In Brief

STUDY: MARINE SHIPPING HIGHLY POLLUTING

For the first time, a study has linked pollution-related illness and mortality to emissions of seafaring vessels.

Approximately 60,000 lung- and heart-related deaths in 2002 were linked to the pollution and chemicals emitted by large shipping freighters in a study by the University of Delaware. According to the researchers, these deaths were due to the poor regulation of the shipping industry on fuel standards.

In the last couple of decades, the international community has taken steps to reduce other environmental hazards and greenhouse gases, but the shipping industry has been left largely unregulated. Emissions released by the diesel fuel in ships have risen, while for buses and trucks the levels have been reduced by almost 90 percent.

Efficiency and environmental standards on shipping fuel have not been maintained over the years due to the distance between the ships and the externalities they create, explained the study. The freighters travel the open seas, leagues away from the coastal inhabitants who fall ill. These chemicals can spread through the water via spills or through the atmosphere after the fuel is burned for use.

International shipping accounts for eight percent of global sulphur emissions. This is unsurprising considering that the industry largely uses bunker fuel, which is the waste byproduct of distillate oil. Thus it contains the excess sulphur driven out by the distillation process, upwards of 2000 times that which is found in highway diesel fuel.

The article calls on the international community to update shipping standards in order to better protect the environment and lives of coastal inhabitants. Those who live near major trade routes will be most affected, mainly those in South and East Asia and Europe. By 2012, the study predicts that the death rate is likely to grow by 40 percent.

The UN International Maritime Organisation is conducting its own investigation and is planning a series of meetings on the issue over the upcoming months.

Ninety percent of globally traded goods are transported by the sea, and recent studies show that emissions are on the rise (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 2 November 2007).

"Ship Emissions Causing 60,000 Deaths a Year-Study," PLANET ARK, 8 November 2007; "Environmentalists call for ban on bunker fuel, described as toxic," SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 12 November 2007; "Report studies shipping emission deaths," GARDEN ISLAND, 10 November 2007.

A Greenpeace report claims that global demand for palm oil is lighting the fuse of a "climate bomb" in the peat lands of Indonesia. The slash-and-burn tactics of palm oil farmers is releasing 1.8 billion tonnes of CO2 per annum from the carbon rich soils of Indonesia's swamps.

The 22 million hectares of peat soils of Sumatra have the highest concentration of carbon in the world. Half have already been consumed by the palm oil industry. Due to the CO2 emissions resulting from the destruction of the peat swamps, Indonesia accounts for four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This ranks Indonesia as the third-highest global emitter of greenhouse gases, just behind the US and China.

Analysts say that global demand for palm oil will double in 25 years and triple by 2050. Big name companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, and Kraft are using more and more palm oil in their products like Pringles, Flora margarine, Kit Kats, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Increasingly, it is also being used in cooking oil and as a biofuel.

Greenpeace blames the large firms for the destructive practices used to create palm oil plantations, but company officials say there is virtually no traceability for the product.

The projected increase in demand for biofuels is of highest concern to the group. Europe plans for biofuel to account for ten percent of all its transport fuel by 2010, the US by 2020, and China and India expect to use 20 percent biofuels by 2012. Not counting the forest set aside for cooking oil and other food products, 3 million hectares of land in Indonesia have also been set aside for biofuel production.

Nearly 15.5 million hectares of plantations will be required to meet Europe's demand for palm oil alone. In its report, Greenpeace states that "substituting even ten percent of the world demand for diesel fuel" will require "more than 75 percent of the world's total current demand for soya, palm oil, and rapeseed oil."

The report can be downloaded at http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports

"Palm oil warning for Indonesia," BBC NEWS, 8 November 2007; "Big companies accused of risking climate catastrophe," GUARDIAN, 8 November 2007.

EU, SWITZERLAND DISTANT FROM OTHER MEMBERS IN WTO-MEA TALKS

Differences persist among WTO Members on the content of a potential text that could serve as the basis for future negotiations on the relationship between WTO rules and specific trade obligations (STOs) set out in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).

Discussions on 2 November in the Committee for Trade and Environment - Special Session (CTE-SS) on an informal compilation prepared by the WTO Secretariat, of ideas in submissions from Members including Australia, Argentina, the EU, Taiwan, and the US (see BRIDGES Weekly, 9 May 2007).

The compilation, intended to facilitate an outcome from the discussions, was divided into four parts: Reflecting the Doha mandate; observations drawn from discussions in the CTE-SS; the importance of domestic co-ordination in the implementation of MEAs; and dispute settlement.

One delegate said that dispute settlement was the major bone of contention. The text on dispute settlement, which drew from an EU submission (TN/TE/W/68, available at http://docsonline.wto.org), would have WTO panels seek and defer to MEA expertise while examining environment-related issues. This met with opposition from developing countries as well as Australia, Argentina and the US. The EU and Switzerland supported the idea.

According to a trade delegate, the 'centre of gravity' appeared to rest with the Australia-Argentina submission (TN/TE/W/72/Rev.1), which simply asked the CTE-SS to recommend ways in which Members could structure specific trade obligations in MEAs to ensure that they and WTO rules support each other. In contrast, the EU proposal was more ambitious, as it sought to develop principles for clarifying the relationship between WTO dispute settlement and MEA trade obligations.

One source said that the divide seemed to hinge on different interpretations of the mandate, and hopes for the scope of the outcome.

Chair Ambassador Mario Matus (Chile) is set to continue consultations to try to bridge the split between the EU and Switzerland and the rest of the Membership on the issue.

ICTSD reporting.

TROPICAL TIMBER ORGANISATION WAITING FOR NEW AGREEMENT TO ENTER INTO FORCE

Delegates at the forty-third session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC-43), held from 5-10 November 2007 in Yokohama, Japan, discussed issues concerning operational, project and policy work for 2008-2009. Most notably, they discussed the Biennial Work Programme 2008-2009, which was adopted, and the preparations for entry into force of the new governing treaty, the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), 2006. The Council has committed US$10.1 million for new projects and activities for the conservation and sustainable management, use and trade of tropical forest resources.

The Council also reviewed the status of the ITTA, 2006, which has only been ratified by four countries - the US, Malaysia, Switzerland and Poland - but which must be ratified by 10 consumer and 12 producer countries before it enters into force. The ratification process is complex and lengthy, and not a top priority for many members. Because of uncertainty over when the ITTA, 2006 will enter into force, some important decisions were put on hold. For example, a new action plan for ITTO work under the ITTA, 2006 were ultimately left hanging. Some expressed that it was too soon to conclude work on issues pertaining to the new Agreement because it has not entered into force. The members therefore gave priority to smaller and more immediate matters. They decided to host a high-level meeting in Accra, Ghana from 2-5 June 2008, to review and clarify the operational issues needed to be considered on the entry into force of the new agreement.

The ITTA, 2006 builds on the foundations of the previous agreements and focuses on the world tropical timber economy and the sustainable management of the resource base, simultaneously encouraging the timber trade and improving forest management. It also allows for the consideration of non-tropical timber issues as they relate to tropical timber.

The Council is the governing body of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO). It meets regularly to discuss a wide-ranging agenda aimed at promoting sustainable tropical forest management and the trade of sustainably produced tropical timber.

For more information on the 43rd Council session or ITTO in general, visit http://www.itto.or.jp

For daily reporting and a summary of the meeting, see IISD's Earth Negotiations Bulletin at http://www.iisd.ca/forestry/itto/ittc43/

ICTSD reporting.