RELAXATION OF LEGAL TIMBER SCHEME WEAKENS FOREST GOVERNANCE REFORM

LONDON/JAKARTA: The last-minute exemption of 15 product groups from Indonesia’s timber legality verification system threatens to block EU market access for these products, to delay or sabotage a long-negotiated EU-Indonesia timber trade agreement and undermine Indonesia’s forest industry reputation, NGOs have warned.

 

The alert from Indonesia’s Independent Forest Monitoring Network (JPIK) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) followings the October 19 passage of Trade Minister Regulation No 89/M-DAG/PER/10/2015, which substantially weakens the SVLK.

 

Under Indonesia’s Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu (SVLK), all wood products exporters’ operations must be audited for compliance against a legality standard covering raw material inputs and factory or trade practices. Positive audit results are rewarded with so-called VLK certificates enabling them to acquire a “V-Legal document”, an export license legally required to export wood products.

 

While this system applies to exports to all markets, it is also the foundation of a long-negotiated Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between Indonesia and the EU. Once the VPA is activated, timber products without associated V-Legal documents will be rejected at EU ports, and cannot be sold on the EU market. Similarly, products accompanies by V-Legal documents will also be exempted from the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which prohibits illegal wood in the EU and requires EU companies to conduct due diligence on wood products purchases. As such, V-Legal documents are the crucial key for Indonesian exporters seeking to unlock EU market access.

 

The new regulation permanently exempts all exporters of 15 wood product customs codes (HS Codes) from the requirement to undergo SVLK audits, while maintaining their ability to export. Exempted companies – many of which have multi-million dollar exports – must still use SVLK certified wood but no checks that they do so will be required, providing significant opportunities for laundering uncertified or illegal wood into supply chains. 

 

The Ministry of Trade exemptions have been vociferously opposed by Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry and have similarly prompted the EU’s Ambassador to Indonesia to raised concerns in an October 23 letter to the Trade Minister.

 

“The Trade Minister Regulation introduces structural inconsistencies in Indonesia’s long-term efforts to improve forest governance through implementation of the SVLK and threatens the proposed scope and timeframe for the implementation of the Indonesia-EU Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA),” stated Zainuri Hasyim, JPIK National Coordinator.

 

Faith Doherty, EIA Forest Campaign Team Leader agreed, saying: “The Trade Ministry Regulation introduces an eleventh-hour back door exemption for an elite group of companies with friends in high places. It violates the aims and mechanisms underpinning both the SVLK and the VPA. The consequence is that either the VPA must be re-negotiated, the SVLK licensing system must be re-designed or the exempted companies are structurally blocked from accessing the EU market. This bad regulation – ironically produced to hasten de-regulation – needs to be ammended immediately.”

 

The Indonesian Government is planning to announce VPA implementation as a headline offering at the UN climate change talks in Paris in December at a time when major forest fires in Indonesia have produced more carbon emissions than Japan does in a year and which have on occasion surpassed the daily emissions output of the entire US.  

EUROPEAN UNION SUBMITS PROPOSAL TO PHASE-DOWN HFCs UNDER THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL

LONDON: The European Union (EU) today submitted a proposal to amend the Montreal Protocol to control hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), super greenhouse gases used in refrigeration, air-conditioning, fire protection, aerosols and foams.

 

The EU move follows similar proposals submitted since 2009 by the USA, Canada, Mexico and Micronesia, and would significantly reduce HFCs in developed countries by following a phase-down schedule closely matching the EU F-Gas Regulation, groundbreaking legislation adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in 2014.

 

“The EU clearly expects developed countries to lead by example,” said Clare Perry, Head of Climate at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). “The EU has upped the ante significantly and is now calling on other developed countries to match it.”

 

In developing countries, the EU proposes a new approach, aimed at initially limiting the growth of HFCs, followed by an agreement to negotiate a phase-down schedule by 2020.

 

“The EU proposal is trying to be sensitive to the fact that HFCs are generally used to replace ozone-depleting HCFCs, which developing countries have only just begun to phase-out under the Montreal Protocol,” said Perry.

 

“For this reason, HFCs cannot be considered in isolation and this is the first proposal to try and address that specifically within an HFC amendment proposal – as such, it has the potential to unlock negotiations.”

 

The EU estimates global cumulative reductions in all countries would amount to 127 gigatonnes of CO₂-equivalent (Gt CO₂-eq) over 40 years.

 

The EU proposal will be considered at the upcoming Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) in Paris in July, and again at the Meeting of the Parties in Dubai in November.

How animals and plants respond to climate change

The Eastern-tailed blue is an example of a butterfly that is expanding its habitat North into Ottawa, Canada.  Both animals and plants have been recorded in more Northern environments as climate change affects the entire biosphere.  

Here is a recent article on Swiss plants, butterflies and birds:
http://www.enn.com/climate/article/46891

NGOs CALL ON EU MINISTERS TO BACK STRONG F-GAS LEGISLATION

LONDON: A coalition of European campaigners has issued an urgent plea to their governments to support ambitious measures to reduce the emission of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – super greenhouse gases used in cooling equipment.

 

In a letter to EU Ministers, a group of 11 organisations, including the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Greenpeace and WWF, called for Ministers to back a faster reduction in the amount of chemicals placed on the market and bans on their use in areas where alternatives are available.

 

Representatives of European member states are meeting today to decide on their position ahead of talks with the European Parliament and Commission next week on revisions to the EU F-Gas Regulation.

 

“There is a real danger that the cap-and-phase-down will be too lacking in ambition,” said Clare Perry, Head of the EIA's Global Environment Campaign. “In that case, there is no pressure for change and it will be business-as-usual for the polluters. We need a tighter cap, supported by bans in areas where we no longer need these chemicals. 

 

“In light of the dismal climate talks in Warsaw, it is more important than ever for Europe to take concrete actions to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions. This is something we can do right now.”

 

Currently, the revised F-gas legislation is being debated by the European Parliament, European Commission and Member States. While early drafts included bans on the use of HFCs in a number of sectors, including commercial refrigeration, some European countries are trying to water this down. 

 

The move comes at the same time as Refrigerants Naturally!, a partnership of major corporations including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Unilever with Greenpeace, issued a letter calling for more ambitious measures to be introduced in the Regulation, including support for bans.

 

HFCs are a family of super greenhouse gases with global warming potentials hundreds or thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide. Used as refrigerants, they are responsible for about two per cent of European greenhouse emissions. With rapid growth in developing countries, by 2050 HFCs could account for up to 19 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

 

“The phase-down of HFCs in Europe would prevent the emission of 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030 and could unlock global action to prevent the release of 100 billion tonnes by 2050. This is a huge opportunity,” said Susanna Williams of EEB.

 

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT REPORT CALLS FOR WIDESPREAD BANS ON HFCs

LONDON: The European Parliament’s rapporteur on the review of the European Union’s F-Gas Regulation has submitted a report calling for widespread bans on the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases in the European Union, a move that will ensure smaller businesses are prepared for future reductions in hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) available on the market.

Rapporteur Bas Eickhout’s report contains a series of significant amendments to the European Commission proposal published in November 2012, the centrepiece of which is an economy-wide phase-down of fluorinated gases with accompanying use bans in pre-charged and hermetically-sealed equipment. 

An earlier leaked draft of the Commission’s proposal had included bans in commercial and industrial refrigeration, but these were dropped after intensive lobbying by chemical manufacturers despite a European Commission study stating that safe, energy-efficient and cost-effective alternatives to HFCs are already on the market and can satisfy demand in nearly all industrial sectors by 2020.

A coalition of green groups, spearheaded by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), is concerned that a phase-down on its own, even if considerably tightened, will not provide operators and manufacturers with sufficient clarity for their investment decisions.

EIA Senior Campaigner Clare Perry said: “We congratulate Mr Eickhout for his rigorous and principled approach to this vital piece of legislation. As has been widely acknowledged, the Commission’s proposal had a number of significant gaps and also ignored recommendations put forward by its own consultants.

“We are pleased to see the reinstatement of bans in new HFC-containing equipment and products, which will send a signal to the market and allow smaller European companies to take advantage of the opportunity to build a sustainable refrigeration industry in Europe. A piecemeal solution which fails to tackle F-gas emissions head-on, using bans where feasible and cost-effective, will be bad for the climate and bad for the European economy.”

Tim Grabiel, EIA’s legal adviser on the EU F-Gas Regulation, said: “Those who oppose bans are ignoring the fact that they were essential tools used successfully in the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances across Europe.

“The amendments proposed by Mr Eickhout are backed up by the Commission’s own analysis and real life experience. By restoring a tried and tested regulatory approach, this Regulation can lead to a genuine transformation of the market, giving a huge boost to European businesses. We call on MEPs to support the vision set out by Mr Eickhout.”

The Dutch Green MEP’s amendments to the proposed F-Gas Regulation include strengthened containment and recovery measures, earlier bans for hermetically sealed equipment and additional bans on new refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment containing HFCs, with stationary equipment (other than centrifugal chillers) banned from 2020 and mobile equipment (other than fishing vessels) from 2025.

Other newly proposed bans include technical aerosols from 2020, foams from 2015, air-conditioning equipment in cargo ships from 2020 and a prohibition on the use of SF6 in medium voltage switchgear from 2020.

Mr Eickhout also proposes to bring forward the refrigeration servicing ban on very high-Global Warming Potential (GWP) HFCs (GWP>2150) to 2015, while increasing the charge size threshold from five tonnes to 40 tonnes CO₂-eq and exempting very low temperature systems. This is supported by a parallel ban on high-GWP HFCs in new equipment as of January 1, 2015 and a provision to mandate that where high-GWP (>2150) F-gases are used to service refrigeration equipment outside the scope of the servicing ban, they must be recovered gases as of 2017.

The Rapporteur’s report additionally strengthens the phase-down schedule and provides for an allocation fee for placing HFCs on the market corresponding to €30 per tonne of CO₂-equivalent. It will also require the mandatory destruction of by-product emissions from the manufacture of fluorinated greenhouse gases and other fluorinated compounds, including for the production of feedstocks and process agents.

Members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee have until March 28 to submit amendments to the report, after which it will be debated in the Committee and put to a vote on June 19.

NEW F-GAS PROPOSAL ‘A MISSED OPPORTUNITY’

Ambitious draft proposals watered down & lacking ambition

LONDON: The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has reacted with disappointment to the publication of the final proposal for the European Union’s Review of the F-Gas Regulation, citing weak measures and a lack of ambition.

The proposed revisions, which were released by the European Commission today, govern the use of climate-changing hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants – super greenhouse gases many hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Clare Perry, EIA Senior Campaigner, said: “We welcome the confirmation that Europe will begin phasing-out HFCs; however, the proposal is a missed opportunity and shows all the hallmarks of heavy industry lobbying. More ambitious draft proposals that were leaked previously have been watered down, bans have been removed and what have left is lacking in ambition.”

The new proposal contains a range of measures to reduce emissions of HFCs, including a cap and phase down of 79 per cent by 2030, and bans on use of HFCs in domestic, hermetically sealed commercial systems (usually small) and some other applications.

However, it also omits several key measures for which environmental campaign groups and many industry stakeholders have been calling, such as bans on the use of HFCs in new industrial and commercial refrigeration equipment. Studies conducted for the European Commission have shown that new equipment bans can be implemented in all the key sectors by 2020.

Alasdair Cameron, EIA Campaigner, said: “By failing to include ambitious bans, this new law will not achieve the emissions reductions required. The cap and phase down is weak and, without the back-up of bans in areas where we know safe and energy efficient alternatives are available, it will not provide the certainty that industry needs to invest in new technologies and will not reach the emissions reductions needed.

“The Commission has been unable to provide the necessary level of ambition and it will be up to the European Parliament and the Member States to do better in the coming months. It is clear that we need, and can have, stronger measures and we are confident that in the end they can be achieved.”

Currently, HFCs account for about 1-2 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but estimates suggest this will rise to up to 19 per cent by 2050 without action. HFCs are the only greenhouse gases on the rise in Europe.

 

EIA CALLS ON EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO STAND FIRM AGAINST PRO-HFC LOBBY

BRUSSELS: Leaked documents from the European Commission’s review of the EU F-Gas Regulation reveal a much-needed shake-up in the way Europe regulates hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), powerful global warming gases hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂).

The proposed new HFC regulation will help stimulate Europe’s green economy by banning HFCs in large commercial and industrial refrigeration systems.

Other sectors highlighted as suitable candidates for bans by a previous Commission-funded study are omitted – including stationary air-conditioning, foams and fire suppression. These sectors are covered by an economy-wide phase-down, which intends to gradually reduce HFC consumption to 21 per cent of current levels by 2030.

However, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) questions the ambition of the phase-down and the lack of clear market signals for companies providing climate-friendly alternatives in the growing sector of air-conditioning.

“We welcome the draft proposal as a step in the right direction but it clearly doesn’t go far enough and could easily be seriously diluted if the lobbyists currently working behind the scenes for the HFC industry get their way,” said EIA Senior Campaigner Clare Perry.

“The Commission’s own analysis shows that most sectors can ban HFCs in new equipment by 2020 or earlier and there is therefore no reason not to propose bans in all these sectors. There are many more low-hanging fruits to be picked.”

While NGOs and companies producing HFC-free alternatives are backing sectoral bans, the HFC industry as represented by the European Partnership for Energy and Environment (EPEE) has made clear its opposition to any bans – not surprisingly, it prefers a gradual phase-down that will allow the flexibility for industry to continue marketing and profiting from HFCs. 

EIA Campaigner Alasdair Cameron said: “EPEE is an organisation dominated by producers of HFC-based equipment and HFCs themselves and it will hardly favour banning HFCs. To paraphrase Einstein, the problems we face in the F-Gas Regulation will not be solved by the same minds that created them.”

“This revision is a chance to make up for lost ambition, and the only way to do that is to ban these super greenhouse gases when no longer needed. We are looking to the Commission to stand firm against the scaremongering of the HFC industry and its lobbyists, not cave into it as the world watches.”

NEW WHALING REPORT CALLS DANISH EU PRESIDENCY INTO QUESTION

LONDON: Prior to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in July 2012, conservation groups have released a report calling for a change in Denmark’s policy on whaling which has caused conflict with fellow European Union members in recent years. There are serious questions about how the Danish presidency of the EU can be maintained, given that its whaling policy doesn’t mesh with EU law.

Breaking Ranks, a new report, is backed by Pro Wildlife, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), and Humane Society International (HSI), and documents how, for the past 20 years, Denmark has actively supported countries that practice commercial whaling, repeatedly leading to conflict within the EU because EU law prohibits whale hunting and the commercial use of whale products.

“Despite its presidency position, Denmark is acting as an outsider to the EU and is undermining the efforts of the EU to better protect whales, something urgently needed,” said Pro Wildlife’s Sandra Altherr, one of the report’s two authors. “We call on Denmark to reconsider its whaling policy.”

Denmark wants to catch more whales – even endangered species

The new Danish Government, which took office last year, seems to be continuing the course of its predecessors. Just before taking over the EU presidency in January 2012, Denmark again opposed a common pro-conservation EU position on whaling.

Denmark’s preparations for the forthcoming IWC in Panama (July 2-6) have been even more diplomatically provocative. Denmark has unilateraly applied for a renewed increase in whaling quotas for Greenland (a Danish overseas territory) without consulting other EU members over such a controversial move.

“This individualistic act causes irritations within the EU,” said report co-author Jennifer Lonsdale of EIA. “Especially when holding the EU presidency, a country is expected to conduct itself in a transparent and coordinated way, seeking common ground rather than divisive action.”

Altherr added: “We recognise that the IWC grants quotas to those peoples who have a genuine subsistence need; however, Denmark is seeking significantly higher quotas than previously, even for highly endangered fin whales. It has deliberately avoided any debate with the EU, which is obliged to coordinate its position at international fora including the IWC.”

Controversial balancing act

In addition to Greenland, Denmark’s other overseas territory, The Faroe Islands, have also been the cause of conflicts as they are not EU members but are represented by Denmark at international meetings such as the IWC. Both territories kill whales; the Faroe Islanders hunt pilot whales that are not subject to IWC quotas and Greenland’s whaling is authorised by the IWC under the special category of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling, which allows non-commercial whaling for local consumption.