IMO must act to stop new “Super Pollutant” shipping fuels in Arctic and globally. Urgent questions to be answered by oil and marine fuel industry
A group of ocean experts, including the UN Special Envoy for the Ocean, scientists and NGOs convening for a COP25 event today in Madrid, How can Ending Overfishing Mitigate Climate Change?, have called for immediate action by governments worldwide to end overfishing in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans.
London, 15th November 2019. The lack of progress and low ambition shown at this week’s round of negotiations to reduce shipping’s contribution to the climate crisis is deeply concerning and disappointing, the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) has said. Two years after agreeing its initial greenhouse gas strategy, a meeting of the UN maritime agency, the IMO, did little more than review options already on the table and gave far too much time to technical measures that will deliver too little too late.
In the first major vote of the new European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries, its 28 members have today decided to reopen the floodgates of overfishing in Europe. (1) By 20 votes against 6 (and 2 abstentions), they confirmed the catastrophic position adopted by the former Parliament in April 2019 (2). Among other things, this position reintroduced public aid for building new vessels, although such subsidies were banned in 2004 because of their direct role in overfishing.
On the eve of the latest round of UN ship climate negotiations at the International Maritime Organisation in London, a new report published by Seas at Risk and Transport & Environment has highlighted how slower ship speeds would massively reduce the damage shipping is causing to human health, nature and the climate.
Following news that the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) has today set five out of ten fishing limits for fish caught in the Baltic Sea, far above the EU fisheries legal requirements for sustainable fishing levels in 2020, conservation NGOs have expressed their outrage, accusing EU governments of acting with no regard to the law, and ignoring the ongoing overfishing and devastation of the Baltic Sea’s ecosystem.
Environmental NGOs Seas At Risk, Our Fish and Oceana are deeply disappointed that todays Commission proposal for fishing limits in the Baltic allows for the continuation of overfishing in 2020, even though there is a legal deadline to end overfishing by 2020 under the EU Common Fisheries Policy. The Commission’s proposal includes fishing limits that exceed scientific advice for the iconic western Baltic herring and main basin Baltic salmon. It also leaves a gaping loophole for over-exploitation of the threatened eastern Baltic cod.
Thousands of dolphins, porpoises and whales die in European waters, due to accidental capture in fisheries nets (bycatch). Today 22 environmental NGOs [1], led by Seas At Risk, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, ClientEarth and Coalition Clean Baltic, jointly called on the European Commission to adopt emergency measures to immediately prevent further deaths and take legal action against 15 EU governments for failing their duty to protect these mammals.
Today, NGOs demanded that EU fisheries ministers face up to the consequences of their poor record on protecting the fish populations that underpin the health of European Seas. In a freshly published catch advice from The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), scientists advise that the iconic North Sea cod population is at such depleted levels, that fishing limits should be capped at 10 457 tonnes in 2020 - a 70% cut compared to last year. [1]
This is the fourth year that Fundació ENT, together with Sciaena and Ecologistas en Acción, (members of Seas At Risk) has analysed the European Commission’s communications on EU fisheries in line with the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) for the period 2015-2019. The detailed analysis raises concerns about the methodology used by the Commission and showing that the number of stocks identified as being in line with MSY in EU fisheries has been overestimated by 16% since 2015.
Today, the Council of the European Union adopted legislation to regulate the use of single-use plastic with the objective to limit plastic marine pollution. As of 2021, single-use plastic cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, cotton buds, balloon sticks and expanded polystyrene food containers and cups will be banned in the EU.
Today, environmental organisations all over Europe join forces in responding with great concern to a newly released report from the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF). Once again the annual report reveals an alarming lack of progress from the EU in implementing the reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and honoring the fast approaching deadline to end overfishing by 2020 (1).
The European Parliament plenary voted today on how to spend approximately EUR 6 billion of European taxpayers’ money on ocean-linked activities under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) 2021-2027.
Today, the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament decided to reintroduce in the future European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) - which amounts to approximately 6 billion Euros - subsidies which are harmful to the environment and which were phased out already 15 years ago.
Member States of the European Union are set to fail to protect marine wildlife from the impacts of intense underwater noise levels by 2020, despite a requirement to do so under EU marine law. This is the conclusion of a report reviewing the programmes put in place by European countries to tackle the main threats to our seas and ocean, including underwater noise pollution. The report was undertaken by a group of specialised civil society organisations - OceanCare, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Seas at Risk and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who are extremely concerned over the lack of action.
Following a real marathon to deliver before the next EU elections, EU institutions have agreed on the first ever ambitious measures to address both land and sea-based plastic pollution. Seas At Risk considers the recently adopted measures as a first step in the right direction.
After a long night of negotiations, the EU’s Fisheries Council agreed fishing limits for the North Sea and North-East Atlantic that will see overfishing continue in 2019. This was the penultimate chance for Ministers to meet their legal obligations under the Common Fisheries Policy to end overfishing for all stocks by 2020 at the latest.
Producer responsibility requirements must be stronger, campaigners warn. "The fight against plastic pollution is one that we can win. The EU plastics laws initiated by the Commission and endorsed by the Parliament are a first step towards a future where plastic doesn't poison us. If we commit to this together, nobody loses, everybody wins", said European Commission vice president Frans Timmermansat a press conference today. "The industry is clearly now focusing its energy on the EU Council. It's up to the Austrian presidency to resist, and maintain the level of ambition initiated by the Commission, and reinforced by Parliament. This is the perfect slot in our history to impulse the virtuous change demanded by citizens. Disappointing them would be tragic", added Frédérique Ries, who represents the European Parliament in the negotiations on the single-use plastics law.
Seas At Risk is deeply disappointed by the decision on fishing limits for deep sea fish stocks for 2019-2020 taken by the Fisheries’ Council of Ministers tonight. This was the final opportunity for fisheries ministers to end overfishing of deep sea species by 2015 or at the latest by 2020, as legally required under the Common Fisheries Policy. In their decision, however, the ministers have reneged on that obligation.
Strasbourg, 25 October 2018 - The European Parliament today approved the multiannual plan for fish stocks in the Western Waters (north-east Atlantic), despite the plan facilitating overfishing. In failing to ensure the long-term environmental sustainability of fish stocks, the plan goes against the fundamental objective of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) to end overfishing.
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