ELI In the News
The number of environmental protection laws around the world has increased 38-fold since 1972, but a lack of sufficient enforcement has rendered many of them useless, a new United Nations report has found.
In 1972, the year of the first UN environmental agreement, only three countries had national environmental framework laws: Norway, Sweden, and the United States. By 2017, 176 nations had these laws. In addition, 150 countries enshrined environmental protection or the right to a healthy environment in their constitutions, and 164 countries had cabinet-level bodies responsible for environmental protection. . . .
When Chinese police found them in the trunk of a smuggler’s car, 33 of the trafficked pangolins — endangered scaly mammals from southern China — were still alive, wrapped in plastic bags soaked with their own urine.
But the fate of the creatures — whose scales are worth nearly their weight in silver on the black market — was not a happy one. Every last pangolin died in government captivity within a few months of the August 2017 seizure.
A pioneering environmental nonprofit in Beijing has launched an investigation, called “counting pangolins,” to figure out what happens to such animals recovered from the illegal wildlife trade. Its findings so far highlight discrepancies between environmental laws and outcomes. . . .
A United Nations report says that a global failure to enforce environmental protection laws is exacerbating threats.
The report from the United Nations Environment Program released Thursday says there is a lack of monitoring agencies capable of effectively enforcing laws. It says poor implementation is one of the "greatest challenges to mitigating climate change, reducing pollution and preventing widespread species and habitat loss."
It also called attention to the "harassment, arbitrary arrests, threats, and killing of environmental defenders."
Top federal officials traveled to the Wilson County fairgrounds outside of Nashville Tuesday to promote the Trump Administration's proposal to weaken a federal clean water regulation. Andrew Wheeler, acting administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue called on Tennessee farmers to engage in the contentious debate. Trump officials want to limit which bodies of water are subject to the Clean Water Act, the 1972 landmark legislation that protects streams, rivers and other bodies of water from uncontrolled development and pollution. . . .
The Environmental Law Institute has added six new members to its leadership council: Jeanne Cohn-Connor, William J. Jackson, J. Scott Janoe, Shailesh Sahay, Fred Wagner and Peter H. Weiner. Read their bios here.
Amnesty International released two public statements on Tuesday regarding environmental security during war and armed conflicts. One statement addressed to the Chair of the UN General Assembly First Committee called upon the Chair to address environmental impacts of particular weapons and military practices and identify measures to minimize harm. The statement notes that in addition to the cost of human life, weapons destroy water, sanitation, and energy infrastructure and creates hazardous waste that has further impacts on human health. Weapons are also used to prevent communities from accessing natural resources like oil ad mines that the communities often depend on. The First Committee is called upon to create an initiative to further analyze the impacts weapons and military practices have on the environment.
President Trump's plan to have the Pentagon quickly build part of the wall on the U.S. border with Mexico is now facing years of potential delays because of environmental reviews.
The Navy has started work on an environmental impact statement for the $450 million project to construct a 32-mile-long border barrier along the Barry Goldwater bombing range in Arizona. The federally mandated environmental review, required under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, will require the government to accept public input and look at other alternatives.
“The EIS process can and typically runs in a matter of years,” said Jim McElfish, a senior attorney with the Environmental Law Institute. “This administration has put a pretty high priority on and put out executive orders and tracking approaches to try to get those done in two years.” . . . .
Lisa Jackson's fan club had a reunion last night. The Obama-era EPA administrator returned to Washington, where she was surrounded by her former team and celebrated for her work at the agency, even as some of her efforts are being rolled back by the Trump administration. Trump EPA officials were at the swanky hotel dinner, too, where Jackson — now an executive at Apple Inc. — steered clear of criticizing the administration. Jackson, who led EPA from 2009 until early 2013, was given an environmental achievement award by the nonpartisan Environmental Law Institute.
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW INSTITUTE BOOSTS BOARD’S RANKS: The non-partisan Environmental Law Institute boosted its ranks in Monday with the addition of six new members to its board of directors. “I look forward to working with these renowned experts to advance ELI’s important mission of improving the environment though the effective rule of law,” said the group’s board chairman, Benjamin Wilson. The new members include Rachel Jacobson, Rick Leahy, John Lovenburg, Peggy Otum, Hilary Tompkins, and Wei “Kevin” Wei.
Even though Morningstar reported recently that investment flows into sustainable funds nearly doubled each month this year compared to 2017, financial advisors and other stakeholders continue to express lukewarm sentiments about the transparency and trustworthiness of ESG-related investment data. “Overall, we were disappointed by the lack of transparency and rigor of ESG ratings,” Shiva Rajgopal, the vice dean of research at Columbia Business School, writes in a recent Reuters opinion article. Rajgopal and his co-author cited problems with ESG’s data methodologies and greenwashing — or the false promotion of a company’s environmental policies. . . .