working Group on Oceans has been meeting last night, and we're meeting again this morning.<br />
1018. <br />
1019. The threats from ocean acidification caused by the concentration of CO2 in the ocean, the proliferation of plastic debris at sea, combatting illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, eliminating  government subsidies that contribute to overfishing and fleet overcapacity, the accidental transfer of species from one part of the ocean to another (alien species), the current moratorium on the dangerous geo-engineering practice of ocean fertilization, the restoration of fish stocks to levels that can produce at least the maximum sustainable yield, the need to review and improve the transparency and performance of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), the implementation of the Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), the need to secure access to fisheries resources for indigenous peoples and small-scale artisanal fishers are among the issues addressed in the large section dedicated to Oceans in the draft.<br />
1020. <br />
1021. This is very good, kudos to Brazil for bringing forward these important issues we've been discussing in New York and Rio for the last two years, and for putting them on their top priority list when the Heads of State and Government arrive in three days. In addition and most importantly, a real key milestone for the summit can be achieved with the proposal supported by Brazil and many other countries from the five continents, to agree to initiate "<i>as soon as possible</i>" the negotiation of an international agreement under the UN Law of the Sea for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. I've been calling Areas beyond national jurisdiction (the high seas) the <i>other half of the Earth Summit</i> because they represent almost half of the surface of our planet (45%). In the last twenty years there's been a large<i> out-of-control high seas resources corporate fishing grab</i> because there's no global regime that regulates human activities in the High Seas, and it's this situation the Brazilian proposal wants to address with support from a large and strong coalition of countries which includes the European Union, Mexico, South Africa, India, Chile, Argentina, the Philippines, Monaco, Small Island Developing States, etc. It is critical that the Heads of State and Government here in Rio agree to initiate <i>as soon as possible </i>negotiations to develop an international regime for the high seas. This will provide the legal framework and criteria to establish  and enforce effectively marine protected areas in the high seas, require environmental impact assessments before or when human activities are carried out in the high seas, and establish a mechanism for the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the exploitation of deep sea genetic resources. Against this background, four countries are still resisting with a mix of fishing, seabed mining and biotech interests in their minds: the US, the Russian Federation, Canada and Japan. The "conversation" with these four countries is tough, but the<i> like-minded</i> countries who want an international regime are tough too.<br />
1022. <br />
1023. When we first came to the the Rio+20 negotiations when they began in New York  in January 2011, we asked governments to <i>"bring the Ocean back into the Earth Summit." </i>I'm glad it looks like we're getting there.<br />
1024. <br />
1025. <b>To follow progress on Ocean @ Rio+20</b>:<b> <a href="http://www.oceansinc.org/" target="_blank">Oceansinc</a>,</b> the Ocean multimedia platform @ Rio+20.<br />
1026. <span style="color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span>
1027. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/la-otra-mitad-de-la-cumbre-de-la-tierra-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ)</a> </em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</em></strong>
1028. <br />
1029. <span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #5f5f5f; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
1030. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/204449172124441933'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/204449172124441933'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/06/other-half-of-earth-summit.html' title='The other half of the Earth Summit'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmmaxXKIjKKBiPuOlyeSk1NPWGzdWLgA1r2ZeSFAIEYsa49ez4w7nnI0267PJG3CSRSj3q6IOUX3vUn3RGmuTnhVCYVIjJPWALAPjYuJDzcJV06073PzXaiYfPeZRmVTIhEBADqw/s72-c/Seafood.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-8610193246246875434</id><published>2012-06-15T12:58:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-03T14:00:44.841+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Before the storm?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
1031. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1032. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitf9m8O4WsBwEfNGMh2nZYPtVBqHwP6JZrFqmkGDLuEg0dfG4tGXWmpwlJ6bm6HO130DnWqzkqIzufq6xg_FbbbE3Q8CbJSiGsjTbccRvfGYcKgdBNi5hA1lrKLo6rbqVb3FJPYw/s1600/June+2012+011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitf9m8O4WsBwEfNGMh2nZYPtVBqHwP6JZrFqmkGDLuEg0dfG4tGXWmpwlJ6bm6HO130DnWqzkqIzufq6xg_FbbbE3Q8CbJSiGsjTbccRvfGYcKgdBNi5hA1lrKLo6rbqVb3FJPYw/s400/June+2012+011.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
1033. <br />
1034. <br />
1035. <br />
1036. <br />
1037. <br />
1038. <br />
1039. <br />
1040. <br />
1041. <br />
1042. <br />
1043. <br />
1044. <br />
1045. <br />
1046. <br />
1047. <br />
1048. <br />
1049. <br />
1050. <br />
1051. <br />
1052. Every morning since I've arrived in Rio four days ago I see from my appartment windows the mountains around the city covered by a thick layer of clouds, as if Mother Nature was watching and expecting a storm during the negotiations in Rio Centro on the text of "The Future we Want", the declaration Heads of State and government are supposed to adopt next week here at the Earth Summit. There are only a few days left before the summit begins, and negotiations continue to go extremely slowly. It doesn't look like this is going to change in the next few hours unless a big storm shakes things up.<br />
1053. <br />
1054. A UN high level official was telling me last night that she remained optimistic<i>"because the politicians cannot let the summit fail"</i>. <i>Yep</i>, but what's their definition of success and failure? <b>Will they come to save face, or to save the planet? </b> Talking of politicians, we have hardly seen any of them yet in this two year-long process. In other instances the final preparatory meeting(s) were held at ministerial level to prepare properly before the Heads of State and Government arrive. This time, with maybe one exception a month and a half ago in New York, I don't think I've seen any minister taking part directly, and by definition the mandate of the civil servants in the negotiations is too narrow.<br />
1055. <br />
1056. Key issues where negotiations are stuck include:<br />
1057. <ul style="text-align: left;">
1058. <li><b>Means of Implementation:</b> that's the <i>synonym for money</i> here; financial mechanisms to support developing countries in the transition to sustainable development is always the key. But times have changed since Rio 92; Europe's coffers are empty -- so are the US' to the extent that that country would have political will in an election year -- so the G77 countries need to look for money elsewhere and that's quite distabilizing; </li>
1059. <li><b>Green economy</b>: no money, no trade off. That's what developing countries are saying,  so the discussions on the transition towards "<i>the green economy</i>" won't really progress before there's money on the table; </li>
1060. <li><b>Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development:</b> this is the governance chapter which is said to be progressing, but it looks like those who've been hoping that this time the 40 year old UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) could be transformed into a more powerful UN Agency (the World Environment Organization) will have to wait. </li>
1061. </ul>
1062. With this background, disputes continue on key sectoral and cross-cutting issues,  including:<br />
1063. <ul style="text-align: left;">
1064. <li><b>Sustainable consumption</b>: Moderate hope that a long awaited Ten Year Action Programme on Sustainable Producion and Consumption can be launched in Rio because the US continues to oppose. Remember George H. Bush at Rio 92 saying <i>"the American way of life is not up for negotiations"?</i> Well, the irony is that twenty years later it is the impact of climate change that threatens the American way of life; </li>
1065. <li><b>Water and sanitation:</b> How the right to water should be operationalized? No water, no life; and of course: no money = empty promises;</li>
1066. <li><b>High Seas Conservation:</b> the High Seas are "<i>the other half of the Earth Summit</i>": they represent 45% of the surface of this planet. In the last twenty years there's been a large <i>out-of-control  high seas resources corporate fishing grab</i> because there's no global regime that regulates human activities in the High Seas. A large coalition of <i>like-minded </i>countries (including the EU, South Africa, Mexico, India, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Small Island Developing States, etc.) want Rio to give the go ahead to negotiate a global High Seas regime under the Law of the Sea. But the US, Canada, Russia and Japan are opposing with a mix of fishing, seabed mining and biotech interests in their minds. This new high seas regime is critical for sustainable development, because it would require environmental impact assessments  for human activities in the high seas, criteria for High Seas Marine Protected Areas with a framework to manage them, and a mechanism for the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the exploitation of deep sea genetic resources;</li>
1067. <li><b>Harmful subsidies: </b>Governments won't be credible if they pledge in Rio that they will strive for sustainable development and a green economy, but continue at home to feed with public subsidies entire sectors that create or maintain roadblocks against sustainability. Within the framework of the G20, the OECD, the WTO, the FAO, etc. governments have already pledged to stop giving billions of dollars to the fossil fuels sector, the fishing industry or unsustainable agro-businesses. What's needed in Rio now are targets and time-tables to turn these words into action. For example, the Government of New Zealand is proposing that fishing subsidies that contribute to overfishing and the over-capacity of fishing fleets be eliminated by 2015; this is the kind of clear proposals the Earth Summit needs!</li>
1068. <li><b>Sustainable Development Goals:</b> There is strong traction for Rio+20 to signal the launch of the preparation of a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that would succeed to the UN Millenium Development Goals after 2015. But the G77 countries have clearly said that they will support the SDGs only if the <i>means of implementation</i> are resolved. It is also unclear whether the Sustainable Development Goals will be negotiated in New York by governments in the next two years, or whether the UN Secretariat will be entrusted with the task of drafting them in informal consultation with key governments and civil society organizations.</li>
1069. </ul>
1070. <div>
1071. The Ambassador of a large industrialized country who knows my ties with many Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) shared with me the other day his impression that NGOs had been <i>"unitednationized" </i>through this  Rio+20 process. It was his way of saying that he thought NGOs were too soft and should speak up more loudly and clearly, so that the Heads of State and Government can hear them. Unless they can hear them, how will they listen? I can't say whether the Ambassador's remark on the NGOs was entirely fair, but indeed  I agree that NGOs are indispensible natural elements to make sure that the <i>perfect storm</i> we need in the coming days does happen here in Rio!</div>
1072. <div>
1073. <br />
1074. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/antes-de-la-tormenta-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ) </a></em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</em></strong>
1075. </div>
1076. </div>
1077. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/8610193246246875434'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/8610193246246875434'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/06/before-storm.html' title='Before the storm?'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitf9m8O4WsBwEfNGMh2nZYPtVBqHwP6JZrFqmkGDLuEg0dfG4tGXWmpwlJ6bm6HO130DnWqzkqIzufq6xg_FbbbE3Q8CbJSiGsjTbccRvfGYcKgdBNi5hA1lrKLo6rbqVb3FJPYw/s72-c/June+2012+011.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-4575378433577404210</id><published>2012-06-05T14:13:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-03T14:01:39.315+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Uniting in Rio</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
1078. <br />
1079. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1080. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZmrq6fvwflmpK60GkQhkhrAZH0uQy5wGcER75ulr0nF1nnIgxk88rT_fS78yshZ0k0MckXM_IS9imIj1SPIh795C6IU-lBfc3ETtmzoPv69ADc5j6dmwIic7YItbII3pL9Llw1Q/s1600/May+2012+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZmrq6fvwflmpK60GkQhkhrAZH0uQy5wGcER75ulr0nF1nnIgxk88rT_fS78yshZ0k0MckXM_IS9imIj1SPIh795C6IU-lBfc3ETtmzoPv69ADc5j6dmwIic7YItbII3pL9Llw1Q/s400/May+2012+006.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
1081. <br />
1082. <br />
1083. <br />
1084. <br />
1085. <br />
1086. <br />
1087. <br />
1088. <br />
1089. <br />
1090. <br />
1091. <br />
1092. <br />
1093. <br />
1094. <br />
1095. <br />
1096. <br />
1097. <br />
1098. <br />
1099. <br />
1100. As we're all moving to Rio de Janeiro next Monday, a lot of people are asking me what differences I see between the mood at <a href="http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html" target="_blank">the original Rio Earth Summi</a>t twenty years ago and this <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.html" target="_blank">Rio+20 Summi</a>t now.<br />
1101. <br />
1102. I think the fundamental difference is that whilst twenty years ago we were building an edifice -- the legally-binding Rio Conventions (on <a href="http://unfccc.int/" target="_blank">climate change</a>, <a href="http://www.cbd.int/" target="_blank">biodiversity</a>, and <a href="http://www.unccd.int/" target="_blank">desertification</a>), <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/" target="_blank">Agenda 21</a> (the agreed road map for sustainable development), and the <a href="http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?documentid=78&articleid=1163" target="_blank">Rio Declaration</a> with its 27 Principles -- now what we're doing is putting our fingers in holes in the dyke to prevent a flood from demolishing the edifice. The enemies of social and environmental policy and regulation are very clever, and nasty.<br />
1103. <br />
1104. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1105. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjMkblC6-a8_Z4ZOQJRmK_DRTaT_G2FGr6XhI3cxI1ZNPxuwMaLo8j1ggE5mfv9spkAB3pZVa7Wv1VxJDQUY9PBYZVxiTjFe-j-8zXEnqtu0uSIDZpwzwQtfjlRkKZOAlVISsSA/s1600/May+2012+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjMkblC6-a8_Z4ZOQJRmK_DRTaT_G2FGr6XhI3cxI1ZNPxuwMaLo8j1ggE5mfv9spkAB3pZVa7Wv1VxJDQUY9PBYZVxiTjFe-j-8zXEnqtu0uSIDZpwzwQtfjlRkKZOAlVISsSA/s200/May+2012+008.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
1106. After last week's <a href="http://www.iisd.ca/uncsd/iinzod3/" target="_blank">final session of informal consultations</a> in New York from which I just returned there are still 259 paragraphs that have not been agreed in the draft Rio+20 declaration. With only a few days (and nights, certainly) left in Rio to negotiate can we say that we've reached crisis point? Probably yes if we consider that it took six months to have the remaining 70 paragraphs agreed by consensus. But it is important to recognize that countries with progressive proposals, at least on some issues have not caved in. UN processes are too often a race toward the<i> lowest common denominator, </i>but the large amount of square bracketed  text (still under negotiation) shows that we're not there yet, even though what's considered "progressive" in the text could and should be stronger. If there was no square bracketed text, there would be no tension, no drama, no story, hence little to do and report in Rio. Within the constraints of the negotiating text,<b> progress and maybe even a few milestones</b> are still possible on global environmental governance, on ocean governance and conservation, on the elimination of environmentally and socially harmful subsidies, or on the adoption of new indicators of wealth and well-being "beyond GDP".<br />
1107. <br />
1108. With the negotiations moving to Rio, the government of the host country, Brazil is also now taking over the presidency of the talks. There are speculations that President Dilma Rousseff (also embroiled in a very big controversy over <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/The-hidden-reality-in-Dilmas-Forest-Code-veto/" target="_blank">her proposed Forest Code</a>) could prepare a different and shorter declaration, and that the detailed document we've been working on for six months in New York would become an annex. Short can be good as long as it doesn't empty the outcome of its substance.<br />
1109. <br />
1110. Now the mood in Rio will be very different than in New York. New York-based diplomats are very good at defending and maintaining the positions of their respective countries, but they rarely have a mandate to act with the flexibility that is required in a negotiation; only the politicians who will be in Rio can exercise that flexibility. So I hope the politicians (ministers, cabinet advisers, parliamentarians, etc.) turn up early enough next week to change the dynamic and style of the negotiations. And that they hear the people in the streets, both in their capitals and in Rio: This is the United <i><b>Nations</b></i>, not the United <i>Governments</i>, and it's of <i>all its citizens</i> that a nation is made up.<br />
1111. <br />
1112. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/unidos-en-rio-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ) </a></em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</em></strong>
1113. <br />
1114. <br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>
1115. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/4575378433577404210'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/4575378433577404210'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/06/uniting-in-rio.html' title='Uniting in Rio'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZmrq6fvwflmpK60GkQhkhrAZH0uQy5wGcER75ulr0nF1nnIgxk88rT_fS78yshZ0k0MckXM_IS9imIj1SPIh795C6IU-lBfc3ETtmzoPv69ADc5j6dmwIic7YItbII3pL9Llw1Q/s72-c/May+2012+006.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-885625403612754564</id><published>2012-05-29T02:26:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-03T14:09:17.894+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Is it worth it? (Rio+20)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
1116. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1117. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiKc8CM8HE1DwfymqKwrwzXoeNLaqcAK2zrwR-c5Qzr3BTbF5_Ajaa685ppwFgHBq38htJd4VGLpoc-ZsvKve1tdbUZWDErU2GoyLGWnj-IbEGXkK1g2x1_597AjYxJg1W1QfaQ/s1600/March+2012+058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiKc8CM8HE1DwfymqKwrwzXoeNLaqcAK2zrwR-c5Qzr3BTbF5_Ajaa685ppwFgHBq38htJd4VGLpoc-ZsvKve1tdbUZWDErU2GoyLGWnj-IbEGXkK1g2x1_597AjYxJg1W1QfaQ/s400/March+2012+058.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
1118. <br />
1119. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
1120. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1121. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1122. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1123. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1124. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1125. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1126. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1127. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1128. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1129. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span><br />
1130. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></span>
1131. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">As I’ve traveled again today to New York for an<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=902&type=13&menu=23" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">additional week</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">of
1132. Rio+20 negotiations at the UN, it's time to address perhaps the most
1133. common question people are asking as the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.html" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Earth Summit</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">is approaching:<b> Is
1134. it worth all the effort? </b></span></span></div>
1135. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
1136. <br /></div>
1137. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
1138. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The slow pace of negotiations
1139. causes  frustration and pain at all levels, from UN Secretary General<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/24/un-ban-ki-moon-rio-summit?CMP=twt_gu" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Ban Ki-moon </span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">, to elder statespersons like<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/28/rio-20-opportunity-courage-vision?CMP=twt_fd" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Gro Harlem Brundtland and Fernando Henrique Cardoso</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/may/14/rio-20-action-plan-ngo-summit" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">NGOs</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.sustainlabour.org/noticia.php?lang=EN&idnoticia=376" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Trade Union organization</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">s</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">.
1140. Frustration and fatigue is the most widely shared feeling at all sustainability summits because it isn't easy to reconcile the tension between the three
1141. pillars of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental). There
1142. are also too many differing vested interests among the 193 UN member States, as
1143. well as among this nebulous corps described as "civil society". This tends
1144. to bring everyone down toward the <i>lowest
1145. common denominator</i>, and inevitably those with higher ambitions we are
1146. rarely happy when we go home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
1147. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
1148. <br /></div>
1149. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
1150. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So, why is it that despite the
1151. flaws, almost everyone comes back and gets involved whenever another summit is
1152. announced? Why are the UN and civil society so addicted, as if these summits were
1153. their (our) cocaine?  Here are five
1154. reasons I can see why so many NGOs always come back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
1155. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
1156. <br /></div>
1157. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
1158. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">    
1159. </span></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Agenda-setting:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> The
1160. truth is that most of the progress in international policy in the last decades finds
1161. its origin in one or more citizen groups who’ve championed new policies
1162. and measures. I can remember a few instances where the initiative came directly
1163. from within a government or the UN but these are exceptions, and even with these the first thing the government or the UN does is to reach out to,
1164. and strategize with, potential allies from within the NGO community as a key
1165. element of an outreach approach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
1166. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
1167. <br /></div>
1168. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
1169. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">    
1170. </span></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Damage
1171. control: </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">International policy doesn’t move in a straight line, it
1172. goes back and forth influenced by factors that often have little or nothing to
1173. do with the subject matters (changes of parliamentary majority and leadership
1174. in key countries, financial and other crisis take up attention and resources to
1175. the detriment of environmental and social issues, a committed government minister is replaced, etc.) or that are directly relevant
1176. (lobbying by sectorial interests, change of public perception…)  That’s the <i>watchdog</i>
1177. function of NGOs; to fulfill it one needs to be there to see what’s going on,
1178. help the allies, destabilize and neutralize the adversaries, and bear witness. The
1179. web of multilateral environmental instruments, made up of a combination of
1180. legally-binding treaties and conventions, action plans and agreements contained in political
1181. declarations is like a football playing field; we’re reaching the end of the
1182. second half of the game, but we don’t know if we’ll be granted extra time (and penalty shoot outs).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
1183. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
1184. <br /></div>
1185. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
1186. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">    
1187. </span></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Window
1188. dressing:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> For many non-State actors, a summit is an opportunity
1189. to give visibility to their own work, even though it can be difficult among so much background noise. Since Rio’92, the host countries of major
1190. intergovernmental meetings provide facilities, including entire pavilions, for
1191. governments and private entities to display their work and to debate on their
1192. own terms. Entities that are worlds apart use these opportunities in their own ways,
1193. and Rio+20 will be no exception with – for example – the <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://basd2012.org/" target="_blank">Corporate Sustainability Forum</a></span>
1194. on the one hand and the <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://rio20.net/en/" target="_blank">People’sSummit</a></span> on the other. These fora are handy for the media in search of
1195. stories and background pictures, especially when the political negotiation is
1196. deadlocked in private rooms and there is little to show and report there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
1197. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
1198. <br /></div>
1199. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
1200. <i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal;">     </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> <i>Recognition
1201. and visibility:</i> Some private entities, including some NGOs, like to say
1202. they’ve been<i> part of it</i> even if they’ve
1203. not really been an <i>active </i>part of it<i>. </i>You can bet that the 2012 Corporate
1204. Social Responsibility reports of many corporations will say that they were in
1205. Rio even if it’s hard to tell what they’ve actually <i>done</i> (or even if what they’ve done was undermining progress). Of
1206. course the same also happens with some NGOs; for example some flag on their
1207. websites they have Consultative Status within the UN Economic and Social
1208. Council (like <a href="http://csonet.org/index.php?menu=17" target="_blank">more than 3500</a> NGOs across the world) as if it was a great achievement. The good news is
1209. that often NGO representatives who come for the first time <i>get it</i> fast and become shining stars after (or even during) their
1210. first experience. Another good news: not everything in the private sector is <i>greenwashing</i>: there is an increasing
1211. constituency of committed green entrepreneurs who are changing the patterns of
1212. production, trade and consumption; among those who were already at Rio’92 and
1213. Johannesburg 02 also some have learned the lessons of their mistakes and they should
1214. be encouraged.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
1215. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
1216. <br /></div>
1217. <div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
1218. <i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal;">     </span></span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Family reunion:</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> An
1219. Earth Summit looks like a large family gathering and  its most trivial aspects can be irritating. So it's important is that it be full of tensions, intrigues, alliances,
1220. separations and divorce, shouts, screams,  tears, and also laughter. Like in any large family.</span><br />
1221. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
1222. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"></span><br />
1223. <div style="font-size: medium; text-indent: 0px;">
1224. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/vale-la-pena-rio-20-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (ÁQUI)</a> </em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</em></strong></span></div>
1225. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span>
1226. <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
1227. </div>
1228. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/885625403612754564'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/885625403612754564'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/05/is-it-worth-it-rio20.html' title='Is it worth it? (Rio+20)'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiKc8CM8HE1DwfymqKwrwzXoeNLaqcAK2zrwR-c5Qzr3BTbF5_Ajaa685ppwFgHBq38htJd4VGLpoc-ZsvKve1tdbUZWDErU2GoyLGWnj-IbEGXkK1g2x1_597AjYxJg1W1QfaQ/s72-c/March+2012+058.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-351349566110709103</id><published>2012-05-22T00:18:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-10-19T13:55:27.723+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Biodiversity"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Whales"/><title type='text'>Before the Renaissance</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
1229. <br />
1230. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
1231. <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB9jGb37rAH_tCMrWXWlQnAMVjBJI2es9nwuXxG5Bkd5_OQHbTVRSmNIo-bpeyMmWy_R6W64eSMvZ1WG-vI6JX8bJ7mrQTFB51CQCbkx-alPaaBQw-D5Vv_W2r7NtvPeCqoapPKA/s1600/IBSA+III+harpoon+La+Coru%C3%B1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB9jGb37rAH_tCMrWXWlQnAMVjBJI2es9nwuXxG5Bkd5_OQHbTVRSmNIo-bpeyMmWy_R6W64eSMvZ1WG-vI6JX8bJ7mrQTFB51CQCbkx-alPaaBQw-D5Vv_W2r7NtvPeCqoapPKA/s400/IBSA+III+harpoon+La+Coru%C3%B1a.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
1232. <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
1233. </tbody></table>
1234. <br />
1235. <div class="MsoNormal">
1236. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1237. <div class="MsoNormal">
1238. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1239. <div class="MsoNormal">
1240. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1241. <div class="MsoNormal">
1242. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1243. <div class="MsoNormal">
1244. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1245. <div class="MsoNormal">
1246. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1247. <div class="MsoNormal">
1248. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1249. <div class="MsoNormal">
1250. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1251. <div class="MsoNormal">
1252. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1253. <div class="MsoNormal">
1254. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1255. <div class="MsoNormal">
1256. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1257. <div class="MsoNormal">
1258. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1259. <div class="MsoNormal">
1260. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1261. <div class="MsoNormal">
1262. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1263. <div class="MsoNormal">
1264. <br />
1265. <br /></div>
1266. <div class="MsoNormal">
1267. <span lang="EN-GB">When I was
1268. involved between 1975 and 1982 in the campaign to end commercial whaling, our
1269. favourite sound-bite was <b><i>“The harpoon guns should end up in museums!”</i></b>
1270.  So I was thrilled last month when I
1271. found in the </span><a href="http://mc2coruna.org/aquarium/"><span lang="EN-GB">aquarium of La Coruña</span></a><span lang="EN-GB">, Spain the harpoon gun of <b>IBSA III</b>,
1272. one of the whaling vessels we’d stopped killing endangered fin whales in 1980 when
1273. I was the campaign coordinator on board the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior_(1955)"><span lang="EN-GB">Rainbow Warrior</span></a><span lang="EN-GB">.</span></div>
1274. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
1275. <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGno4tHcivdStaCuafOmsOPKfGcI0Z_R4A6SwIuC83DTbtWRp1Q3MClykE2KD5MTO2xuKkzG4nqxwcRiijtgXg4arP0bqW05XrHdQXeGHIroc6DIvKf3v6mTkcbZVGfA7tMJtX7A/s1600/RW+Spain+1980+Remi++harpoon+outlined.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGno4tHcivdStaCuafOmsOPKfGcI0Z_R4A6SwIuC83DTbtWRp1Q3MClykE2KD5MTO2xuKkzG4nqxwcRiijtgXg4arP0bqW05XrHdQXeGHIroc6DIvKf3v6mTkcbZVGfA7tMJtX7A/s400/RW+Spain+1980+Remi++harpoon+outlined.jpg" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
1276. <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1980: This is me on the deck of the Rainbow Warrior.<br />
1277. The whaling vessel in the background is IBSA III</td></tr>
1278. </tbody></table>
1279. <div class="MsoNormal">
1280. Thirty-two
1281. years separate last month’s photo (above) in the aquarium museum from the black
1282. & white photo (left) of me on the deck of the Rainbow Warrior in the middle
1283. of the Atlantic Ocean. <b>IBSA III</b>, the whaling vessel on the black & white photo was one of five whale catchers owned and operated by a company
1284. whose business was to kill large whales on their migration path approximately
1285. 170 miles off the coasts of Portugal and Spain. After harpooning them, the
1286. catchers used to tow the dead whales (generally three at a time) to two land
1287. stations on the North West coast of Spain where the meat was sliced, packaged and
1288. frozen under the supervision of Japanese operators; at regular intervals a
1289. Japanese freezer vessel called in Vigo harbour and the whale meat was shipped
1290. to Japan. We’d picked up the Spanish fleet because it was on the list of <i><b>pirate whalers</b></i> -- they were catching as
1291. many whales as they could, as fast as they could, and ignored completely the
1292. regulations set by the International Whaling Commission (<a href="http://www.iwcoffice.org/"><span lang="EN-GB">IWC</span></a>) --  and also because soon after the end of General
1293. Franco’s dictatorship Spain was hoping to accede to the European Community. So we’d
1294. figured out that if we shamed them Spain could be the first domino to fall from
1295. a series of a dozen countries making at the time big bucks (big yens) from
1296. killing big whales. That’s indeed what happened two years later: in 1982 Spain's vote tipped the balance at the crucial IWC meeting where the <a href="http://iwcoffice.org/conservation/rms.htm"><span lang="EN-GB">moratorium on commercial whaling</span></a> was adopted. Spain’s whaling
1297. industry was phased out, and now <b>IBSA III</b>’s harpoon gun is displayed in the
1298. aquarium museum in La Coruña as the witness of a very remote era.</div>
1299. <div class="MsoNormal">
1300. <span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
1301. <div class="MsoNormal">
1302. <span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
1303. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1304. </div>
1305. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
1306. <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl_iq-QDypXoYgaGBurIjfvBU8Fq79mwFhElBHbMZBjE6Hu71Z6P-B22dTM_-KsSM5W_aGuTERtsoD927U5q7Rd2c370FXl66lKOm1Pq4sedQmXYTe4j3VulbbDqVd7FBcaRoMKQ/s1600/RW+1980+Spanish+whaling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl_iq-QDypXoYgaGBurIjfvBU8Fq79mwFhElBHbMZBjE6Hu71Z6P-B22dTM_-KsSM5W_aGuTERtsoD927U5q7Rd2c370FXl66lKOm1Pq4sedQmXYTe4j3VulbbDqVd7FBcaRoMKQ/s320/RW+1980+Spanish+whaling.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
1307. <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When it was chased by the Rainbow Warrior, <br />
1308. IBSA III's harpoon gun wasn't resting in<br />
1309. a museum (1980)</td></tr>
1310. </tbody></table>
1311. <div class="MsoNormal">
1312. <span lang="EN-US">I’m posting
1313. this story today, because the United Nations have designated the 22<sup>nd</sup>
1314. of May the <a href="http://www.cbd.int/idb/" target="_blank">International Day for Biodiversity</a> which is</span><span lang="EN-US"> dedicated this year to </span><a href="http://www.cbd.int/idb/2012/"><span lang="EN-US">Life in the Sea</span></a><span lang="EN-US">. Of course this year is also the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the
1315. adoption in 1982 of the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling. The campaign to
1316. end commercial whaling is a very old story that is still remembered as a
1317. milestone of the environmental movement. Essentially, it was a battle between very
1318. committed activists with a strong will against a large international group of
1319. old school businessmen unwilling to see that the times were changing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
1320. <div class="MsoNormal">
1321. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
1322. <div class="MsoNormal">
1323. <span lang="EN-US">The
1324. campaign for the moratorium on whaling finds its origin in Recommendation 33 of
1325. the first </span><a href="http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID=1506&l=en"><span lang="EN-US">UN Conference on the Human
1326. Environment</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> held in
1327. Stockholm in June 1972. As we’re preparing for the </span><a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/"><span lang="EN-US">Rio+20</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> Conference next month (Stockholm+40,
1328. in fact), should we ask ourselves  <b>what we must send to museums this time?</b>
1329. Oil drilling gears and refineries? Destructive trawl fishing gears? Unsustainable biofuel schemes affecting food security and the environment? Aging nuclear reactors on
1330. earthquake fault lines and elsewhere? Vessels flying flags of convenience to evade financial, social and environmental regulations? …Don’t
1331. count on governments to agree a list in Rio. But if only they put their words
1332. into action now and </span><a href="http://www.peblds.org/files/Publications/OECD/OECD_Environmentally_Harmful_Subsidies.pdf"><span lang="EN-US">stop supporting with public
1333. subsidies</span></a><span lang="EN-US">
1334. environmentally harmful industries, for our children it could make the
1335. difference between living in a world of environmental horror or contemplating
1336. instead the museum of past environmental horrors.  <b>Let the Renaissance begin!</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
1337. <div class="MsoNormal">
1338. <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
1339. <div class="MsoNormal">
1340. <span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
1341. <div class="MsoNormal">
1342. <b><i>Special thanks</i></b><i> to <b>Miriam Montero</b> and <b>Marta Cavallé</b> of the <a href="http://www.fundacionlonxanet.org/" target="_blank">Lonxanet Foundation</a> for Artisanal Sustainable Fishing for arranging my visit at the La Coruña
1343. Aquarium, to <b>Francisco Franco del Amo</b>,
1344. Technical Director of the aquarium for his warm welcome, and to Greenpeace
1345. photographer <b>Pierre Gleizes</b> who
1346. kindly sent me the two photos from 1980 included in this piece. In his recently
1347. published entertaining book </i><a href="http://mer.glenatlivres.com/livre/rainbow-warrior-mon-amour-9782723484558.htm"><i>“Rainbow Warrior mon Amour”</i></a><i> (in French), Pierre
1348. describes the first trip we did together in Spain as “a Tintin adventure”; Yep!</i><br />
1349. <i><br /></i></div>
1350. <div class="MsoNormal">
1351. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/antes-del-renacimiento-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ)</a></em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em> on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE, and en français <a href="http://www.wikiocean.org/2012/06/chasse-baleiniere-avant-la-renaissance/" target="_blank">HERE (ICI)</a> chez WikiOcean</em></strong><br />
1352. <br /></div>
1353. </div>
1354. </content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/351349566110709103'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/351349566110709103'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/05/before-renaissance.html' title='Before the Renaissance'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB9jGb37rAH_tCMrWXWlQnAMVjBJI2es9nwuXxG5Bkd5_OQHbTVRSmNIo-bpeyMmWy_R6W64eSMvZ1WG-vI6JX8bJ7mrQTFB51CQCbkx-alPaaBQw-D5Vv_W2r7NtvPeCqoapPKA/s72-c/IBSA+III+harpoon+La+Coru%C3%B1a.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-6347414434636687781</id><published>2012-05-08T19:28:00.001+02:00</published><updated>2012-05-21T00:45:43.264+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><title type='text'>The Long and Winding Road Towards Rio+20</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
1355. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1356. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtvvI5ElRVoNGpszmKhxXeWj6ltwxgBjf4q2Fj8aKX2FTbzxCTRieBztOimmXrSRaoYgJ7L34auafITja5qL27IF9IDw973M55RbShbBMQNZPoxU2iC_p0RtfXqIseGdEDATxQQ/s1600/Abril+2012+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtvvI5ElRVoNGpszmKhxXeWj6ltwxgBjf4q2Fj8aKX2FTbzxCTRieBztOimmXrSRaoYgJ7L34auafITja5qL27IF9IDw973M55RbShbBMQNZPoxU2iC_p0RtfXqIseGdEDATxQQ/s400/Abril+2012+008.JPG" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtvvI5ElRVoNGpszmKhxXeWj6ltwxgBjf4q2Fj8aKX2FTbzxCTRieBztOimmXrSRaoYgJ7L34auafITja5qL27IF9IDw973M55RbShbBMQNZPoxU2iC_p0RtfXqIseGdEDATxQQ/s1600/Abril+2012+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtvvI5ElRVoNGpszmKhxXeWj6ltwxgBjf4q2Fj8aKX2FTbzxCTRieBztOimmXrSRaoYgJ7L34auafITja5qL27IF9IDw973M55RbShbBMQNZPoxU2iC_p0RtfXqIseGdEDATxQQ/s1600/Abril+2012+008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
1357. <br />
1358. <br />
1359. <br />
1360. <br />
1361. <br />
1362. <br />
1363. <br />
1364. <br />
1365. <br />
1366. <br />
1367. <br />
1368. <br />
1369. <br />
1370. <b><br /></b><br />
1371. <b><br /></b><br />
1372. <b><br /></b><br />
1373. <b>On Monday 23rd April</b>, when the last two weeks' session of informal negotiations for the <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.html" target="_blank">Rio+20 conference</a> began at UN Headquarters in New York, I took this photo and posted it on<a href="http://www.facebook.com/chezremi" target="_blank"> my Facebook page</a> with the following comment: <i>"The sign on the photo says 'one way'; so why can't governments agree?"</i><br />
1374. <br />
1375. <b>Two weeks later</b> when the talks ended on Friday 4 May in the evening, I got this other photo taken in a nearby street corner to illustrate the state of the negotiations.<br />
1376. <br />
1377. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1378. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9O0aNcrXe9UlJkIrtjNLC90IovtDUn8SGx9Oudky_1V3K1iImlWrxVPLXr9bf3X5IClVj4Kw0kVZwKlnOj8FChQonxRk5b8z4ftCOMzSDGqSEYm_EJQTUjQq13IZJTtlvvjzaLQ/s1600/May+2012+034.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9O0aNcrXe9UlJkIrtjNLC90IovtDUn8SGx9Oudky_1V3K1iImlWrxVPLXr9bf3X5IClVj4Kw0kVZwKlnOj8FChQonxRk5b8z4ftCOMzSDGqSEYm_EJQTUjQq13IZJTtlvvjzaLQ/s320/May+2012+034.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
1379. A clumsy process had failed to break the deadlock; government delegates continued to disagree on most key issues; there was at least as many road blocks on the way to Rio as ever before; the only thing government delegates could agree was to to meet again in New York in a few weeks, from 29 May to 2 June to hold further talks.<br />
1380. <br />
1381. By 22 May, the Co-Chairs will attempt to produce another <i>streamlined document</i> that can form a new basis for negotiations, taking into account what they've been hearing in the last two weeks. Whether this last ditch effort fails or not, it is clear that not all the major issues will be resolved during this last informal session in New York.  But this is how it should be: at that point we'll all move to Rio and the buck will pass to the Brazilian government who will assume the presidency as host country for the third and final session of the <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=13&nr=49&menu=24" target="_blank">Preparatory Committee</a> and for the <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=13&nr=50&menu=46" target="_blank">Summit proper</a>. Civil servants and diplomats like the ones in New York are very good at maintaining and protecting their countries' positions. But they usually lack the flexibility to bring consensus; that's the job of the politicians, and these won't show up before we're in Rio. So,<b> don't panic</b>, as long as broadly speaking all options are left open before we move to Rio, it is still possible to envisage a successful outcome at Rio+20, if the politicians take their responsibilities seriously next month. That was<b> my optimist side</b>.<br />
1382. <br />
1383. On the<b> realistic side</b>, my Varda Group colleague <a href="http://vardagroup.org/about-us-kelly-rigg" target="_blank">Kelly Rigg</a> who was with me in New York last week has just written an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-rigg/rio-earth-summit-2012_b_1490930.html" target="_blank">excellent piece in her blog</a> in the form of a letter to Heads of State and Government. Kelly shows how negotiators from all sides tend to protect their own vested interest, often in contradiction with what their leaders have said or signed in other fora. For example, in the preambular text which refers to the need to eradicate poverty, the US negotiators say they only want to eradicate "extreme" poverty; the US has also proposed to delete the adjective "clean" from the sentence which reaffirms commitments regarding the human right to safe [and clean?] drinking water and sanitation. What reading can we make of this? Let's get rid of extreme poverty because it bring insecurity, but not of poverty as a whole because it'd mean we'd have to share wealth in earnest? And let's avoid people dying from dehydration because it doesn't look good on TV, but slow death due to polluted water is okay?  The G77 countries (developing countries for the most part, led by countries that have emerged in the last two decades, like China, Brazil and India) are also demonstrating shortsightedness when they insist that <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">"<i>each state has the right to determine its national energy policies in accordance with its national requirements</i>"; right, but let's not forget the obligations enshrined in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted 20 years ago at Rio'92: <i>"The ultimate objective [...] is to achieve [...] stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production i8s not threathened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner" </i>(UNFCCC Article 2).  </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">And the European Union, despìte its commitment to decrease its environmental footprint best illustrated by its leadership in climate policy, continues to drag its feet when it comes to  the elimination of environmentally and socially harmful subisdies in agriculture and fisheries...Talking of subsidies also, the members of the G20  already agreed  in principle</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"> in 2010 to<i> "phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, taking into account vulnerable groups and their development needs."</i> The G20 countries will hold their own summit in Mexico a couple of days before Rio+20; shouldn't this be the perfect opportunity for them to put their stated policy in motion with a time-table and target dates? The strong signal that the markets need to give the much needed push for the renewable energy sector worldwide, on this, the UN-designated  <a href="http://www.sustainableenergyforall.org/" target="_blank">International Year of Sustainable Energy for All</a>.</span><br />
1384. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
1385. <i>I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. </i>Oh, I miss John Lennon!<br />
1386. <br />
1387. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/6347414434636687781'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/6347414434636687781'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/05/long-and-winding-road-towards-rio20.html' title='The Long and Winding Road Towards Rio+20'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtvvI5ElRVoNGpszmKhxXeWj6ltwxgBjf4q2Fj8aKX2FTbzxCTRieBztOimmXrSRaoYgJ7L34auafITja5qL27IF9IDw973M55RbShbBMQNZPoxU2iC_p0RtfXqIseGdEDATxQQ/s72-c/Abril+2012+008.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-8502895576098647942</id><published>2012-04-22T19:27:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-05-21T00:46:13.414+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Impasse</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
1388. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1389. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1xFqieCJY4nysRKFTvtRI9HzF0_4acnVafhm5ovWwzyYyVPMzzcmtJ0IIQdLAiBsFHgj_9l3uWp2Jj-ejWMjhNWHOijkKNszgQB4qvPTLMc36ICZnbcZHBF9b0tHuDZl1-AGmOg/s1600/Brice+Rio+Prepcom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1xFqieCJY4nysRKFTvtRI9HzF0_4acnVafhm5ovWwzyYyVPMzzcmtJ0IIQdLAiBsFHgj_9l3uWp2Jj-ejWMjhNWHOijkKNszgQB4qvPTLMc36ICZnbcZHBF9b0tHuDZl1-AGmOg/s400/Brice+Rio+Prepcom.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
1390. <br />
1391. <br />
1392. <br />
1393. <br />
1394. <br />
1395. <br />
1396. <br />
1397. <br />
1398. <br />
1399. <br />
1400. <br />
1401. <br />
1402. <br />
1403. <br />
1404. When in the mid 1970s I've first known <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=181&type=8&menu=37" target="_blank">Brice Lalonde</a>, now Executive Coordinator of the <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.html" target="_blank">Rio+20 Conference</a>, he was <i>correcteur d'imprimerie</i>  in Paris for a living. It was before personal computers, word processors and spellcheck programmes existed (if you were saying <i>"le PC" </i>in those days you could only be talking of "le Parti Communiste"), thus the <i>correcteurs</i> were a very powerful guild. No editorial business, big or small,  could operate without them; they were uniquely skilled to correct in record time typos, grammar and spelling mistakes of course but also repetitions, redundancies, and even nonsense. Now we have computers, word processors and spellcheck programmes, but we see that still too often governments are  missing common sense. So sometimes when I watch the pace at which the Rio+20 text negotiations are going and note that we have less than 60 days to the Rio Summit, half-jokingly I wish Brice could get back to his original job and offer his correcteur skills to the UN.<br />
1405. <br />
1406. I'm writing this from New York where I'm staying for another two weeks of "<a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&nr=558&type=13&menu=23" target="_blank">Informal informal</a>" Rio+20 negotiations. The latest version of  "<i>The Future We Want,</i>" the draft declaration that Heads of State and Government will be asked to consider in Rio now contains...272 pages, because it compiles all the options put forward by government delegations and despite an attempt by the <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/bureau.html" target="_blank">Bureau</a> to streamline the text. Even if we take only the paragraphs of "streamlined text" by the Bureau, it would still be more than 50 pages (a length which is generally considered to be too long for such a declaration) and it's anyway unlikely that the various negotiating groups would agree this week to focus on the Bureau's version only.<br />
1407. <br />
1408. With all global environmental indicators in <a href="http://www.oecd.org/document/11/0,3746,en_2649_37465_49036555_1_1_1_37465,00.html" target="_blank">red alert</a>, more than ever we need multilateral decisions. But in 2012, there must be better ways to conduct multilateral negotiations than listening to back-to-back statements week-after-week.  For example, the so-called <a href="http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/vienna.htm" target="_blank">Vienna Setting</a>, an innovative, transparent and participatory arrangement used in the last twelve years in several UN processes (including the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002) has proven useful for negotiators to break their impasse.<br />
1409. <br />
1410. But is there the political will to break the impasse?<br />
1411. <br />
1412. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/impase-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ)</a></em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em> on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</em></strong>
1413. <br />
1414. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em><br /></em></strong><br />
1415. &lt;strong style=&quot;background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, &#39;Trebuchet MS&#39;, lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/8502895576098647942'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/8502895576098647942'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/04/impasse.html' title='Impasse'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1xFqieCJY4nysRKFTvtRI9HzF0_4acnVafhm5ovWwzyYyVPMzzcmtJ0IIQdLAiBsFHgj_9l3uWp2Jj-ejWMjhNWHOijkKNszgQB4qvPTLMc36ICZnbcZHBF9b0tHuDZl1-AGmOg/s72-c/Brice+Rio+Prepcom.jpg" height="72" width="72"/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11927202.post-3824449626556137361</id><published>2012-04-01T21:25:00.002+02:00</published><updated>2012-05-21T00:46:50.500+02:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Environmental policy and economics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Where is Rémi?"/><title type='text'>Summit 2.0</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot; style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot; trbidi=&quot;on&quot;&gt;
1416. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
1417. <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GFnvUWpZ4ls/T3iZ9heqYMI/AAAAAAAABSs/9uB6axqQRfQ/s1600/March+2012+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GFnvUWpZ4ls/T3iZ9heqYMI/AAAAAAAABSs/9uB6axqQRfQ/s400/March+2012+002.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
1418. <br />
1419. <br />
1420. <br />
1421. <br />
1422. <br />
1423. <br />
1424. <br />
1425. <br />
1426. <br />
1427. <br />
1428. <br />
1429. <br />
1430. <br />
1431. <br />
1432. <br />
1433. <br />
1434. Has the UN Secretariat lost faith in the ability of the 193 UN Member States to negotiate and agree a meaningful document for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (<a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/" target="_blank">Rio+20</a>) to be held in two months and a half in Rio de Janeiro?<br />
1435. <br />
1436. I just spent the last two weeks in New York at what the UN jargon calls <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/meetings_informals.html" target="_blank">Informal-informals</a>. The aim of these consultations is to be in a position to present to the Heads of State and Government in Rio a draft declaration that is both meaningful and concise. We started in January with an <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/370The%20Future%20We%20Want%2010Jan%20clean.pdf" target="_blank">original "zero draft</a>" of 19 pages, and after the <i>Informals</i> this week everyone went home with a draft of...206 pages. At the end of the Informals, the  two Co-Chairs of the Preparatory Committee announced that by 16 April they will "streamline" this text where they find commonalities, but it is unlikely that the size of the text gets significantly reduced in this process (it will probably be increased).<br />
1437. <br />
1438. Another session of<i> Informal informals </i>will take place in New York 23 April-4 May. And even more informal consultations are on-going in the meantime within and among the different political groups (including the powerful but very diverse <a href="http://www.g77.org/" target="_blank">Group-of-77-Plus-China</a>). However, given the difficulty to come up with a workable consensus outcome document, it is hardly surprising that the UN Secretariat and the Brazilian Government, respectively organizers and hosts of the conference, are  increasingly putting their hopes in other initiatives that can <i>save the summit:</i><br />
1439. <div style="text-align: left;">
1440. </div>
1441. <ul style="text-align: left;">
1442. <li><b>Nine Sustainability Dialogues: </b>The Brazilian Government says they want the nine thematic <a href="http://www.rio20.gov.br/events/dialogos-da-sustentabilidade" target="_blank">Civil Society Sustainability Dialogues</a> scheduled in Rio 16-18 June to become an official part of the conference. The UN and Brazil say that the eight speakers (scientists, economists, private sector, NGOs, etc.) selected for each of these events will be asked to each come up with a set of three recommendations that will be forwarded for deliberation to the four High-Level Round Tables of Heads of State and Government that will<i> </i>be held on 20-21 June at the Summit. The UN say they will soon launch an <i>online forum</i> where any citizen will be able to send their own ideas which will be forwarded to the moderators of the relevant Sustainability Dialogues. </li>
1443. <li><b>Sustainable Development Goals:</b> UN officials believe that Rio+20 will be the opportunity to agree to the adoption of a series of Sustainable Development Goals (<a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/content/documents/colombiasdgs.pdf" target="_blank">SDGs</a>),  successors of or complementary to the UN Millennium Goals that helped the international community focus its efforts in the areas of poverty and hunger eradication, access to education, gender equity, child and maternal health, HIV-AIDS prevention, environmental sustainability, and development. Rio+20 would not be the place to negotiate the details of these SDGs, but it is hoped that Heads of State and Government in Rio would give the UN a mandate to develop them between 2013 and 2015. The idea of the SDGs came to light in the report of the UN Secretary General <a href="http://www.un.org/gsp/report" target="_blank">High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability</a> released in the month of January. The Governments of Colombia and Guatemala have actively campaigned in favor of the SDGs.</li>
1444. <li><b>Compendium of commitments:</b> The UN is also proposing that all organizations and groups participating in the Rio+20 Summit events <a href="http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/voluntarycommitments.html" target="_blank">register their voluntary commitments in a registry or compendium</a>. The added value of this registry is unclear, unless it can serve as a mechanism to combat <i>greenwashing </i>and to secure the transparency and accountability of public-private partnerships<i>.</i></li>
1445. </ul>
1446. <div>
1447. I suppose that these and other initiatives can help save the Summit. We'll see if they help save the Planet too. </div>
1448. <div>
1449. <br />
1450. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em>This blogpiece is also available in español, <a href="http://www.efeverde.com/contenidos/blogueros/la-blogosfera-de-efeverde/de-vuelta-a-rio/cumbre-2.0-por-remi-parmentier" target="_blank">HERE (AQUÍ)</a></em></strong><strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em> on the website of the Spanish news agency EFE.</em></strong>
1451. <br />
1452. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em><br /></em></strong><br />
1453. <strong style="background-color: white; color: #555544; font-family: tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', lucida, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><em><br /></em></strong></div>
1454. &lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/3824449626556137361'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11927202/posts/default/3824449626556137361'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://chezremi.blogspot.com/2012/04/summit-20.html' title='Summit 2.0'/><author><name>Unknown</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GFnvUWpZ4ls/T3iZ9heqYMI/AAAAAAAABSs/9uB6axqQRfQ/s72-c/March+2012+002.JPG" height="72" width="72"/></entry></feed>

If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:

1. Download the "valid Atom 1.0" banner.

2. Upload the image to your own server. (This step is important. Please do not link directly to the image on this server.)

3. Add this HTML to your page (change the image src attribute if necessary):

   <a href="http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//chezremi.blogspot.com/atom.xml"><img src="valid-atom.png" alt="[Valid Atom 1.0]" title="Validate my Atom 1.0 feed" /></a>

If you would like to create a text link instead, here is the URL you can use:

http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//chezremi.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Home · About · News · Docs · Terms