ESG Radio Newsletter 26th April 2018
Key Words: Zero Waste Target CUTW 2018 Plastic Pledge 15% Drop in CO2 emissions Ship Emissions and NABU The Bay
We start todays newsletter by providing an update on Clean up preparations for this years campaign. Our Zero Waste target mentioned in our last newsletter on running the Campaign itself is a challenge but one that we believe we can rise to and are working hard at present to achieve. Since we announced our new vision we have secured funding for a number of items helping bring our plans to reality. An outreach programme is now underway to discuss the new plans with our Clean up Volunteer teams and partners and the response we are getting is very encouraging indeed.
Also in today’s UK press we hear about how over 40 companies have signed up to a Plastic Pledge to take immediate, short and long term action regarding not only packaging, but single use plastics. The ESG has long called for the critical issue of packaging to be tackled at source, ie manufacture, because it is an essential part of global trade and the transporting of goods over distance. BUT! This packaging must be produced from harmless, biodegradable, or at worst fully recyclable materials – all of which makes complete sense and is the way forward. While this campaign has started in the UK it is attracting international support which is excellent news. We must mention and recognise local efforts to tackle single use plastic waste with main supermarkets, Nautilus Project and several companies getting increasingly behind this hot issue. Government support and engagement is also playing an important role and we will be doing our bit under our flagship Clean up Campaign to highlight litter issues and encourage the reduce reuse recycle message as we have done since 2005.
Plans for workshops; presentations and fundraisers will be released very soon.
On pollution it is good news indeed that through efficiency and conservation of energy measures from Gibraltar’s land based energy use there has been a reduction of CO2 emissions of up to 15% over the past 3 years. This can only improve with the greater harness of renewable energy measures and we follow this with much interest. Well done to all!
There is no doubt that Ship emissions affect our local environment and we are currently researching all factors regarding regional, European and international regulations on emissions to better understand what possible improvements could come our way from future changes. Locally we continue to call for best practice and technologies to be used that will require a combination of regulation, infrastructure changes and also on companies investing more in reducing environmental impacts.
We also wanted to refer to the recent air sampling carried out by a German NGO, to record a snapshot of emissions from a departing liner leaving Gibraltar. We have contacted NABU and are presently waiting for their reply. In sharing with them our Objectives we hope to highlight our longstanding efforts to tackle pollution both locally and regionally, in fact even carrying out spot sampling ourselves throughout the Bay. We also expressed interest in their Med wide study on shipping emissions and enquired whether CEPSA Oil Refinery and Algeciras Port were included in similar spot checks as their environmental impacts are major given the nature of their industry and scale of operation.
We now wait for news from NABU.
Visit our website at: esg-gib.net for all our press releases on topical issues.
