By  Jill Jaeger

The first part of the analysis is quite correct. Emissions of carbon dioxide continue to increase and indeed forestation is one solution to the problem. The proposed solution is interesting but from an earth system perspective we should be wary of large-scale technical solutions. They could have side-effects that could also have planetary implications, such as, with the solution proposed, large-scale changes of albedo, surface roughness and moisture. Large-scale use of nuclear energy is also questioned from a sustainability point of view. As the Earth System challenges chapter and the Drivers chapter of GEO-5 suggest, it is necessary to tackle the drivers of change rather than the effects. Emissions reductions through gains in efficiency and a serious move towards sufficiency are called for.

By  Robert A. Wabunoha

There are many MEAs in the Africa region but the most prominent ones are the Bamako Convention on movement of hazardous wastes and the Maputo Convention on environment and natural resources. The other MEAs in Africa are mostly of a sub-regional character. Of course the rest of the MEAs are of a global character. The Maputo Convention has not gone into force since 2002 when it was signed as the required number of ratifications by the member countries have not been reached. Bamako convention is in force but it has not held its first conference of the parties and therefore no mechanism has been set up to ensure its compliance and enforcement. Both of these conventions have the African Union as their interim Secretariats. The other regional mechanisms to assist in the enforcement are coordinated by the various MEA Secretariats and supported by UN agencies such as UNEP. For example, the Nairobi and Abidjan Conventions on coastal and marine matters have their own enforcement mechanisms coordinated by the respective secretariats and supported by UNEP.

By  Jill Jäger, GEO-5 Author

Dear Yannick,

Good question! Transportation is a hard nut to crack even in countries that have an otherwise good reputation regarding environmental policy. Of course, you are quite right that building more infrastructure makes the problem worse. However, there are big lobbies supporting the transport sector and policy -making does not take a systemic point of view, so have a disconnect between climate policy and transport policy.

I don't think we should "accept these emissions as a given" - if we had to pay the true price for fuel (i.e. including the environmental impacts - and in some case health and other social impacts) we would surely see a reduction in unnecessary transport, a move to produce much more efficient vehicles, a shift to using trains etc etc. This is all part of the move to a Green Economy, as discussed in detail in the UNEP report.

By  Jill Jäger, GEO-5 Author

Dear Catherine,

I typed in an answer twice yesterday but somehow the system did not accept it. I hope it works today. Thanks for your very good question. It is clear that when we talk about sustainability we need to consider the three pillars – environment, social and economic – and indeed the trade-offs between them. I think that an important way forward is in dialogue processes in which all actors engage in a discussion about „What is the problem?“, then develop a common vision of where we want to be in the future and then experiment with and learn from attempts to achieve the joint vision. This is very much what is done in „transition arenas“ developed by the community working on „transition management“. You might want to look at transition management work, a lot of it comes from the Netherlands, as an approach. Clearly the way forward depends a lot on developing long-term, iterative processes of dialogue and learning.

By  Jill Jäger, GEO-5 Author

Dear Philippa,

Thanks for your question. I agree that we need to encourage change. I don't think we can forcce it! We can, however, do a much better job in clarifying what we know. Importantly, however, and this is reflected in some answers to other questions, we can organize processes in which the educators and policy makers participate together with other actors (including the science community) in order to jointly find solutions.

History tells us that humans usually don't react until the crisis is evident - this is bad news, because it means that the "celebrity life-style" will continue to be increasingly popular until people see the consequences. However, there is also increasing evidence that people are becoming dissatisfied with "keeping up with the Joneses" (burnout, depression), so we should be ready with examples of good practice that would attract them to a new pathway.

By  Roy Watkinson, GEO-5 Author

Dear Maurice you have neatly posed a number of questions for me to speculate on. First of all definitions -the elaboration of the term Green or (Sustainable) Chemistry (or Technology), its principles and its relationship with tools such as Life Cycle assessment are areas all worthy of consideration in their own right. Then what is meant by implementation; does this mean application at the production level or a process of regulatory control? Finally implicit in this question is the notion that the application of green chemistry itself might incur cost/regulatory burdens or restrictions that would cause manufacturers to shift their site of production (maybe using less green technology) from a more highly regulated environment (in one country) to one with less strict control and with a consequent lowering of health safety and environment standards.

Green chemistry was I think originally defined as “the use of chemistry for pollution prevention by means of a proper design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances” by Anastas and Warner. (The latter point is of most interest to me as hazardous substance reduction means less hazardous waste produced and a lower potential environmental impact.) With that in mind we can consider if implementation is about application (production process) or regulation – linking it to health and safety implies elements of both. Does green chemistry have the tendency to drive production to places with lower regulatory standards? I don’t think this is necessarily so. As a means of reducing waste production at source and lowering energy costs green chemistry might also be considered as an approach that reduces hazard and can improve environmental health and safety standards and lower costs in situ. For example the UK developed an approach in the 1990s to improve the energy efficiency and environmental performance of manufacturing production under a programme called “Environmental Technology Best Practice” (later, “Envirowise”). This was geared in part towards improvements to existing process, reducing cost, not exporting techniques abroad. Substitution of say water-based paint production instead of (organic ) solvent based paint has not to my knowledge for example resulted in the shift of production of one major paint manufacturer in the UK I can think of. Evidence does suggest though that chemicals production generally has been shifting over the past decades from OECD to non-OECD countries. The main reasons may be found in other factors, labour cost for example, although the risk of different health and safety standards will exist.

Taking the perspective from waste management (as I am always bound to!) the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Waste and their Disposal) the Convention urges Parties to minimize the production of hazardous waste and of it transboundary movement. Given that most products end up as waste some time in their life cycle the extension of that commitment implies that greener production is a technique that supports the principles of Basel and environmentally sound management. More attention to this approach, in concert with green chemistry, is desirable in its own right. With the vast majority of States being contracting parties to the Basel Convention green chemistry may be seen as one way of providing assistance to meet the obligations of environmentally sound management.

Maurice – many thanks for an interesting question with many (more) ramifications.

By  Jill Jäger, GEO-5 Author

Dear Sophie,

I agree with you that the word "sustainable" is used for many things that are not really sustainable. The word is used sloppily as an adjective that has become very popular and often misused. I think that processes of dialogue about "what do we meana by sustainability" need to proceed all attempts at so-called problem-solving. We also need, as you say, other metrics for progress that take the value of ecosystem services into account and that measure improved well-being of humans and the planet rather than accelerated deterioration.

Thanks for your input.

By  Jill Jäger, GEO-5 Author

Hi Clyde, I would imagine that this would be many people's vision of susainability and that serious attempts are being made in many places to implement such solutions. The examples of good practice can act as an inspiration to others. Holistic solutions tackling connected problems in a systemic way are indeed what is needed.

By  Jill Jäger, GEO-5 Author

Dear Maurice,

Thanks for your question. My answer is similar to another one that I provided. Insome places and in some contexts second generation biofuel could play an important role. What is missing is an overall susainability assessment of such proposals in terms of the environmental effects, economic effects and socio-economic implication without an integrated sustainability assessment we run the risk of solving one problem and creating others.

By  Roy Watkinson, GEO-5 Author

Zero waste - Political aspiration or practical application? From Canberra to Edinburgh (and stops in between).

Prab, your experience suggests that there is more than one definition or interpretation of what zero waste means and that the current view is that the zero waste option chosen is a matter of selecting the definition that is best fitted to the circumstances of the user.

It has always seemed to me that the term inherently expresses an aspiration rather than a realisable goal, until qualified e.g.: zero waste to landfill, zero waste landfilled and incinerated, etc. and this can include liquid waste and energy use too. Without such qualification it becomes difficult to implement as a practical objective for which real targets can be created against which performance can be measured and results published. Without these factors the term would be meaningless.

In any event I doubt that any system involving waste management can be strictly zero waste as it implies a condition where the inputs – products – either have infinite useful lives and are never discarded and the outputs – end of life products – tend to zero.

So in one sense you are not correct to say that the term is misused as it takes a variety of forms and is flexible in application, so it cannot be misused, it is simply adapted! This doesn’t lead to great clarity and hence to my mind will always need to be carefully defined by the user. Is a standard definition necessary? I would say this is not a huge priority just yet as certainly from the international perspective a lot more effort is needed to better understand waste generation and flows, improve the environmentally sound management of waste, including municipal and hazardous waste, before refining this terminology. In the meantime we can also rely on waste minimization, waste avoidance, re-use, 3R, resource recovery and a host of other terms some being brought into legislative instruments (such as the EU revised Waste Framework Directive) to keep us busy. Scotland of course has also gone down this route with an ambitious plan backed by legislation to increase recycling (see Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/314168/0099749.pdf) and reduce waste to landfill. (A mere 16 years or so after Canberra).

I do see some dangers in too literal an interpretation of zero waste that may erroneously favour actions that are wasteful themselves. It’s not just about maximising recycling.In an integrated approach to energy and materials use a balance of the life cycle of the products (or production) and use during consumption is needed. A simple example of selecting recyclable materials for beverage containers that are actually collected for recycling may regarded as good by avoiding landfill (or incineration) but may not be as energy efficient as re-using a drinking mug. The work done on attempting to determine the life cycle costs of disposal and re-useable nappies though illustrates the challenges in deciding which is the overall preferred option.

So I would let your companies and organisations use this term as a title for an element of a policy describing part of an environmental policy, for example, but challenge them to come up with a practical and defensible elaboration of what it means for them, and describe it wisely, using the criteria set out at the top of this response. Not just zero waste to landfill but making an evaluation of patterns of procurement, consumption and production taking into account energy and natural material flows and costs to minimise the environmental impact and maximise renewable cycles.

Many thanks for a stimulating question, Prab.

By  Jill Jäger, GEO-5 Author

Dear Valentina,

Thanks for your questions. I cannot answer the second one, since I do not follow resource efficiency policies in any detail.

Achieving sustainability in small islands will require the same level of efforts as elsewhere. It will depend on setting up iterative, long-term processes of dialogue, in developing context-dependent visions of sustainability, in experimenting and learning. These processes need careful design and facilitation - similar to "transition arenas" discussed in another of my responses. But without a participatory approach in which a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities, as well as a common vision of a sustainable future, progress will be slow.

By  Salif Diop

Aquatic weeds are considered in many cases as "invasive" species - e.g. in the case in Lake Victoria in Africa, but also in Australia, in India and Latin America. Water hyacinths in Lake Victoria is also well known, as a case in point. Indeed invasive aquatic weeds can be harmful, in a sense that they can reduce fisheries and local boat transportation activities in inland waters; they can increase sedimentation and participate to habitat destruction and increase pollution in some cases. UNEP has undertaken a series of scientific activities in various inland waters exposed to such harmful aquatic weeds in order to have a clear understanding of the various species and families of weeds, their level of production and their impacts in the water environment, their functioning and uses. At the same time, measures to limit their growth (biological measures) as well as the various possibilities to use and recycle them have been assessed, as some of the aquatic weeds are used by local populations for various purposes. Today, there are tools for controlling invasion of aquatic weeds, either through biological or mechanical tools. Options for better management of aquatic weeds should be flexible, including various uses by local populations.

By  GEO TEAM

Thank you for your question Megan. Certainly, the very important Polar regions feature in many different chapters of the GEO-5 report and we hope you will find them of interest and use. The GEO-5 report is currently being finalized and the published version will be available in mid-May 2012.

By  Neeyati Patel

Dear Vivian,

Thanks for your question.
GEO-5 does contain an outlook component, however, it will be published early next year. In the meantime, you may wish to look at our GEO-4 assessment which considered the progress made and the trends and outlook for the future. In GEO-4 outlooks were based on 4 scenarios based on Markets First, Policy First, Security First and Sustainability Firstand projections were till 2050.

There have been some progress made, but a lot more needs to be done. Chapter 9 and 10 may be on interest to you. they can be downloaded by chapter from http://www.unep.org/geo/GEO4.asp .You may want to show the curtain raiser video during your presentation.

The GEO report's primary target audience group is governments - but it is also relevant to the business community. We have found that solutions to current challenges requires the cooperation of all major stakeholders.

Finally, you may be interested in our latest publication called "Keeping Track of our changing environment" which shows the environmental, social and economic changes that have taken place over the past 20 years since the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 1992 (Rio Earth Summit). It is available at: http://www.unep.org/geo/GEO5_Products.asp

If you could share any feedback you think is relevant from your presentation and also in relation to any of the GEO material mentioned above, we would very much appreciate it.

By   Prof. Oladele Osibanjo

Firstly - does Cameroon have a comprehensive National Policy on Waste or Chemicals or Chemicals and Wastes?. If not, there may be piece meal legislation that is are weakly enforced. Resource allocation to waste management is usually grossly inadequate. Perhaps 40-50% of the waste would be collected in the high population density areas, that is where there are vulnerable groups posing serious sanitation and health problems.

I believe that existing mechanism in Cameroon would be co-disposal and dumping of assorted wastes and obsolete chemicals on land (non sanitary or non engineered landfill) or wetlands. This causes contamination and pollution of nearby surface waters and ground water by the leachates especially during rainy season. Regrettably the poor people use such contaminated water for domestic chores, cooking and drinking. Access to clean potable water by the poor is worsened and water borne diseases multiply.

Open burning of waste is also prevalent causing indoor and outdoor air pollution problems to waste scavengers and communities close to the dumpsites.
As for chemicals control, there would be requirement for import permit or licence to import chemicals. Thereafter there may not be tracking system from cradle to grave, that is from chemical entry into the country till final disposal.Public awareness on the risk of exposure to wastes and chemicals could be low and the threat to human health and the environment on the prevalent improper control of chemicals and waste in the country would be high.

Like many African countries, Cameroon would have ratified all the Chemical and Waste Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and yet they are not domesticated into national legislation and therefore not enforced. In summary infrastructure and regulatory framework for chemicals and waste control in Cameroon needs to be strengthened with intense public awareness and education on chemicals and waste issue.

By  Roy Watkinson

Note that the Basel Convention has a system of national Reporting as part of the obligations of being a Party to the Convention. The information is posted on the web site of the Convention Secretariat at http://basel.int/index.html.  National Reporting (which should be annual) is on the homepage menu. Cameroon became a Party through its  accession on 09.02.2001 and they have posted some information. There is a country factsheet  which gives details of its accession and laws but (as quite often happens) little about its waste generation and management.

You might find these two sections from the Factsheet which give you an indication of what Oladele is alluding to :
« Legislation, regulations and guidelines
Law N° 96/12 of 5th August 1996 relating to Environmental management in Cameroon and Loi N° 89/027 du 29 décembre 1989 portant sur les déchets toxiques et dangereux don’t give Cameroon an adequate framework for sustainable management of hazardous wastes in particular or wastes in general.

Economic instruments/ initiatives
Incentive measures as reduction of custom duty on equipment are prescribed by above mentioned Environmental Law to industrial establishments that choose pollution reduction technology or good practices in their manufacturing process. But as for now, no inventory has been done yet to determine the quantities and qualities of the hazardous waste present in the country. Need for both technical and financial assistance to carry out this inventory.

You may wish to look on the website of the Stockholm Convention as well to see if any National Implementation Plan for PoPs has been undertaken as this involves a survey of likely PoPs arising and the Factsheet does indicate that they are working on PCB issues.

By  Dr. Jill Jäger

Thank you for your question.
The United Nations Conference on Population said in 1994 that the best way forward was to assure maternal health, invest in female education and basic human rights. Top-down restrictions on the number of children would be less effective.
Since the UN Conference on Population, however, the resolutions have not been supported by countries. International agreements need to be implemented.

By  Neeyati Patel

Thanks for your question. There is no legislative requirement for GEO reporting. GEO is UNEP's flagship assessment process which keeps the state and trends of the environment under review.

Countries however have reporting obligations through legal instruments such as Multilateral Environmental Agreements to which they have signed and/or ratified - such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Convention to Combat Desertification and so on. Reporting obligations vary for each Convention. Links to some of these Conventions is available on the GEO website at: http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/P_Multilateral_Environmental_Agreements.pdf

By  Olena Maslyukivska

Dear Francis,

Yes, Ukraine still needs to work on its river management issues. Despite the fact that river management in recent years receives increasingly more attention due to the water quality, water scarcity problems, and its linkages with the biodiversity conservation issues, unfortunately, I must admit that the management aspects need to be further developed. For example, only after 2000 the first river basin management councils have been created, yet they do not have enough authority to serve the purpose effectively. And only in 2007 the integrated water resources management appears in the Ukrainian legal system, while its implementation is still lagging far behind.

Thank you for asking about the topic of my PhD. It is not directly related to water resources management, but has effective and efficient policies as a common theme. I am researching the introduction of the ecological tax reform in Ukraine as a mechanism for the tax shift from labor and capital on to the environmental pollution and natural resource use. In my thesis I devote a significant portion of efforts to introduction of carbon tax in Ukraine.

By  Dr. Peter King

Hello Francis,

Environmental degradation to a large extent stems from policy and market failures, while acknowledging that ineffective compliance and enforcement of legislation and regulations is another major cause. Underpinning these failures is the inadequate recognition that humans are just as reliant on ecosystem services as all other living things on Earth. Nowhere, have we been able to create an artificial environment that will support human life over the long term--although we have tried. Because we don't acknowledge the importance of ecosystem services for the air we breathe, for the water we drink, for the food we eat, and maintaining a livable temperature, these services are not part of our market system, have no assigned prices, and our economic systems largely ignore them. Creating a set of policies that would find ways to assign prices to these services, however, may not be the ultimate solution as Bob Costanza and others estimated the total value of these services as being as large as the total economic system. Putting a price on life has always been a controversial policy issue, as seen in various insurance policy proposals, so putting a price on our life support system would be equally controversial. Pilot approaches like payment for ecosystem services and REDD+ recognize the value of certain ecosystem services and try to reward the indigenous and other stewards who maintain these ecosystems. However, extending similar approaches to all ecosystem services may be too much of a stretch. Perhaps the best we can ask for is to find similar policy and market solutions for the ecosystems most under threat and at least minimize the extent of environmental degradation. Thank you for your question.

By  Peter King

DK - From an institutional perspective, recent reforms in India appear to be very promising, perhaps starting from the activism of the Supreme Court a few years ago, which directly led to efforts to clean up the capital city, New Delhi. More recently, in June 2010, the creation of the National Green Tribunal, which replaced the National Environment Appellate Authority, and will handle environmental cases exclusively. I would also mention the tremendously important Right to Information Act 2005, which not only vastly improves the access to information but also specifically makes a Public Information Officer personally responsible. Finally, I would mention the recent creation of Environmental Compliance Assistance Centers, first in West Bengal, and subsequently in Andhra Pradesh, which are designed to assist small and medium enterprises to comply with their responsibilities under state and federal environmental laws. So, in short, my suggestion would be to keep the pressure up on the respective governments, build on these excellent foundations, and keep pushing the boundaries of institutional reform. A specific suggestion is to examine the experience of the Environmental Compliance Assistance Centers and expand a network of such centers throughout the country. Thank you for your question.

By  Peter King

Jimmy - actually I head up the Secretariat for the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network, and I believe there are similar networks being set up in Africa, under the auspices of the International Network on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE). These networks are using south-south twinning arrangements to take best practices from one or more countries (not necessarily, but often from the same region) and transfer them to countries where there is an urgent need. For example, this may involve strengthening the environmental judiciary, developing self-monitoring and self-reporting systems, or establishing compliance and assistance centers. I suggest that you take a look at the range of activities being undertaken by the INECE group of networks and you will see that much is being done to improve compliance and enforcement across the globe. You may want to work with your colleagues in Kenya involved in the East African network (for which some details are given below).

In May 2010, delegates from the 5 East African Nations, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya along with environmental compliance and enforcement experts from the international community, gathered in Nairobi, Kenya and resolved to establish in the East African Network for Environmental Compliance & Enforcement (EANECE).

Mission

To promote the rule of the law, good governance and sustainable development in East Africa through efficient and effective implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation and policies.

Goals
¦Build the capacity for environmental compliance and enforcement
¦Strengthen and enhance EANECE as a regional network as well as its affiliate national chapters for compliance and enforcement cooperation
¦Create awareness of the importance of environmental compliance and enforcement

By  Neeyati Patel

The French version of the GEO-4 assessment and the Summary for Decision Makers are available at:

Vous pouvez télécharger la version francaise de GEO-4 ainsi que la version pour les preneurs de decision avec le site WEB ci-dessous:

http://www.unep.org/geo/GEO4.asp
http://www.unep.org/geo/GEO4/media/GEO4_SDM_French.pdf

By  Rajiv Garg

There is no thermal power plant in the world with 35000 ( thirty five thousand) MW capacity at a single location. Further the following parameters are important to be known before attempting to answer the question.

1) Fuel used : coal, gas, naphtha or oil ( in case of coal what is the chemical composition)
2) Geographic Location of the plant and surrounding environment.
3) Technology : i.e. super critical or sub critical, open or combined cycle etc .
4) Types and nature of end of pipe pollution abatement facilities which exists.
5) Nature of resources used : water, how is transportation of fuel done etc

Also please be more specific with regards to what "ill effects" you are seeking reply e.g. health, social, etc.

By  Erica Brown Gaddis, Coordinating Lead Author of the Water chapter

The treatment of wastewater using planted ecologies has shown to be a very effective mechanism for treating wastewater at low energy costs. Research on such systems is one focus of the field of ecological engineering. Journals from both the International Ecological Engineering Society (http://www.iees.ch/cms/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=27) and American Ecological Engineering Society (http://www.ecoeng.org/) include many publications on this topic.

Although mangroves have been used effectively as treatment for nutrients and organics, it is unclear if they would be effective at the removal of TDS. Although mangroves thrive in salt water, many species exclude most of the salt from the water that they uptake at their roots. The following articles, among others, give examples of mangroves being used for treatment of other wastewater constituents including a case study with highly saline effluent.

Reference sources:
Q. Yang, N.F.Y. Tam, Y.S. Wong, T.G. Luan, W.S. Su, C.Y. Lan, P.K.S. Shin, S.G. Cheung, Potential use of mangroves as constructed wetland for municipal sewage treatment in Futian, Shenzhen, China, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 57, Issues 6-12, 5th International Conference on Marine Pollution and Ecotoxicology, 2008, Pages 735-743, ISSN 0025-326X, DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2008.01.037.

Y. Wu, A. Chung, N.F.Y. Tam, N. Pi, M.H. Wong, Constructed mangrove wetland as secondary treatment system for municipal wastewater, Ecological Engineering, Volume 34, Issue 2, 2 September 2008, Pages 137-146, ISSN 0925-8574, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2008.07.010.

Yan Wu, N.F.Y. Tam, M.H. Wong, Effects of salinity on treatment of municipal wastewater by constructed mangrove wetland microcosms, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 57, Issues 6-12, 5th International Conference on Marine Pollution and Ecotoxicology, 2008, Pages 727-734, ISSN 0025-326X, DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2008.02.026.

By  Max Finlayson, Coordinating Lead Author of the Biodiversity chapter

Mangroves, as with many wetlands can filter the TDS from wastewater. The effectiveness will depend on the concentration and loading of TDS, the biophysical characteristics of the mangal (the species, community composition and the inter-related freshwater and tidal flows and substrate characteristics), and how this was managed, and for how long. It may not always work effectively, and may change over time. As already mentioned, there is ample literature that shows examples of successful retention of various substances.

There is also a need to consider what type of mangal is being considered with species occurrence varying from something like 2-3 species to around 30-40 (depending on how a mangrove is defined), the extent and nature of zonation, and the occurrence of large/episodic events (such as floods and storms) that could physically release accumulated materials. In addition to inputs and accumulation the extent of export should also be considered. There is a lot of current interest in using mangroves for carbon storage.

There is some concern that using mangroves for ameliorating wastewaters could disrupt the provision of other ecosystem services and the existence of some forms of the biota. My take on this – yes, it can ameliorate some forms of wastewater, but local conditions need to be considered, and monitored.