Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a group of toxic chemicals that can travel long distances through air and water, and accumulate in the fatty tissues of humans and other animals. They do not degrade quickly over time, and as a consequence, potentially expose people to serious health issues including cancer, birth defects and immune system impairments. Due to these concerns, POPs are regulated by the Stockholm Convention on POPs, a global multilateral environmental agreement that requires Parties to take action to eliminate or restrict the production, use and environmental release of POPs. The Stockholm Convention (www.pops.int) entered into force on 17th May 2004, and it currently regulates 28 POPs, which can be classified into two categories...
From the perspective of Pacific island states and territories (PICTs) much of the intense speculation and debate over climate policy seems irrelevant and immature given the oft-repeated warnings of the severe consequences for low-lying islands and atoll countries of climate change. The Pacific is not just any region when it comes to climate change but rather, as Farbotko (2010) argues, is an experimental space of climate change canaries. The position of the Pacific at the frontline of climate change has spurred voluminous research, however studies of the politics of climate change within the region is limited, particularly with regard to and regional processes. This paper explores the regional politics of climate change in the Pacific. Within the grand architecture of global climate governance, the region provides compelling new insights into the ways climate change is constructed, governed, and shaped byand in turn shapesregional and global climate politics. Through an exploration of regional governance as a strategy by which small vulnerable states respond to urgent crises, the paper explores both the potential and the limitations of collective action on environmental issues following the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris 2015. We argue that evolving regional governance on climate change is mobilizing resources and finance to combat climate change. On the surface it appears to be a successful manifestation of solidarity among states and territories facing a shared fate. This solidarity has been institutionalized in three key regional organizations that mobilize resources climate change action through distinct policy narratives about the place of the Pacific in global climate crisis. These organizations also distribute these resources to members. As a result climate finance in the Pacific is mostly generated by multilateral rather than bilateral donors. However, despite this apparent demonstration of regional agency, beneath the surface regional climate governance is heavily dependent on donors for finance and expertise. This exposes a dual vulnerability of PICTs. They are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change while also being extremely vulnerable to growing dependencies on donors to address these impacts.
At its tenth meeting, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) requested the Executive Secretary to work with Parties and other Government as well as competent organisations and regional initiatives, such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAo), regional seas conventions and action plans, and where appropriate, regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs), with regards to fisheries management, to organise, including the setting of terms of reference, a series of regional workshop, with a primary objective to facilitate the description of ecologically or biologically significant marine areas through the application of scientific criteria in annex 1 to decision IX/20 as well as other relevant compatible and complementary nationally and intergovernmentally agreed scientific criteria, as well as the scientific guidance on the identification of marine areas beyond national jurisdiction, which meet the scientific criteria in annex 1 to decision IX/20.
GEFPAS focal points have been contacted to supply contemporary used oil information, and contracted missions have been completed to Pohnpei, RMI and Fiji, with additional missions also completed opportunistically to Kiribati, Vanuatu and Niue.
Disposal of used oil as a diesel extender in power plants is not a universally acceptable
practice in the Pacific due to warrantee conditions placed on new electricity generating
equipment
The problem of e-waste is an emerging one, in that electronic materials imported and used take some years to feed into the waste stream.With the Pacific Islands typically lagging somewhat in the technical revolution of the last two decades, the issue has only really reached the agenda of waste management agencies in the last five years or so.
A significant number of reports have been generated between 2011 and 2014 on the status of used oil management in 14 GEFPAS Pacific Island countries. When analysed as a region, these reports suggest a number of clear priorities existed in 2014 for regional used oil management interventions...
The meeting was opened by the deputy director general of SPREP, Mr. Kosi
Latu and the FAO subregional coordinator for the Pacific, Mr. Gavin Wall. In their remarks, both touched upon the critical challenge posed by climate
change to the Pacific nations; the impact on agriculture and thus food security; and the need to work in partnership to ensure that strong national
meteorological services provide climate information that is actioned by the agriculture sector, at all levels.
This guidebook is a product of collaboration and the very first book written by the officers of various Pacific island countries who have been engaged in solid waste management. The readers will find useful case studies as well as Annexes based on practical experiences within the region. The editors wo
This book analyses the regional complexes of climate security in the Pacific. Pacific Island States and Territories (PICTs) have long been cast as the frontline of climate change and placed within the grand architecture of global climate governance. The region provides compelling new insights into the ways climate change is constructed, governed, and shaped by (and in turn shapes), regional and global climate politics.
By focusing on climate security as it is constructed in the Pacific and how this concept mobilises resources and shapes the implementation of climate finance, the book provides an up-to-date account of the way regional organizations in the Pacific have contributed to the search for solutions to the problem of climate insecurity.
In the context of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015, the focus of this book on regional governance offers a concise and innovative account of climate politics in the prevailing global context and one with implications for the study of climate security in other regions, particularly in the developing world.
