Stop chemical pollution! (Bonn, September 2023)
The 5th session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) , organized by UNEP and hosted by the government of Germany who holds the presidency of this fifth session of the Conference, is taking place from 25 to 29 September 2023 at the World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB) with a High-level Segment (HLS) on 28 and 29 September 2023. It was preceded by the resumed fourth session of the Intersessional Process for Considering the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste Beyond 2020 (IP4.3), which convened from 23-24 September 2023.
Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (EASD) participated, as organisation accredited in UNEP and SAICM NGO Focal Point for Serbia, as well as IPEN member organisation. IPEN had preparatory meeting prior to Conference. Besides EASD, NGO AlHem from Serbia, took part at the Conference.
Serbian government representatives participate.
The last day of the Conference, the final text (to be adopted) is still under negotiation. Adopted documents will be available at ICCM5 web page and SAICM web page.
Historic Global Framework on Chemicals Adopted Following Years of Talks | News | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD
Photo by OliverBaldes:
2023 Annual Conference – Our common future: for a European Green Deal 2
Annual Conference of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) was held in Stockholm, on May 8th, back to back with the General Assembly. The Conference started with an introductory speech on what we need our common future to look like and what we need to do to make this happen, led by European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries and the Swedish Minister for Climate and the Environment. In the continuation of the Conference, the possibilities for tickling triple crises (concerning climate and energy, biodiversity and chemicals), why building on The European Green Deal, emphasizing the EU as a crucial player with a key role and responsibility in addressing these. For each one of the three crises, a panel discussed the main challenges which are facing, to what extent the European Green Deal delivered an appropriate EU policy and legislative response to the crisis, what milestones are yet to be achieved within this Commission and European Parliament, as well as what should the priorities for a European Green Deal 2.0, beyond the European elections in 2024?
The scale of the common global challenge and how policy, civil society, and science can make the change we need happen was the focus of the presentation of youths.
The Conference was held during the preparations for the elections for the EU Parliament, which will be held in the spring of 2024. it is evident that issues of importance for the protection of the environment are becoming less and less important topics among the majority of members of the European Parliament. It is necessary to find new ways to raise the importance of this topic, not only in the EU but also in the accession countries.
More about Conference: https://conference.eeb.org/
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, is about to start – EASD is participating
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, is about to start ( 28 November – 2 December 2022) in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
EASD is participating virtually, starting on November 26 with participation at Multi-stakeholder Forum of INC-1 . The Forum aims to facilitate the exchange of information and gather perspectives from different stakeholders across the plastics life cycle and is open to all stakeholders, including governments, the private sector working on different stages of the plastics life cycle, scientists and researchers, the finance sector, civil society groups, including the informal sector, indigenous people, and youth.
EASD is associated with IPEN ; IPEN has been working on toxics in the life cycle of plastics for many years, including initial work on dioxins in the Stockholm Convention, and then scaling up with more explicit work related to POPs in plastics in the Stockholm Convention, as well as Chemicals in Products and Hazardous Substances in the Life Cycle of Electronic Products in the SAICM process. IPEN’s toxic plastics work has escalated and evolved especially over the last 5 years.
Happening at UNEP: OEWG1- Science-Policy Panel and pre-event webinar on Lessons learned for the Science-policy panel on chemicals, waste and prevention of pollution
EASD representative participated on October 6, 2022 in the first part of OEWG1: Science-Policy Panel to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution (hybrid format).
The meeting allowed Member States and observers the opportunity to deliver general statements on the establishment of the science-policy panel (EASD is among observers*, in consultative status with ECOSOC and UNEP accredited, SAICM NGO Focal Point, participating also within NGOs Major Group, as well as Women Major Group). In its resolution 5/8, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), recognizing the importance of science-based assessments to inform decision-making processes, decided that a science-policy panel should be established to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution. UNEA further decided to convene, subject to the availability of resources, an OEWG to prepare proposals for the science-policy panel, to begin work in 2022 with the ambition of completing it by the end of 2024.
Before that, on October 5th 2022, EASD representative participated in the second UNEP Webinar: Lessons learned for the Science-policy panel on chemicals, waste and prevention of pollution and organized by the UNEP Secretariat. The webinar focus is on lessons and examples from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the International Resource Panel (IRP), the Montreal Protocol, and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the design and operation of the new Science-policy panel. It was followed by a dialogue between speakers on urgent issues and questions from the chair of the meeting to the panel members.
* Organizations accredited to the Environment Assembly as well as stakeholders admitted as observers to the meetings of relevant chemicals and waste-related multilateral environmental agreements and focal points of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management may also participate as observers.
4th Meeting of the Intersessional Process for Considering SAICM and the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste Beyond 2020, Bucharest 2022
EASD is participating at the fourth session of the Intersessional Process for Considering the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste Beyond 2020 (IP4) in Bucharest , August/September 2022. From Serbia, beside Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (EASD), NGO Safer Chemicals Alternative – ALHem also participated. A summary report of IP4 by ENB which includes also a brief summary of SAICM’s history as well as of the history of the intersessional process.
As the meeting result Co-Chairs’ consolidated text is achieved. achievement, and resume it in early 2023 at a time and venue to be set by the Bureau in consultation with relevant stakeholders.
The UN General Assembly recently adopted a resolution establishing access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, a universal human right. At the same time, recent scientific evidence shows that the global threat of plastic and chemical production has exceeded the “planetary boundaries” for chemical pollution. In addition, the global chemical industry is projected to double by 2030, with rapid growth in emerging economies.
The CEE Region recognizes the need for greater cooperation among stakeholders aiming at strengthening the capacities of developing countries and countries with economies in transition for integrated management and promoting the adequate transfer of cleaner and safer technology. Moreover, great deal of attention should be dedicated to raising awareness of chemicals and waste issues among the responsible institutions, agencies, with improvement of the multi-sectorial and multi-stakeholder cooperation.
EASD position (within IPEN umbrella) is to believe that the SAICM is key to advancing the sound management of chemicals and waste considering human health and the environment. Some of important issues pointed out by IPEN include:
– SAICM is the only instrument we have today to address most chemicals and waste but its goals were not met although progress was made. SAICM should strengthen its open, inclusive, participatory and transparent structure which should be multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder; From our perspective we need an agreement for a strong SAICM-Beyond-2020 Framework that goes beyond the Dubai Declaration and secures ambitious targets for prevention and reduction of harmful chemicals and waste globally bringing about real change.
– The science-to-policy panel should be a tool to raise awareness about the existing scientific knowledge and allow it to take action on emerging issues and issues of concern that were already agreed upon in SAICM; Also, should also have inclusive participation, allow the consideration of different forms of knowledge including from indigenous peoples, and take into account gender-specific dimensions;
– The scope shall include chemicals and all waste throughout their lifecycle.
– That objectives for the industry involvement and other financial commitments are reflected in targets, indicators, and milestones and that monitoring and reporting instruments track progress on financial objectives of the beyond 2020 instrument.
– The framework must also be accompanied by new and additional, adequate, sustainable and predictable funding accessible to all relevant stakeholders to address chemicals and waste issues. The establishment of a funding mechanism following the model of the Quick Start Programme.
The fourth session of the Intersessional Process for Considering the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste Beyond 2020 (IP4) focused on:
-targets for the post-2020 instrument; -national focal points; -national implementation plans;-how the instrument should deal with issues of concern;-private sector involvement in financing chemicals and waste management; and -the relationship between the instrument and the science-policy panel for chemicals and waste (SPP) mandated -by the fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA5).a vision and principles for the instrument;
-identifying targets for the instrument; -how to choose “issues of concern” that would be targeted by the instrument for focused attention and concerted action;-multi-sectoral partnerships;-funding for the secretariat; and -a proposal for a globally coordinated levy on chemical feedstocks to feed a new international fund on chemicals and waste;
– whether, and how, to refer to the new human right to a healthy environment under the instrument’s section on principles; – a possible measurability structure for indicators; – a possible stocktaking mechanism and online tool; -participation in the proposed governing body—the conference—by representatives from the environment, health, labor and agriculture sectors involved in chemical management and safety issues; and – a proposal for a way forward on how to handle existing SAICM issues of concern under the new instrument.
To note that EASD participate and follow SAICM WG on Governance and Mechanisms to support Implementation (from October 2020, lead to IP4 ).
Delegates considered targets in the compilation of draft recommendations for a new instrument as well as new proposals for targets. They agreed to replace the long list of targets with a more limited set of priority targets, grouped under specific strategic objectives. Discussion centered around which targets to keep, which newly proposed targets to include, and which targets might be merged together. See also a table comparing the SAICM Overarching Policy Strategy, SAICM/IP.4/2/Rev.1 “Compilation of recommendations regarding the Strategic Approach and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020” and the Outcomes of the Virtual Working Groups
On vision, delegates replaced the proposed phrases in the compilation text with three new ones developed by an informal group:
- “Chemical safety for all”;
- “A toxics free planet. Advancing chemicals and waste safety for a healthy future”; and
- “Healthy Planet and People: Making Our Future Chemical and Waste Safe.”
(to note, EASD support Call to action for a tomorrow without toxics )
We must continue working together towards a sound management of chemicals and waste throughout their life cycle, in order to avoid or minimize adverse impacts on human health and the environment!
Call to action for a tomorrow without toxics
Sign the Call to Action here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecU8_1QRK983bsB1s92c0sHyVBv
adDWW2dW–T_46_JiWjgg/viewform
Urgent call for a strong SAICM-Beyond-2020-Framework ensuring sound chemicals and waste management!
Increasing chemical production, use of harmful chemicals, pollution, and waste are turning into a third planetary crisis[1], beside the climate and biodiversity crises, and at the same time exacerbating them. There is an urgent need for solution-focused actions along the whole lifecycle of chemicals and waste, addressing the threats to human health and the environment – from the enormous use of chemicals, poor chemicals and waste management, to the ever-increasing production and raw material extraction. The undersigned organizations stand together in urgently calling
on governments, industry, and other stakeholders to work towards a tomorrow without toxics. We urge them to actively reduce their chemical footprint and make prevention, reduction, and sound management of chemicals and waste a priority issue.
The current levels of chemicals used in industrial processes, agriculture and daily life products massively expose people and ecosystems to harmful substances.
Ubiquitous, excessive and often uncontrolled use of chemicals, their improper storage and disposal, and accidents, as well as the amount of waste in general and in particular mismanaged waste lead to harmful substances entering the environment, food chains, and human bodies. They poison air, soil and water, harm wildlife and cause biodiversity loss. Exposure to hazardous chemicals produces reproductive and neurological disorders, causes intergenerational effects, and the loss of livelihoods and food systems, among other things. The burdens fall disproportionately on the most financially oppressed, vulnerable and marginalized groups, such as Indigenous
Communities, people in the Global South, workers in industry and agriculture, women and children. This makes chemicals and waste management a cross-cutting issue.
The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and the Dubai Declaration, adopted in 2006 by the First International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM1), aimed to achieve sound management of chemicals and waste throughout their life cycle by 2020.[2] Now, at the beginning of the year 2022, we see an even more urgent need for action. SAICM has identified important issues and created a multi-sector platform and multi-stakeholder process for action, involving governments, civil society, businesses and academics. However, the overall objective has not been achieved and progress made is insufficient and mainly limited to information collection, while only a few concrete risk reduction measures have been undertaken. Adverse impacts on human health and the environment from raw material extraction, chemical production, use and disposal continue.
There is no time to waste.
We need an agreement for a strong SAICM-Beyond-2020-Framework that goes beyond the Dubai Declaration on International Chemicals Management[3] and secures ambitious reduction and prevention of harmful chemicals and waste globally, bringing about real change, including the implementation of safe alternatives. Our vision is a world where chemicals and wastes are no longer a source of harm and where all people live in safe and healthy environments, free from toxic threats to ecosystems and to future generations. We call upon all stakeholders to commit to this goal and to increase engagement, expressing a concrete will to end the poisoning of our world. Put a
SAICM-Beyond-2020-Framework urgently into practice as follows:
● Recognize and implement the precautionary and sustainability principles as basic principles and rationale behind all measures. Follow the hierarchy of prevention, elimination and minimization of hazardous substances.
● Include the possibility to stipulate or initiate binding elements for chemicals and waste management throughout the whole lifecycle, including raw material extraction, production, use and disposal of chemicals.
● Set ambitious targets and milestones. Make national action plans binding for all SAICM stakeholders, which particularly promote implementation and monitoring. Include concrete activities to solve the Issues of Concern in SAICM national action plans as well as education and awareness raising measures. Ensure that groups of related chemicals are addressed in the framework and in related action plans
● Establish mechanisms for implementation and progress reporting, and independent monitoring, as well as mechanisms for compliance.
● Realize global implementation on all levels (i.e. local, national, regional and international levels) and ensure this through national action plans. Make a SAICM-Beyond-2020-Framework compatible with other global treaties
including a future legally binding Plastics Treaty[4] or a future international regulation on pesticides[5].
● Secure the multistakeholder and multisectoral character of SAICM. Ensure that the negotiation process is carried out in a way that guarantees equal and fair participation of all stakeholders and right holders, as well as the
possibility to bring in contributions, especially from the civil society.
● Guarantee solid, sustainable, and reliable financing by the internalization of external costs, according to the Polluter Pays Principle. This could be achieved through a coordinated tax on chemical feedstocks, levied by the
national governments where the chemicals are produced[6], ensuring and prioritizing the support for developing and emerging countries. Especially civil society organizations, Indigenous Communities, and science, including citizen science, should be eligible for funding. Further options to implement the Polluter Pays Principle are to be explored and implemented.
● Make sure that a SAICM-Beyond-2020 addresses the identified shortcomings of the predecessor framework and in particular, that solutions for all identified Issues of Concern (IoCs) are developed and new IoCs included when they are needed. Current IoCs must be kept until resolved[7]. This includes e.g. a global phase-out of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) and their replacement with agroecology in line with ICCM4 resolution, measures to reduce endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) exposure for humans and the environment, and transparency and traceability for chemicals in products.
● Guarantee globally equal safety levels for everyone and everywhere. States must ensure the protection of people and the environment through laws and regulations that hold producers accountable along the entire supply chain
and throughout the whole lifecycle. Eliminate unethical and unacceptable double standards.
● Support the approach of a binding Global Minimum Transparency Standard[8] as a first step for chemicals in products and the establishment of labeling according to UNEP SCP guidelines[9]. This can ensure transparency and
traceability, which are, together with the right to know, key requirements for a safe circular economy globally. It further helps to eliminate double standards and dumping of products in countries with less ambitious chemicals legislation, and to guarantee an equal level of safety for everyone everywhere.
● Ensure sensitivity to the different exposition and vulnerability of people and groups of people to hazardous substances, depending on their area of residence, occupation, social and economic status, age, and gender. Consider
that children are particularly vulnerable to hazardous substances and must be protected from being born pre-polluted.
● Better protect women from hazardous chemicals, by implementing gender responsive policies, mainstreaming gender-equality and collecting gender disaggregated data. Recognize and encourage the leadership role of women in society, politics and science, and also in a SAICM-Beyond-2020-Framework. Consider that women are more susceptible to harmful chemicals than men and have different windows of vulnerability, e.g. during pregnancy.
They are also exposed differently to toxic chemicals due to their gender roles.
● Recognize the principles and values of the universal human rights[10]. Support all right holders, according to the respective international resolutions and declarations[11].
● Recognize the principles of the Rio-Declaration on Environment and Development and the principles of the Agenda 2030, as basic principles.
● Acknowledge the role of chemicals and waste in the biodiversity and climate crises and take action to address these impacts through decreased chemical production, use and disposal, phase out of harmful substances and
implementation of safe and non-chemical alternatives
Urgent call for a strong SAICM-Beyond-2020-Framework ensuring sound chemicals and waste management!
Integrated chemicals and waste management approach and SAICM beyond 2020
EASD is National SAICM Focal Point for Serbia.
EASD Honorable President and Advisor participated virtually in a side-event organized by the SAICM Secretariat in partnership with the IOMC Participating Organizations, during the face-to-face segment of the Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BC COP-15, RC COP-10, SC COP-10), in Geneva, Switzerland, between 6 and 17 June 2022.
The side-event, ‘How could an integrated chemicals and waste management approach build a strengthened SAICM beyond 2020? An ambitious and enabling future framework to address the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020, took place on Tuesday, 14 June 2022.
UNEP Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum, February 2022
EASD (Environmental Ambassadors / Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development) as UNEP accredited organization, follow an participate at UNEP Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum (February 7-10, and 2022 ; 9- 11 February, Agenda) prior to the first session of UNEA 5 (February 22 -23, 2021).
This virtual Forum is self-organized by the Major Group Facilitating Committee, the European Environmental Bureau, and Women Engage for a Common Future. The discussions will prepare inputs to UNEA-5.2 and the Special Session to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the creation of the UN Environment Programme in 1972 (UNEP@50). The back-to-back meetings will convene from 28 February – 4 March 2022.
GMGSF is organized around seven thematic clusters that are aligned to UNEA-5.2 draft decisions on: marine and plastic pollution; nature-based solutions; chemicals; green recovery; the UNEP We Want/UNEP @50; Stockholm+50; and environmental governance.
Previously, EASD took part in the Regional consultation meeting for the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5).
The Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum (GMGSF) helps Major Groups and Stakeholders to prepare their input and participation in the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) and associated meetings. It takes place prior to UNEA meetings. Accredited Major Groups to United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) of UNEP are automatically invited to the Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum (GMGSF).
IPEN global plastics monitoring project
The aim of the IPEN global plastics monitoring project is to raise awareness locally and globally about hazardous chemicals in recycled plastics used for consumer products. The project targeted recycled plastic pellets of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) sold from small-scale, local operations, since this is one of the most commonly used material for consumer products. These have been analyzed for UV stabilizers, Decabromodiphenyl ether (deca BDE) and PCBs.
Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development participated in the project as IPEN participated organization. The recycling facility EASD used as project site is situated in north-west Serbia, and there are app. 75 employees. The facility was founded 15-16 years ago. 75% of products are for the export, to the Central European Countries (Poland, Czech Republic…). Other 25% is sold to the domestic plastic producers (placed around Serbia), which use these recycled plastic pellets to produce plastic products, but not for food storage.
There are several steps performed to produce recycled plastic pellet, from yield small pieces of plastic (flakes or fragments) to the pellet that is using in next steps of production cycle.
All secondary raw material is used in the recycling process (“zero waste” at the end of the process). They use plastic breakage and waste from its production to make plastic buckets for the construction sector, black colored.
The input plastic is coming from unformal secondary raw collectors, but the large number are also imported.
The samples of plastic pellets were used from the facility and sent to IPEN to be analyzed. The samples were analyzed at the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague in the Czech Republic. More at …..
The results are shown in the study: Widespread chemical contamination of recycled plastic pellets globally.
Presentations:
Widespread chemical contamination of recycled plastic pellets globally
Global plastic pellet samplings – Results and briefing
Press Release:
Further promotion of results:
April 28, 2022 – Participating at Local Round Table in Perlez, municipality Zrenjanin, presenting issues of toxic additives in plastics pellets and IPEN study, as well as capturing synergies between plastic pollution (and with decarbonization and climate change. About 10 people from this small town participated.
Activities of awareness raising in Serbia are posted on site in Serbian language.
New EASD online course in English and Serbian – FOSTERING FEMALE LEADERSHIP: TRAINING WOMEN TO ADDRESS CHEMICALS AND WASTE IN THE PUBLIC SETTING
Within the IPEN Online Program Examines Impact of Toxic Chemicals on Women’s Health, EASD developed course FOSTERING FEMALE LEADERSHIP: TRAINING WOMEN TO ADDRESS CHEMICALS AND WASTE IN THE PUBLIC SETTING, presented by experts: Aleksandra Mladenovic, Andjelka Mihajlov, Dragana Petrovic and Hristina Stevanovic.
The course is presented in Serbian (with English subtitles) and available from 16 November, 2021.
Start learning! Course is free, with 3 modules and when finish the entire course you should get the option to print your Certificate by yourself and do not ask IPEN to send you certificate after.
Course in Serbian enrolment ( with English subtitles).
At the end of each course is an English feedback survey. Please complete these to help us as we design courses in the future.
Tips for Teachable – Women and Chemicals courses are available here. The Teachable platform works best in the following browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
In advance of UNEA 5.2: EASD participated in the International Consultation for Major Groups & Stakeholders
International Consultation for Major Groups & Stakeholders, in advance of UNEA 5.2, Stockholm+50 and UNEP@50 was held from September 7th to 9th online. The objective of the consultation is to advance the development of strategies around specific initiatives such as resolutions, declarations, decisions tabled for UNEA 5.2, to further develop core messages and positions, and to prepare input from the Major Groups to the 155th meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives and the 8th Annual Subcommittee meeting of the CPR.
Each Major Group had the opportunity to make a short statement, so reflections are presented under Agenda item related to Preparations for the resumed session of UNEA-5, in the form of the summary statement from this international consultation. Also, under Agenda item regarding Preparations for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the creation of UNEP, the UNEP@50 task force presented a statement.
The consultation is expected to advance the development of MGS’ statements and positions, in particular around the thematic clusters and task forces set up to prepare for UNEA 5.2. The participants had opportunity to contribute in particular on the following topics:
1.The UNEP We Want / UNEP @50
2. Environmental governance / Resolution 73/333 including Escazu Agreement, environmental defenders, Stockholm+49
3.Marine litter and plastics treaty
4.Stockholm+50
5.Nature for Climate
6.Nature for Poverty Eradication, Jobs and Economic Prosperity
7.Food systems
8.Chemicals, Waste, Mercury
9.Nature for Health
During the second day following documents started to be prepared under the parallel sessions, and all participants had possibility to contribute in oven capacities:
Draft Joint Statement The UNEP We Want
Draft Joint Statement of Support Draft Resolution Plastics Treaty
Draft Position Nature for Health Cluster
Joint Statement Environmental Governance Cluster
Draft recommendations Chemicals, Waste & Mercury
Input for the CPR and Annual Subcommittee Meeting
The overall impression is that Major Groups & Stakeholders had enough knowledge and experience, as well as willingness, to cooperate in the best way, in order to demonstrate importance of joint actions towards climate change and to contribute to the protection of the environment at the global level.
Gender and Chemicals
In 2020 IPEN decided to create a few an online course on IPEN’s learning platform on a specific topic agreed, within IPEN Gender and Chemicals Project. Based on expertise, EASD is chosen to develop and prepare webinar course “Fostering female leadership: training women to address chemicals and waste in the public setting”.
Course will be hosted on the IPEN website.
(Our) Berlin Declaration have the quotation in the European Commissions Report
In the Final report on Assessment of the feasibility of phasing-out dental amalgam, on page 32, used Berlin Declaration as the reference, more precisely:
*2017: Berlin Declaration: After a gathering at a two-day Pan-European Summit to plan the end of amalgam, environmental and consumer NGOs, dental associations, Members of the national parliaments and the European Parliament, academics, and industry issued the “Berlin Declaration to End Amalgam Use in Europe in 2020, available at: https://www.ig-umwelt-
Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development expert participated in Berlin Declaration development! EASD lead Initiative in Serbia.
In 2020 the European Commission recommends the phase out of amalgam. In concluding that the end of amalgam is “technically and economically feasible,” the Commission explains in its report (mentioned above) to Parliament and Council.
· The alternatives are fully acceptable, and dentists fully trained to put them in, quoting: “Mercury free materials are nowadays of good quality, effective restoration methods are widely available and dental schools are increasingly teaching the necessary skills”.
· The risk from BPA (present in some but not all composite) is “negligible’;
· The price differential has shrunk so much such that neither patients nor dentists, will be adversely affected by the phase out;
· 95% of amalgam manufacturers also make alternatives hence they are fully prepared to switch;
Therefore the European Commission will propose a legislation in 2022 for a phase out on a date specific, earlier than 2030.
The report of the Commission focuses equally on the international challenge to end amalgam by promising to turn its attention in 2021 to (a) an amendment of the Minamata Convention and (b) international trade rules to stop amalgam trade.
____________________________
November 2020: Our letter to Commissioner (the European Commission and Commissioner for the Green Deal) Frans Timmermans was well-received
Letter, sent at October 26, 2020 :
Dear Commissioner Timmermans,
European civil society salutes you for your landmark decision to recommend the phase out of dental amalgam to the Parliament and the Council.
Dank u wel!
Your decision makes sense for five solid, incontrovertible reasons:
1. Environment: Dental amalgam is the single largest use of mercury in Europe – and unnecessarily so. The European Union’s science committee SCHER calls amalgam a “secondary poison” because its mercury methylates in fish that children then eat.
2. Technology: Over the past decade the alternative materials have surpassed amalgam in effectiveness – and unlike amalgam, they are minimally-invasive and tooth-friendly.
3. Economics: The prototype is here, because in 2018 amalgam was banned for children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding women, and simple changes in insurance and government programs made the transition seamlessly. The same can now be done for the general population. Moldova, the poorest nation in Europe, banned all amalgam use last year.
4. Preparedness: (1) Manufacturers are ready: virtually all of them make the alternatives, so no jobs will be lost. (2) Dentists are ready: all know how to place the alternatives to amalgam and probably half of them have stopped using amalgam altogether. (3) Consumers are ready: in the European Commission’s internet poll before the Mercury Regulation was enacted, 88% voted in favor of an amalgam ban. (4) Member States are ready: 89% of the Member States (24 of 27), encompassing fully 88% of the population, either have phased out amalgam, have announced a phase-out date, or have low to moderate amalgam use already.
5. Synergies with other EU goals: Whether the goal is specific, such as clean water, or general, such as the Green New Deal with the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability , the route to a toxic-free Europe must include the end of dental amalgam, a primitive device that pre-dates the Franco-Prussian War and can lead to cracked teeth.
We wish to single out and thank your team at the Commission who laboriously and competently shepherded this issue to the end point of recommending the demise of amalgam for Europe: Aneta Willems, Christopher Allen, David Grimeaud, and Jenny-Johanna Green.
We wish to continue to work with the Commission as you craft legislation for Parliament and the Council to phase out amalgam, and we urge you to set a phase-out date of 2025 or sooner.
Good health to you.
Florian Schulze, European Center for Environmental Medicine (Europe), IG Umwelt-Zahnmedizin (Deutschland)
Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, European Environmental Bureau (Europe)
Dr. Claudia Castell-Exner, President of EurEau – European Federation of Water Services (Europe)
Génon K. Jensen – Health and Environment Alliance (Europe)
Laurette Casal & Antoine Lecuyer, Non Au Mercure (France)
Hanna Schudy, EKO-UNIA (Polska)
Sascha Gabizon, Women Engage for a Common Future (Nederland)
Trine Jørgensen, Foreningen mod Skadeligt Dentalmateriale (Danmark)
Andjelka Mihajlov, Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (Србија)
Ann-Marie Lidmark, Tandhälsoförbundet (Sverige)
Dr. Hanns Moshammer, ÄrztInnen für eine gesunde Umwelt (Aegu) (Österreich)
Dr. Elena Manvelyan, Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment (Hayastan)
Monika Frielinghaus, SHV für Umweltgeschädigte e.V. (Deutschland)
Dr. Stefan Dietsche, European Academy for Environmental Medicine (Deutschland)
Lutz Höhne, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Umwelt-ZahnMedizin e.V. (Deutschland)
Susana Fonseca, ZERO – Associação Sistema Terrestre Sustentável (Portugal)
Reinhard Lauer, Bundesverband der Beratungsstellen für Umweltgifte, insbesondere Amalgam, Schwermetalle und Holzschutzmittel e.V. (Deutschland)
Julia Tudare, Intoxication Métaux Nouvelle-Calédonie (Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Graeme Munro-Hall, World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry (United Kingdom)
Dr. David Harvie-Austin, British Society for Mercury Free Dentistry (United Kingdom)
Leticia Baselga, Ecologistas en Acción (España)
Branislav Moňok, Friends of the Earth – SPZ (Slovenská republika)
Dr. Mihaela Cuțui, Timiș College of Dentists (România)
Dr. Claudia Bottino, Metallica_mente (Italia)
ENV.net
ENV.net project consists of ENV.net 1/2 (2012-2016) and ENV.net 3 (2017-2020) projects. EC supported
ENV.net 1/2: ENV.net – Development of ENV.net in West Balkan and Turkey: giving citizens a voice to influence the environmental process reforms for closer EU integration, EuropeAid/132438/C/
ACT/Multi – 2012/306-642 and 2014/351-610; Partners for project implementation are: Puntosud , EASD , Co-PLAN , EEB – European Environmental Bureau, ATRC and TEMA . The project builds on the experience of an EU-funded project, namely the Environment Forum, implemented in the period 2009-2012, aiming at developing capacities of environmental NGOs to establish a constructive dialogue with national authorities. The present project strategy has been designed to achieve a greater commitment and capacity of a group of CSOs coming from Environment Forum experience and which have agreed on the creation of a new network, the ENV.net, to support the civil activism, give citizens a voice and influence the public reform processes in the approximation to the environment acquis. With the view to further enhance their capacities to work with CSOs and to share experience with other European countries, EEB has accepted to participate and to share its experience. Project objective – Greater commitment and capacity of the ENV.net to give citizens a voice and influence public sector reform processes in the environment sector through analysis, monitoring and advocacy. As one of the outcome National ENV.net networks (to complement Regional ENV.net network) were established; established ENV.net Network in Serbia have 54 organizations (multistakeholders).
ENV.net3: “ENV-net factoring the environmental portfolio for Western Balkans and Turkey in the EU Policy Agenda” – EuropeAid/154870/ACT/Multi ; EASD (Serbia) partners for project implementation are: 4X4X4 Balkan Bridges from North Macedonia, European Environmental Bureau from Belgium, Advocacy Training and Resource Center, from Kosovo*, Green Home, from Montenegro, Lir Evolution, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, TEMA – the Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and Protection of Natural Habitats, from Turkey and Foundation Punto,Sud, from Italy. The project contributes to the improvement of environmental policy-making and implementation in compliance with the EU standards. To this end, the network foresees to contribute to both improved and intensified inter-action among actors (including environmental CSOs, media and policy-makers) and an overall more enabling technical and financial environment where these actors operate. The action sets out to strengthen the profile of ENV.net as the leading network and bridging actor in environmental policy-influencing in the WB and Turkey region (vis-à-vis EU). Further, it foresees introducing and initiating a discussion on the Circular Economy concept in the region, as well as intensifying climate change actions. The action also foresees a number of value-adding, cross-cutting elements such as inter-partner learning/exchange, networking, and thematic organisational support to third parties (i.e. local grass-root organisations, media).
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Paper published: Andjelka Mihajlov, Aleksandra Mladenovic & Filip Jovanovic, Contribution to Environmental Communication: comparative analysis of two qualitative methods as the performance to European Union accession, in “Adapt to Survive. The role of social media, sharing and communication to ameliorate this world “, Conference Proceedings Book Edited by Margarita Kefalaki, Communication Institute of Greece (COMinG),Athens, p.57-66 , 2021 ( ISSN: ISBN: 978-618-85622-3-3 ), Available at https://coming.gr/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/1_1_2021_Adapt-to-survive_Book_conf-proceedings_COMinG.pdf
Selected activities:
March 2021:
Information paper on Climate Change and Energy
Information paper on Climate Change and Floods
August 2021: Environmental Communication: Media Archive Reports as a Participant Science Tool
Promotion by media (Da li smo spremni za sve češće poplave?)
December 31, 2020: ENV.net3 project final steps – infographics with documents developed by EASD
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Report on monitoring the progress of national environmental legislation (Chapter 27) in 2018, 2019, and half-year 2020, with projections through end-2020 / Izveštaj o monitoringu napredovanja nacionalnog zakonodavstva o životnoj sredini (Poglavlje 27) u 2018., 2019. i prvoj polovini 2020. godine, sa projekcijom do kraja 2020.godine (Extended abstract in English, Full text in Serbian)
Position Paper on COVID 19 and waste management
Circular Economy goes beyond Waste Management presented at EurAsia Waste Management Symposium 2020
Information paper on meaning of Cluster “Green agenda and sustainable connectivity” for Serbia
Reflection paper on air quality data for Serbia
2020 Spotlight Report on Circular Economy in Serbia
EASD publication on circular economy acknowledged by European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform
Virtual tour on the experience from Italian practices in circular economy
November 2020: Joint civil society statement for Sofia Summit
EASD research presented at EurAsia Waste Management Symposium
October 2020, New Momentum for the Environmental Agenda in the Western Balkans and Turkey?
Establishment of the South East European Platform to Beat Pollution – SEEPP
Recap the moments from EnE19/ENV.net Conference
March 2019: UN Environment : 4th Assembly (and pre- and side-events) , ENV.net related event
November 2018: To report: The first Regional Conference on Circular Economy was success ; The first regional conference on circular economy, Belgrade, November 2018: Agenda
Call for sub-grants (6.novembar 2018: Otvoren poziv za dodelu sub-grantova u okviru ENV.net projekta)
YRE competition: apply before February 1, 2019.; Theme: Energy Efficiency
ENV.net Initiative: to update National Strategy on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Goods, by applying Circular Economy concept ; ENV.net Initiative and Knowledge based advocacy: to update National Strategy of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources
Circular economy knowledge based advocacy in Eco-schools network in Serbia
May 2018. Guest lectures made at two Universities in Serbia: “Circular economy is concept and process, and still not full circle” ; Participation at the Green Parliamentary Group meeting
Follow project at : facebook.com/envnetsite/ and www.env-net.org
February 2018 – ENV.net 3 Kick-off Meeting in Tirana
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In December 2017. we started with ENV.net 3 : ENV-net factoring the environmental portfolio for Western Balkans and Turkey in the EU Policy Agenda (reference number 2017/394-372)
ENV.net 3 – Serbia team include: Aleksandra Mladenovic –National Coordinator and Manager. In addition, Thematic experts/consultants, on demand, are Prof dr Andjelka Mihajlov and Filip Jovanovic, and Media communication expert, on demend, is Milica Momcilovic.
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Development of ENV.net in West Balkan and Turkey: giving citizens a voice to influence the environmental process reforms for closer EU integration – EuropeAid/132438/C/ACT/Multi – 2012/306-642 and 2014/351-610 (2012-2016)
The project builds on the experience of an EU-funded project, namely the Environment Forum , implemented in the period 2009-2012, aiming at developing capacities of environmental NGOs to establish a constructive dialogue with national authorities. The present project strategy has been designed to achieve a greater commitment and capacity of a group of CSOs coming from Environment Forum experience and which have agreed on the creation of a new network, the ENV.net, to support the civil activism, give citizens a voice and influence the public reform processes in the approximation to the environment acquis. With the view to further enhance their capacities to work with CSOs and to share experience with other European countries, EEB has accepted to participate and to share its experience. Project objective – Greater commitment and capacity of the ENV.net to give citizens a voice and influence public sector reform processes in the environment sector through analysis, monitoring and advocacy.
Partners for project implementation are: Puntosud , EASD , Co-PLAN , EEB – European Environmental Bureau , ATRC and TEMA . EASD Activity circles represent the scope of our activities.
Project launched site for presentation of activities in all participating countries, as well as facebook page and ENV.net Newsletters.
ENV.net 1/2– Serbia team include: Dr Nataša Žugić Drakulić –National Coordinator and Filip Jovanović – project manager , chosen in transparent process by „ Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development“, partner organisation in this project. In addition, National consultant for European integration is Prof dr Andjelka Mihajlov , dr Hristina Stevanović Čarapina is leading expert .
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ENV.net Serbia network is functioning : Some of activities could be followed only in Serbian, like calls to participate, and other actions targeted to citizens in Serbia.
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Highlights: ENV.net publications
- A Guideline of EU Accession Monitoring Tools for CSOs in candidate and potential candidate countries: Chapter 27, (Authors and contributors: Andjelka Mihajlov, Natasa Zugic-Drakulic, Filip Jovanovic, Federico Bastia, Simona Pogliani, Mara Silina, Teida Shehi and Dusko Hristov), Published by Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development with the financial assistance of the EU – ENV.net project document, Belgrade January 2015
- How to influence environmental policy through effective advocacy (Authors: Margherita Tolotto and Mara Silina), ENV.net Advocacy Toolkit, European Environmental Bureau, Brussels, January 2015
- Climate change and challenges of the enlargement (Authors: Anja Kolmuss, Dragana Mileusnic, Zanna Vanrenterghem and Richard Filcak), ENV.net Advocacy Toolkit, European Environmental Bureau, Brussels,September 2016
June 2016: Agenda, WED Messages from Serbia: 12th Regional Conference “Environment to Europe” , REPORT FROM EnE16-ENV.net, BELGRADE, SERBIA
April 2016 – ENV.net Course: CSO Participation in Accession Process , Chapter 27: CSOs participation
March 2016 – New internet portal: Greenweb
January 2016 – Save the date for EnE16-ENV.net Conference ; We participate: Regional Conference: „Sustainability of the FPAs” , Brussels . Water-food-energy-ecosystems nexus assessment in the Sava River Basin – Lessons learned and further steps
October – December 2015 – Ministry support to ENV.net , Event
October – Partnership for Climate Change issue : Serbia’s climate talks – on the way to Paris
June 11 – European Commission Vice-President Mr Maroš Šefčovič had meeting with CSOs in Belgrade. EASD participate!
June 7 – Bicycling-ENV.net promotion in town Gornji Milanovac , Green day in Gornji Milanovac
June 5 – Regional Conference ”Environment to Europe” EnE15 – ENV.net EU Environmental Horizontal Legislation: Methods, Standards and Tools , Invitation , AGENDA , Proc. of papers
May 26, 2015 – Promotional activity
April 21, 2015 – Participation in Public Hearing on Climate Change related challenges in Republic of Serbia
April – THE ELEVENTH REGIONAL CONFERENCE ENVIRONMENT TO EUROPE – ENE15 – ENV.NET acknowledged as the European Sustainable Development Week event
March 22 – Celebrating the World Water Day in Serbia: field visit to Ada Ciganlija
February 2, 2015: Invitation for EnE15-ENV.net Conference launched
January 29, 2015: A Guideline of EU Accession Monitoring Tools for CSOs in candidate and potential candidate countries (ENV.net region): Chapter 27 , document finalized
January , 2015: Promotion of Publication
December 31: Thematic Publication “Environment to Europe”, 2014 ( Tematski zbornik radova “Životna sredina ka Evropi”)
December 12: ENV.net Serbia Seminar: Environmental Education in Schools
November 24-25, ENV.net on the margins of ECF Annual Meeting in Brussels with European Commision
November 4-5 , Regional training on the process of designation of potential Natura 2000 sites
October 30 – Conference “EU accession in the field of environmental protection and the role of local authorities”
October 28 – Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection is co-funded ENV.net project , contract signed
October 22-23, Belgrade: ENV.net training: “EU project design process and Implementation of environmental policy”, Invitation , Agenda , Training
October 2014 – ENV.net brochure published and presented
October 14 – ENV.net related: Participation on Conference “Eco-standards and Education”
October 8 – “Little progress has been made in the areas of environment and climate change”
September 29 – ENV.net Round-table Dialogue for Green Future (ENV.net okrugli sto sa niškim srednjoškolcima “Dijalogom ka zelenijoj budućnosti“) (sub-grant)
September 23-25, Brussels: ENV.net preparatory partnership meeting and Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) Closing Event for Phase I
September 19-24 , We are following Explanatory Screening for the Chapter 27
August 29 – ENV.net (sub-granting) publication published PUBLICATION : “Species of plants and animals of special conservation concern in EU” , in Serbian
July 27 – Partnership with media – Radio Beograd 2
June 19 – Eco-package initiative as the example environmental education for the future EU citizens
June 5 – CONFERENCE , ENV.net multi-stakeholder Conference on Chapter 27: about 200 participants
June 4 – Meeting with media , Moments from the Conference for Media
May 29, 2014 – ENV.net Serbia Conference organisation on the good track –Agenda for EnE14/ENV.net Conference “Environment to Europe”, June 5, 2014 in SCC – opening at 10:00
May 22-24, 2014 – 4th Partners Meeting in Milan
May 13, 2014 – European Solar Days – participation in promotion of EU environmental values
May 10, 2014 – ENV.net Let us clean up Europe! event: Ada Ciganlija Beograd ; ENV.net Serbia with children, parents and teachers “cleaning up Serbia” , Event in pictures
May 22-24, 2014 – 4th ENV.net Partners Meeting in Milan
May 7-8, 2014 – Some of ENV.net Partners meet in the corridors of ECRAN ECF Meeting
April 25, 2014 – UNEP acknowledged EnE14-ENV.net 2014 Conference as the World Environmental Day Event
April 5, 2014 – Education for future citizens of EU: guest lecturing at the Law Faculty
April 4, 2014 – EU Delegation to Serbia: Consultative Meeting with CSOs on progress towards EU in 2014
Aprl 4, 2014 – We participated to the meeting related to EU-Serbia Civil Society Joint Consultative Committee – JCC
April 2, 2014 – ECRAN NGOs Environment and Climate Change Forum – Evaluation Outcome – Congratulation to ENV.net partners!!!!
April 1, 2014 – Protego and Protecta sign subcontracting contracts
Marc 20-9, 2014 – EASD written contribution to the 2014 Progress Report
March 25, 2014 – Participation on UNECE consultation related to the 3rd EPR for Serbia
March 23, 2014 – ENV.net sub-grants winners announced , ENV.net
March 20, 2014 – We participate on Panel at Faculty of Organisation Sciences – University of Belgrade : Knowledge about Environment
March 9, 2014 – Technical (formal requests) evaluation of sub-grants application finished: 45 projects eligible for further evaluation
March 6, 2014 – Promotion of global activity EARTH HOUR (Marh 29, 20:30-21:30) and call for participation
March 4-6, 2014 – We participate in Zagreb on Workshop on Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystems Nexus Assessment in the Sava River Basin
From February 2014 – EU negotiation process: we are following explanatory screenings
February 26, 2014 – In accordance with procedure, QUESTIONS by potential applicants with our ANSWERS are posted on web site on February 26, at 07:00 , taking in account questions received by February 25 at 23:59
February 20-21, 2014 – EASD-ENV.net Serbia participated in defining the first strategic framework for CSOs development
February 18,2014- Knowledge based advocacy: Environment should be within priorities in the negotiations with EU
February 13, 2014 – Environment in youth policy in Serbia
February 12, 2014 – Meeting with ENVAP2 Project representatives
February 7, 2014 – Participation on Training related the Sector Planning Documents – SPDs
February 1, 2014 – Call of proposals for ENV.net sub-granting in Serbia “EU: we watch and learn to be ready!”
January 30, 2014 – Participation on public hearing by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Study Group
January 30,2014 – Thematic meeting of the SECO mechanism on IPA II programming
January 30, 2014 – Participate in the Mapping of CSOs and other stakeholders in in the process of EU accession negotiations
January 19, 2014 – EASD / ENV.net Team reading of European Parliament Resolution, January 2014
January 07, 2014 – Starting preparation for ENV.net 2014 Round-table / Conference
January 2, 2014 – Attention to ENVIRONMENT in EUROPA DAIRY
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December 23, 2013 – Workshop on environmental values for kindergarten children from Sombor (Minutes) , Participation on meetings in Nature Protection Institute and Agency for Environmental Protection
Decembar 20, 2013 – In media : Promotion of knowledge based information
December 20, 2013 – Environmental Education for future EU citizens , Minutes
December 17, 2013 – ENV.net region news: European Affairs ministers give green light to Serbia’s EU negotiations
December 16, 2013: Workshop for strategic planning of further work SECO mechanism
December 3, 2013 – ENV.net presented to the master students of Faculty of Security Studies
December 2, 2013 – Eye on EU integration process: Parliament of Serbia , Eye on SEE regional cooperation
November 28, 2013 – Meeting FPA project grantees with DG Enlargement representative
November 25, 2013 – Partnership with Media : Partnership agreement with Journalist’ Association of Serbia
Environmental Education of future EU citizens: Activity on November 19,2013
Acknowledging the outreach of ENV.net Survey and ENV.net 2013 Roudtable recomendations, EASD – ENV.net Serbia recognized importance of children/youth education for active EU citizenship , through promotion of EU environmental values. We would like to share moments from kindergarten “Pčelice”, from village Šetonje, as promotion event for environmental values in education. With children and teachers, as well as EASD Team, there were Prof dr Ivica Radovic and mr Ljubiša Antonijević, assistant ministers for education and science. |
Partnership with municipality – On November 18., 2013, ENV.net project presented on the Round table in Municipality Vračar (within City of Belgrade).
Cooperation with TACSO Serbia – On November 15. 2013, in Belgrade, TACSO Advisory Committee (LAG) organized a consultative meeting with representatives of civil society organizations and networks and Serbian civil society expert community. At the meeting a draft of a document on the assessment needs of civil society in Serbia was discussed.
EASD prepared Opinion and contribution to the Draft Strategy Paper for the Republic of Serbia 2014-2020. Through SECO mechanism opinion is sent to Governmental Office for European Integration. Opinion is based on Serbia 2013 Progress Report and Strategy – Reading by ENV.net Serbia Team .
Organisation capacity building process: EASD acknowledged becoming IPEN network Participating Organization
Eye on environmental laws changes: monitoring compliance with EU directives
November 2013. – The third ENV.net partnership meeting in Milan
28. October – Meeting with European Parliamentarians
ENV.net Serbia Team prepared document: Reading of 2013 Progress Report for Serbia and Strategy by ENV.net Serbia Team ( Serbia 2013 Progress Report and Strategy – Reading by ENV.net Serbia Team ).
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22. and 23 October – Education on sustainable management of lead/chemicals
October 18 – EC Delegation in Serbia, present to relevant CSOs, on October 18, 2013 , Serbia Progress Report 2013, in which the Commission services present their assessment of what Serbia as the candidate country has achieved over the last year.
October 2013 : Participated on different events organized to raise awareness to EU approximation environmental challenges.
Promotion of ENV.net facebook page!
October 2, 2013 – ENV.net team participated at the First SEE Regional Science Promotion Conference (SCIPROM), opened in Belgrade, with the aim to bring together science promotion professionals, practitioners and enthusiasts to share experience and network in order to strengthen the link between science and society in our Region. In the current competitive global environment it is an imperative to enhance economic and social capacities by improving the educational structure of society, inspiring innovation and technological advancement and creating a milieu for appreciation of the value and benefits of knowledge. In the opening address, Minister for Education, Science and Technology development of Serbia underlined, among others the importance of knowledge based actions, as well as the importance of drinking water for development. Conference bring international experts and representatives of international organizations, research and educational institutions, science camps, science communicators, NGOs, private sector and media on board.
This conference justify the path of ENV.net Serbia implementation and development, linking European Integration, Knowledge based activities and sectors : Education, Science and Environment/Natural Resources.
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Waste management and water management are considered as two important segments of environmental acquis and studies in this area represent an important aspect of ENV.net project. Environmental accession status of Serbia ( waste , water and EIA thematic issues) was presented by EASD team at International Conferences in Vienna (Austria) and Zadar (Croatia), as well as on chemicals at SAICM Regional Meeting (Skopje, Macedonia FYR).
In addition, possible ENV.net partnerships are discussed with other participants and interested CSOs.
In Skopje, EASD representative met Macedonian 4x4x4 BB representative on September 26, 2013, to discuss possible enlargement of ENV.net project to Macedonia.
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Promotion of ENV.net site in place Join us!
Added value for ENV.net Serbia is EASD activities within the development of Post-Rio+20 Agenda.
Office for Cooperation with Civil Society organized on September 6, 2013 Conference devoted to negotiating Chapter 27 (Environment). Presentation (in Serbian) from the Conference includes: Poglavlje 27 pregovori, Iskustvo R Slovenije, Natura 2000 Ministarstvo, Uloga civilnog drustva u monitoringu, Natura 2000 NGO )
September 2013: ENV.net project presented in the Ministry of Education, Science and Development of Serbia (Meeting of the National Committee for Environmental Education Programs)
August 2013. – Snapshot analysis : While waiting for EC 2013 Progress Report
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ENVIRONMENT TO EUROPE – EnE
This project/process present different phases towards European values, as well as globally values promoted through Multilateral Environmental Agreements. Started to raise awareness of the importance of the UNECE Ministerial “Environment for Europe” Belgrade 2007 Conference, and further continuously is mobilizing interesting parties in Serbia and Region to catalyze environmental and sustainable development.
Within “Environment to Europe” Process, EASD actively participate and organize different supporting activities in different related thematic areas, like sustainable consumption and production, efficient resource use, chemicals, eco-consumers protection, participation at global, EC, regional and with papers at different conferences, etc. Regional cohesion projects supported Environment to Europe process.
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EEB 2022 ANNUAL CONFERENCE – “Boosting the Deal for a Greener Europe in Turbulent Times”
Study visit to Grenoble – the Green Capital of Europe
EnE22, June 2022 – UNEP@50 and World Environment Day
December 2021 – Climate Pact for Serbia: Snapshot targeted rehearsal of country’s obligations in climate action….
Virtual tour on the experience from Italian practices in circular economy
Recap the moments from EnE19/ENV.net Conference
WEBINAR – Regional Forum of Sustainable Development (RFSD) for the UNECE Region : we participate
EASD full member in European Environmental Bureau – honor and challenge
The ESDN Conference 2018 – we participate ; We participate – ESDN Conference 2018, “Stakeholder-Policy Cooperation in the Age of the SDGs: What new approaches are required to be successful?”, Vienna (Austria), 1-2 October, 2018
Join us for June 5th: Conference Agenda is available
6th UN regional meeting on SAICM, Poland, February 2018: we participate
February 2018: Call for participation for EnE18: Nature protection – Nature-Responsive Development
February 2018: ENV.net 3 Kick-off Meeting in Tirana
November 2017: EASD participate: Summit to Plan the End of Amalgam in Europe 2017– November 20-21, Berlin
September 2017: “Make Mercury History” – EASD participated at Minamata COP1 in Geneva
July 2017: Civil Society Forum in Trieste, 11-12 July 2017 – we (EASD) participate ; Good signal: Serbia gets (again) separate Ministry of environmental protection
June 2017: Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development
April 2017: Call: The Thirteenth Regional Conference ”Environment to Europe – EnE17″, June 5th 2017, Belgrade
February 2017: “EnE17 – The 13th Regional Conference Environment to Europe” announcement: Climate Change Education
June 2016: Agenda , EnE16-ENV.net Zbornik radova/Proceedings of papers ; WED Messages from Serbia: 12th Regional Conference “Environment to Europe” , REPORT FROM EnE16-ENV.net, BELGRADE, SERBIA
January 2016 – Save the date and participate: June 6, 2016 – Environment to Europe Conference
June 5, 2015 – 2015 Conference, Information, Proc. of papers
We participate at European Green Week
December 2014 – Thematic Publication “Environment to Europe” ( Tematski zbornik radova “Životna sredina ka Evropi”)
June 5, 2014 – ENV.net multi-stakeholder Conference on Chapter 27: about 200 participants , 2014 Conference
Agenda for EnE14/ENV.net Conference “Environment to Europe”, June 5, 2014 in SCC – opening at 10:00
Invitation for EnE14-ENV.net Conference, June 5 – 2014 in Belgrade
EnE14 / ENV.net Conference will be held on June 5, 2014 in Belgrade (it will 10th regional conference!). Thematic focus: Chapter 27. Reserve the date! More information soon. Follow the updated information related to event.
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EnE13 – Environment to Europe Conference on June 10, 2013 is focused on local environment. The main messages from this participatory ENV.net event are: environmental sector activities should be knowledge based, and education for environment and sustainable development should be priority. Capacities and continuity is very important for inclusion environment in other sectoral policies. Conference is institutionally supported by Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection and Ministry of Natural Resources, Mining and Spatial Planning, as well as National Commission for UNESCO. This Conference is UNEP WED event.
2013 | EnE13 | ENV.net Roundtable Focus: Local Environment | Agenda, Zbornik radova EnE13 – Zivotna sredina ka Evropi – Papers Proceedings; Minutes; More than 120 participants at EnE13 conference/ENV.net Roundtable: 10 June, 2013 in Belgrade |
Snapshots from the previous EnE “Environment to Europe” Conferences:
Thematic focus | Published materials | ||
2005 | EnE05 | Thematic focus : The importance of Environmental Sector in EU Integration process | Detailed Agenda published.CD Proceedings of Papers published. Book “Sustainable Development and Environment towards Europe in 95+ steps”, by A.Mihajlov, published in Serbian |
2006 | EnE06 | European/developed countries values in environmental and related issues; lessons learned. At the same time, the Civil Society Forum EfE07 Meeting towards UN Pan-European Ministerial Conference Belgrade 2007 “Environment for Europe” held. | Detailed Agenda published.CD Proceedings of Papers published. Book “Sustainable Sustainable Development and Environment Towards Europe in 95+ Steps”, by A.Mihajlov, published in English |
2007 | EnE07 | Dedicated to contribute to upcoming UNECE “Environment for Europe” (2007, Belgrade) Pan-European Ministerial Conference ; NGO Declaration on Environmental Cohesion of Western Balkan agreed | Detailed Agenda published.CD Proceedings of Papers published. |
2008 | EnE08 | Youth and Vulnerable Groups in Environmental EU Accession | Detailed Agenda published. EnE08 Zbornik radova 4. regionalne Konferencije „Zivotna sredina ka Evropi“-sadrzaj published. |
2009 | EnE09 | Climate Change and Sustainable Tourism Conference | Detailed Agenda published (agenda EnE09) ; CD Proceedings of Papers published. |
2010 | EnE10 | Green Education and Green Economy | Detailed Agenda published ( Agenda EnE10 Konferencije ); CD Proceedings of Papers published. |
2011 | EnE11 | Rural and Mountain Sustainable Development | Detailed Agenda published (agenda_ene11) CD Proceedings of Papers published. Publication with selected paper published. |
2012 | EnE12 | Learning event for Rio=20 preparation – Green Economy and Governance for Sustainable Development | Detailed Agenda published ( Agenda EnE12 )
CD Proceedings of Papers published. UNDP/UNEP Green Economy Study published http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/984serbia.pdf |
Global Meeting & Forum on Chemicals and Waste, 2020
EASD participated at IPEN Global Meeting and Forum on Chemicals and Waste, among 93 environmental and health leaders; international health and science experts; and government and UN agency representatives from 51 countries.
EASD Honorable President presented ” Initiatives towards MIA – Minamata Initial Assessment implementation: in coal combustion, application, use and disposal of dental amalgam fillings and management of waste with mercury”. Objectives of the Meeting & Forum is to:
• Strengthen the Toxics-Free Future Global Movement
• Learn from Each Other and Share Skills
• Promote Organizational Capacity-Building & Development
• Celebrate Achievements
• Reflect on the Evolving Global and National Policy Landscapes
• Strategize around IPEN’s 2030 Goals & Program
• Elevate the Profile of Chemicals & Waste Issues
Meeting was held @ Kuriftu Resort, Lake Bishoftu@ Ethiopia – The Land of Origins (coffee is great!), a symbol of African freedom, with more than 100 million people and 86+ languages.
EASD is participating in Shaping the future beyond 2020
At the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, from 1 to 4 October 2019, EASD Honorable President participate at IP3 – The Intersessional Process 3 on Strategic Approach and sound management of chemicals and waste (SAICM) beyond 2020 , and technical briefings held on 30 September 2019, as well as IPEN preparatory meetings on 28 and 29 September.
This is the opportunity to engage in a forum that will determine what key strategies and priorities that will be taken by all IP3 SAICM delegates. Focus are themes: Enabling framework as an umbrella adopted at ICCM5 and ensure high-level political endorsement, Governance and institutional arrangement, Financing SAICM with more contributions from the industry sector and Leading indicators for new SAICM should be outcome oriented rather than process oriented.
Relevant SDGs goals are: SDG2 – Zero hunger, SDG3 – Good health and well-being, SDG5 – Gender equality, SDG6 – Clean water and sanitation, SDG8 – Decent work and economic growth, SDG11 – Sustainable cities, SDG12 – Sustainable Consumption and Production, SDG14 – Life below water, SDG15 – Life on land, SDG16 – Peace, justice and strong institutions and SDG17 – Partnerships for the goal.
6th UN regional meeting on SAICM, Poland, February 2018: we participate
EASD participate at the 6th UN CEE regional meeting on Strategic Approach to International Chemical Management, Lodz, Poland, 19-21 February 2018.
SAICM implementation is on the agenda, as well as perspectives on the future and identification of regional priorities towards and beyond 2020. Also, focus is on SAICM and sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020.
From Serbia , beside the Governmental Representative Sonja Roglic from Ministry of Environment, CSOs participants include EASD and AlHem representatives.
Prior to UN SAICM meeting, on February 18, EASD representative participated on IPEN preparatory meeting.
Venue of the event is green city Lodz on 18 rivers and with around 60 parks and green squares.
To note, that EASD participated at previous meeting in Skopje, in the capacity of SAICM NGO Focal Point for country.
EASD activities related SDGs
EASD team , from January 1,2018 will follow activities through SDGs lenses:
SD GOAL 1 – No Poverty SD GOAL 2 – Zero Hunger SD GOAL 3 – Good Health and Well-Being SD GOAL 4- Quality Education SD GOAL 5 – Gender Equality SD GOAL 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation SD GOAL 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy SD GOAL 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth SD GOAL 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure SD GOAL 10 – Reduced Inequalities SD GOAL 11- Sustainable Cities and Communities SD GOAL 12 – Sustainable Consumption and Production SD GOAL 13 – Climate Action SD GOAL 14 – Life below Water SD GOAL 15 – Life on Land SD GOAL 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions SD GOAL 17 – Partnerships for the GoalsIn addition, we are following our activities as UN Environment TOPICS:
AIR CHEMICALS AND WASTE CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION AND TRAINING ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE FORESTS GREEN ECONOMY RESOURSE EFFICIENCY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS WATER SCIENCE, INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT UNDER REVIEW ( ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT, INFORMATION MANAGEMENT).The goal of this activities categorisation is EASD strategic planning of activities in future. It is also lesson learned after EASD representative participation at UNEA3 in Nairobi.
2018!…..With activity highlights from 2017!
Activity important milestones in 2017
EASD activities are focused to 3 thematic groups:
- Promoting sustainable development; Agenda 2030 and SDGs;
- Environment and Natural Resources; Climate action; Advancing policy integration ; Advancing science/technology/innovation integration; Environmental Security and Justice;
- Building partnerships; Raising awareness on emerging issues; Working with civil society and non-state actors
Promoting sustainable development; Agenda 2030 and SDGs:
Initiative: End mercury use in dentistry by 2022, civil society challenge European Union
EASD participate at UNEA3, Nairobi, Nov-Dec 2017
EASD participate: Summit to Plan the End of Amalgam in Europe 2017– November 20-21, Berlin
EASD participate: IPEN Regional meeting, Prague 16-20 October 2014
“Make Mercury History” – EASD participated at Minamata COP1 in Geneva
Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development
2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development
EASD participate at 2017 Vienna UN Conference – Implementing the 2030 Agenda
Environment and Natural Resources; Climate action; Advancing policy integration ; Advancing science/technology/innovation integration; Environmental Security and Justice:
Initiative: End mercury use in dentistry by 2022, civil society challenge European Union
Good signal: Serbia gets (again) separate Ministry of environmental protection
Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development
“EnE17 – The 13th Regional Conference Environment to Europe” announcement: Climate Change Education
Building partnerships; Raising awareness on emerging issues; Working with civil society and non-state actors:
Initiative: End mercury use in dentistry by 2022, civil society challenge European Union
EASD participate at UNEA3, Nairobi, Nov-Dec 2017
EASD participate at 2017 Blue Flag National Operator Meeting
Eko-paket – Eco-Schools annual conference for the school year 2017/2018
EASD participate: IPEN Regional meeting, Prague 16-20 October 2014
EASD become the Member of the Western Balkans Youth Cooperation Platform!
Civil Society Forum in Trieste, 11-12 July 2017 – we (EASD) participate
Good signal: Serbia gets (again) separate Ministry of environmental protection
Serbia: Blue Flag 2017 Ceremony at beach on “Belgrade Sea”
EnE17 Conference and Panel in Media
Mercury Initial Assessment in the Republic of Serbia Workshop – we participate
Initiative: End mercury use in dentistry by 2022, civil society challenge European Union
Berlin, Brussels, Munich, Washington, supported from Belgrade, 4 December 2017
A call to phase out mercury use in dentistry by 2022 in the European Union has been made by health and environmental NGOs.
Mercury is currently used in dental amalgam in fillings and is easily replaceable. Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin which can damage the nervous, renal and cardiovascular systems.
Given that dental amalgam is 50 per cent mercury, the Minamata Convention on Mercury requires each participating nation to reduce its use.
In 2017, the European Union adopted an amalgam ban for children under the age of 15 and for pregnant and breastfeeding women from July 2018. The new rule requires also each Member State to set out a national plan to phasing down amalgam use and requires the European Commission to make a recommendation in 2020 on whether to phase out amalgam entirely.
The call to set a date to end all use in dentistry in the European Union was made as part of the Berlin Declaration to End Amalgam Use in Europe by 2022 at a two day civil society summit on 21-22 November, in Berlin.
Stefan Eck, German MEP, who shepherded the partial amalgam ban through the European Parliament, praised the Berlin Declaration:
“It was important to participate in this summit in Berlin. I will try my best to work with civil societies to accomplish the goal of an amalgam-free dentistry in Europe.”
Charlie Brown of World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, who organized the summit, said:
“The Berlin Declaration parallels similar civil society goals for Africa and Asia: the Abuja Declaration (2014) and the Dhaka Declaration (2015) respectively.”
Elena Lymberidi-Settimo of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), which hosted the first European conference to end amalgam a decade ago, said:
“The Berlin Declaration highlights a ten-year campaign by the EEB to bring mercury-free dentistry to this entire continent. It’s now time Member States roll up their sleeves and pave the way.”
Florian Schulze of IG Umwelt Zahn Medizin, which hosted the Summit and launched a national campaign, said:
“Germany can end amalgam sooner, in 2019. Amalgam use is now very low, and dentists are ready for the switch. All we must do is make changes in the insurance system that are fair to dentists and fair to consumers.”
Philippe Vandendaele of Health Care Without Harm-Europe, said:
“We co-led the campaign to end mercury in the other two medical devices, thermometers and sphygmomanometers, and now Europe needs to tackle the job on the third one, dental amalgam.”
Dr Silvia Pleschka of Women Engage for a Common Future, said:
“The protection enshrined for children, pregnant women and breastfeeding women needs to be extended across the board, in the EU and beyond.”
Notes to the editor:
Berlin Declaration, https://mercuryfreedentistry.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/berlin-declaration-to-end-amalgam-use-in-europe-by-2022.pdf
EU Mercury regulation 2017, http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/PE-4-2017-REV-1/en/pdf
EEB-WAMFD-Memo on Technical advantages of mercury free dentistry, May 2016
Abuja Declaration, https://mercuryfreedentistry.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/abuja-declaration-for-mercury-free-dentistry-for-africa.pdf
Dhaka Declaration, http://cephed.org.np/pdf/31421052006.pdf
National German Campaign launched: #OpenYourMouthAgainstAmalgam http://ig-umwelt-zahnmedizin.de/mund-auf-gegen-amalgam/
For more information contact:
Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, Project Manager ‘Zero Mercury Campaign’, European Environmental Bureau, 0032 (0)2 289 1301, elena.lymberidi@eeb.org
Ian Carey, Communications Manager, European Environmental Bureau, 0032 (0)2 289 1309, ian.carey@eeb.org
Philippe Vandendaele, Chemicals Policy Advisor, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe, 0032 (0) 2503 0481, philippe.vandendaele@hcwh.org
Aidan Long, Press & Communications Officer, HCWH Europe, 0032 (0) 2503 0481 / 0032 (0)465 100 940, aidan.long@hcwh.org
Johanna Hausmann, Project Management Chemicals and Health, Women Engage for a Common Future, tel +49 173 8010040, Johanna.hausmann@wecf.org,
Florian Schulze, Project Manager, IG Umwelt Zahn Medizin, 0049(0)1781812729 or 0049(0)3055232755, florian.schulze@ig-umwelt-zahnmedizin.de
Charlie Brown, World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, Attorney and President, Washington, USA, [1] 202 544 6333,
Andjelka Mihajlov, Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development, Honorable President, Serbia; office@ambassadors-env.com
EASD participate: IPEN Regional meeting, Prague 16-20 October 2014
The International POPs Elimination Network regional meeting for Central and Eastern Europe was organized in period from 16-20 th October by Arnika, in Prague. There were around 20 participants from, Montenegro, Belarus, Slovakia, Check Republic, Netherland, Hungarian, Bulgaria and Serbia.
Meeting was covering topic on the most toxic chemicals, of the high concern as well as some of them already excluded fur further use, which are main subject for Stockholm, Rotterdam, Basel but also Mercury Convention.
Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (EASD), as IPEN Participating Organisation (represented by Hristina Stevanovic Carapina) cover all topics especially related to dioxins, waste management of POPs but also Mercury waste.
As a record, Serbia , is in the process of development of MIA for Mercury Convention, but also one of the rear countries drafted NIP for Stockholm convention with new POPs (in 2014) , but unfortunately not adopted yet.
One of the most interested topics was visit to Spolana factory, chlorine -alkali plant which will be closed very soon on 1st November , but also to hazardous waste storage of dioxins waste arising from former production in one of the most top Czech polluters.
Meeting was very useful, and confirm wishes for further cooperation in Region , which has so many experience to share among all countries. The meeting was opportunity to (re-) establish new/old communication links with a lot of wishes for further cooperation.
More about the meeting …and more
“Make Mercury History” – EASD participated at Minamata COP1 in Geneva
The first meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP1) was held from 24 to 29 September 2017 at the International Conference Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The first meeting of the Conference of the Parties has multiple objectives, including procedural, political and celebratory. COP1, as a milestone in the Minamata journey, provides a unique opportunity to raise global awareness of the Convention, in particular at a high level, and to focus attention on the far-reaching impacts that the successful implementation of the Convention will achieve. It is an historic opportunity to celebrate the Convention and the achievements to date and to provide motivation and momentum to all as they take the next steps towards full implementation.
The Minamata Convention addresses all aspects related to the use of mercury and sets out measures to:
• ban new mercury mines and phase-out existing ones;
• reduce the use, emissions and releases of mercury from artisanal and small-scale gold mining and major industrial activities;
• phase-out and phase-down the use of mercury in a number of mercury-added products and processes, specifically its use in dental amalgam;
• restrict trade and prohibit the manufacture, import and export of mercury and a wide range of mercury-added products such as batteries or lights;
• control and reduce air emissions and land and water releases;
• ensure the safer storage and proper management of mercury waste.
Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development (Environmental Ambassadors, EASD), as accredited organization, participated as the Observer.
EASD representative participated at IPEN Preparatory Meeting, Regional Meeting, Opening Ceremony, Thematic Session focus discussions on mercury as relevant to Land, MIA (Minamata Convention Initial Assessment) Clinics (where countries with UNEP, UNDP and UNIDO and partners showcase their MIA work, including lessons learned), as well as some Showcase Events and Knowledge Labs. To note that MIA for Serbia is under development (EASD contribute as stakeholder…). Also, EASD representative at Minamata COP1 communicate with official delegation of Serbia.
A “Hg-week” (“Mercury” week) coincide with COP1 and physically have its main hub in Geneva starting on Friday, 22 September and ending Thursday 28 September 2017. It featured a series of awareness raising events around the issue of Mercury. The objective of the “Hg-week” is to reach out to participants at COP1, as well as the public, students, and other experts and stakeholders interested in the field of chemicals and health.
Global Review of Mercury Monitoring Networks
We provide our input on the first draft of the ’Global Review of Mercury Monitoring Networks’. We suggest to add visualized layer of locations “of burning of fossil fuel “ and “small scale mining” (or to make a reference if already exists at global scale).
The review is being developed within the framework of the project “Development of a Plan for Global Monitoring of Human Exposure to and Environmental Concentrations of Mercury”, funded by the Global Environment Facility. It seeks to compile and synthesize available information on existing mercury monitoring networks, including (i) air monitoring, (ii) human biomonitoring, and (iii) biota monitoring. It also seeks to highlight gaps in the coverage and scope of the monitoring networks. Thus the report aims to provide a baseline for future activities, including the promotion of further coordination and cooperation between the various networks.
The draft review will be submitted by UNEP Chemicals and Waste Branch to the interim secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury in response to the first call for information of the seventh session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee on mercury (INC 7), which, among others, invited stakeholders to submit to the interim secretariat information on existing monitoring programmes and how they can contribute to an overall monitoring approach, including availability of baseline information.
ENV.net Course: CSO Participation in Accession Process
9:30-10:00 Registration of participants
10:00-10:10 Short introduction of ENV.net project, Nataša Žugić-Drakulić, ENV.net coordinator for Serbia
10:10-11:10 Andjelka Mihajlov and Mirjana Drenovak Ivanovic, representatives of the Negotiation Team 27
11:10-11:30 Representative of the Negotiation Group 27, invited
11:30-11:50 Jelena Pajović van Reenen, representative of the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society
11:50-12:10 Natasa Djereg, Center for Ecology and Sustainable Development- CEKOR, National Convention on the EU: “Role of CSOs in Accession Process”
12:10-12:30 Hristina Stevanović-Čarapina, Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development: “Position papers on Chemicals/Waste/IPPC, as the framework for discussion”
12:30-13:00 Discussion
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-14:45 Richard Filcak, European Environmental Bureau: “Horizontal polices and legislation – lessons learned from the EU accession process, challenges and opportunities”
14:45-15:30 Richard Filcak, European Environmental Bureau: “CSOs in EC Progress Reporting”
15-30-16:00 Mirko Popović, Belgrade Open School: Coalition 27 Report on Serbia’s progress in the Chapter 27 (Environment and Climate Change) of the EU pre-accession negotiation 27: Environment and Climate Change
16:00-16:30 Discussion
* Moderator: Aleksandra Mladenović, Executive Director, Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development
SDGs as the relevant part of the context within which FEE operates
After a long series of intergovernmental negotiations on various themes,which saw a broad participation from major groups and civil society stakeholders under the guidance of the United Nations State Members, the Goals have been adopted on September 25th at the New York United Nations Summit by 193 Member States. In the same occasion, the UN launched their post-2015 development agenda, in which the Goals are integrated. UN Member States, the civil society and private sector contributors will use this new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators to guide development global efforts over the next 15 years in a concerted international action within the broadest, most ambitious development agenda ever agreed at the global level. The 17 Goals and 169 Targets are meant to be action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate, aspirational, global in nature and universally applicable to all countries, while taking into account the different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities.
The Foundation for Environmental Education with its global network thus needs to frame and highlight its role as a stakeholder and trendsetter in the Sustainable Development process, particularly for environmental, educational and eco-tourism matters. The SDGs will define a relevant part of the context within which FEE operates, thus we are driven to reflect our work in the Goals.
FEE through its mission of fostering awareness, knowledge, participation, commitment, skills, actions and creativity on the environment and on sustainable development, shares the core values behind the set of SDGs. The programmes based on Education for Sustainable Development, such as YRE, Eco-Schools and LEAF show a strong link with the educational Goal (SDG 4) and the Goal on global partnership for sustainable development (SDG 17). FEE’s tourism eco-labels, Green Key and Blue Flag, on the other hand, have a focus on making human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (SDG 11) and on implementing tools for monitoring sustainable development impacts for tourism (SDG 12.b).
Thus, FEE as an umbrella organisation aims at reaching objectives as indicated in the SDGs:
– “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (SDG 3).
– “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all” (SDG 4).
– “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water..” (SDG 6),
– “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all” (SDG 7),
– “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” (SDG14), as well as to
– “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems..” (SDG 15).
– “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth..” (SDG 8), particularly to “..Implement policies to promote sustainable tourism which creates jobs, promotes local culture and products” (SDG 8.9).
– “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” (SDG 11).
– “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns” (SDG 12).
– “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts” (SDG 13).
– “..Promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems..” (SDG 15).
– “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development..” (SDG 16), particularly to build transparent institutions and promote non-discriminatory policies for sustainable development (SDGs 16.6, 16.b) with a positive, proactive, democratic modus operandi and a strong synergic support to civil society and third sector.
– “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development” (SDG 17) through a geographically spread, multi-stakeholder approach.
Programmes’ overview:
a) YRE: Young Reporters for the Environment is a network of international youth engaged in environmental journalism and Education for Sustainable Development, where the students investigate an environmental problem and report it to the local community, while, at the international level, they may cooperate with young reporters from other countries for sharing information or data, with the aim of proposing a solution and disseminating it.
The most evident link between the Young Reporters for the Environment programme and the SDGs is found in the Goal 4:
“Ensure inclusive and equitable quality educationand promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” and its subparagraphs“..increase … the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship” (SDG 4.4) with the aim of learning to think critically, “ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skillsneeded to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity and of cultures contribution to sustainable development” (SDG 4.7) for being able to connectwith concrete issues.
The environmental educational programme thus also wish for taking “action to combat climate change and its impacts” (SDG13), specifically for what concerns to “improveeducation, awareness raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning” (SDG 13.3) through active solution-oriented learning. The programme canalso help to“promote mechanisms for raising capacities for effective climate change related planning and management, in LDCs, including focusing on women, youth, local and marginalized communities” (SDG 13.b).
YRE is a network of young people educating for sustainable developmentand environmental issues in general, thus it also supportsthe aim of many other SDGs, such as:
“Promotesustainable agriculture” (SDG 2).
“Promote well-beingfor all at all ages” (SDG 3).
“Achieve gender equality and empowerall womenand girls” (SDG 5).
“Ensure availability and sustainable management of waterand sanitation for all”, supporting and strengthening the participation of local communities (SDG6)
“Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energyfor all”(SDG7)
“Promotesustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”, developing measures that support creativity and innovation (SDG8)
“Build resilient infrastructure, promoteinclusive and sustainableindustrializationand fosterinnovation”enhancing scientific research (SDG9)
“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable … Reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality, municipal and other waste management”(SDG 11)
“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”, raising awareness on sustainable development and lifestyles which are in harmony with nature (SDG12)
“Conserve and sustainably use the oceans seas and marine resources for sustainable development”, aiming to preventmarine pollution and protectmarine and coastal ecosystems (SDG14)
“Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”, promoting the implementation of sustainable management of the forests (SDG15)
YRE helps to “Promotepeaceful and inclusive societies for sustainabledevelopment..”(SDG16)
YRE can encourage to “..Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development” (SDG17)
The journalistic piece can influence the local communities to take action on various environmental matters
b) ECO-SCHOOLS: A global student-led change process in Education for Sustainable Development which involves also teachers’ training, integration in the school curriculum, environmental reviews, action plans, monitoring and evaluation, informing and involving the local community, setting an eco-code focusing on the various environmental themes (water, energy, waste, global citizenship..).
The programme is fully in line with the Goals:
“Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” increasing the number of youth and adults with relevant skills and ensuring that all learners acquire knowledge for promoting sustainable development, developinga culture of peace and global citizenship while upgrading education facilities to child, disability and gender sensitive ones as to provide a safe, inclusive and effective learning environment for all(SDG 4)
“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, strengthening efforts to safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritagewith a focus on schools’ waste management, resource efficiency and climate change mitigation (e.g. Litter Less Campaign) (SDG 11)
“Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development” (SDG 17).
The implementation of the Eco-Schools programme also works towards the achievement of the aim of more SDGs, such as:
“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-beingfor all at all ages” (SDG 3)
“Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”, improving water quality and water-use efficiency with pollution reduction, minimizing the release ofhazardous chemicals, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater,increasing recycling or safe reuse and ensuring sustainable withdrawals together with the strengthening of the participation of local communitiesfor such purposes (SDG 6)
“Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all” increasing the share of renewable energy and energy efficiency, with the result of creating also savings (SDG 7)
“Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”with the improvement of resource efficiency in consumption and production as to endeavour to decouple economic growthfrom environmental degradation (SDG 8)
“Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation” (SDG 9)
“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”, using the natural resources efficiently, reducing the waste generation (including the food waste) and managing sustainably the chemical products (SDG 12)
“Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”specially improving education, awareness raising and capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning (SDG 13)
“Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrialecosystems..” (SDG 15)
“Promotepeacefuland inclusivesocietiesfor sustainable development… and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” highlighting the theme ofsocial justice(SDG 16).
c) LEAF: Learning About Forests wants to encourage environmental education through awareness raising among students, teachers and the wider school community, to increase knowledge about the key role forests play for sustainable life on our planet, reflecting their cultural, ecological, economic and social functions, with themes as biodiversity, climate, products or services, codes and myths.
The key Goals linked to the Learning About Forests programme are:
“Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, increasing the number of youths and adults who have relevant skills and ensuring that all learners (referring to the whole school community) acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including through education for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature (SDG 4)
“Ensure availability and sustainable management of water..”, protecting water-related ecosystems and supporting the participation of local communitiesfor improving water management(SDG 6)
“Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainable manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”, ensuring a sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, including their biodiversity, in particular forests, wetlands mountains and drylands, preventing the extinction of threatened species(SDG 15)
The principles behind LEAF are compatible with the aim of more SDGs:
“End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promotesustainable agriculture”, implementing agricultural practices, such as the tree-planting events, which help maintain ecosystems and progressively improve land and soil quality (SDG 2)
“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (SDG3)
“Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainableand modern energyfor all” (SDG7)
“Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment..”, endeavouring to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation and devising policies that encourage sustainable tourism which promotes local culture and products, such as jobs related to the forest, while learning to respect the forest community as well as its myths, laws and codes (SDG8)
“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, strengthening efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage while supporting positive links between the urban and the rural areas as to widen the access to inclusive green and publicspaces (SDG11)
“Ensure sustainable consumption patterns” through relevant information and awareness for achieving sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources (SDG12)
“Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts” improving education and awareness raising on climatechange and the role of forests (SDG13)
“Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development” (SDG17).
d) BLUE FLAG: The world’s biggest voluntary eco-label for beaches, marinas and eco-tourism boats works towards sustainable development through compliance with criteria dealing with environmental education and information, environmental management, water quality, safety and other services.
The principles and rules of the programme comply with the content of many Goals:
“Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”, improving water quality with pollution reduction and minimization of hazardous chemicals release, increasing recycling, safe reuse and water-use efficiency through the usage of sustainable withdrawals as to protect water-related ecosystems also with the support and participation of local communities (SDG 6)
“Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”improving the resource efficiencyin consumption while devising and implementing policies to promote sustainable tourism which creates job, promotes local culture and products.Blue Flag focuses as well on the protection of labour rights together with the promotion of a safe and secure working environment and the prohibition of child labour (SDG 8)
“Build resilient infrastructure..”upgrading it as to be sustainable and equipped with clean technologies (SDG 9)
“by 2030 empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status”with the aim of reducing inequalities and discriminatory practices for wages as social protection policies (SDG 10.2)
“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”enhancing capacities for participatory and sustainable human settlements as to strengthen the efforts for safeguarding the world’s cultural and natural heritage while providing universal access to the public spaces particularly for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities(SDG 11)
“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”for the efficient use of natural resources, through a sound management and reduction of chemicals and wastes and the promotion of sustainable public procurement practices (SDG 12)
“Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”preventing and reducing marine pollutionalso from land-based activities, addressing the impacts of ocean acidification and conserving coastal and marine areas. Blue Flags also contributes in increasing the economic benefits to SIDS and LDCs with the sustainable use of marine resources through tourism (SDG 14)
“Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems… halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss” for halting the loss of biodiversity and preventing the extinction of threatened species, also through the integration of ecosystem values into local planning policies (SDG 15).
The implementation of the Blue Flag programme also work towards the aim of several more SDGs:
• “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (SDG3)
• “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”as education has a central role in the programme and reaches out for all the persons involved in it as well as for theusers (SDG4)
• “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”(SDG5)
• “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable,and modern energy for all” to help increasing the share of renewable energy and energy efficiency(SDG7)
• “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”(SDG 13)
• “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development..”enforcing non-discriminatory policies for sustainable development (SDG16)
• Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”through a multi-stakeholder partnership, which involves also public partnersand local authorities,where knowledge and expertise are shared (SDG17)
e) GREEN KEY: This eco-label for tourism facilities (hotels, campsites, small accommodations, tourist attractions and restaurants) is a voluntary award that aims at contributing to prevent climate change and reach sustainable tourism by awarding and promoting best practice, with the goal of changing the environmental practices at the awarded establishments but also the behaviour of tourism actors, including guests, staff, suppliers, authorities, local communities so to involve them in increasingly safeguarding their own environment. The focus is on themes such as environmental management, water, waste and energy saving, involvement and awareness of guests and staff, management of food and beverage and open spaces.
For what concerns the part of the programme related to environmental management, the Goals mainly involved are:
“Ensure … sustainable management of water..” improving its quality, having the proportion of untreated wastewater, increasing recycling, safe reuse and sustainable withdrawals of freshwater (SDG 6)
“Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”setting rules for developing or upgrading quality infrastructures to support economic development and human well-being for an increased resource use efficiency and greateradoption of clean technologies (SDG 9)
“Make … human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”paying attention to air quality, indoor environment and waste management as to tackle climate change(SDG 11)
“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”with rules for achieving sustainable management of natural resources,respecting eco-criteria for food and beverages, reducing waste generationand achieving environmentallysound management of chemicals (SDG 12).
This way the programme “develops and implements tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism which creates jobs, promotes local culture and products” (12.b).
As an eco-tourism programme focused on the environmental awareness of staff and guests, the Goals principally involved are:
“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being..” where the programme has to encourage the users to take part in green activities (SDG 3)
“..ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights..” as part of the “educational Goal” (number 4), whereby the learners are the recipients of the environmental information expected in the implementation of the programme (SDG 4.7)
“Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”, as the Green Key programme sets Corporate Social Responsibility and safety rules for the workers(SDG 8)
“Take urgent action tocombat climate change and its impacts”through a reduced environmental impact but also through the improvement of education and awareness raising for both the facilities’ staff and users (SDG 13)
“..revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development” (SDG 17).
Toxic pesticide globally banned after (un)precedented vote at UN meeting on chemicals
Delegates from more than 90 countries took the unprecedented step of voting for a global ban on pentachlorophenol – a proven toxic pesticide and contaminant found in wildlife and human biomonitoring studies worldwide. The historic vote came at the combined meetings of the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions – which usually make decisions by consensus – after India repeatedly blocked action.
The delegates of the Stockholm Convention also supported international bans on two other industrial chemicals that harm the global environment and human health: chlorinated naphthalenes and hexachlorobutadiene.
EASD acknowledged as IPEN network Participating Organisation
IPEN is a global network working to establish and implement safe chemicals policies and practices that protect human health and the environment around the world. IPEN’s mission is a toxics-free future for all.
On November 15, 2013, IPEN Secretariat based in Barkeley, USA, welcome EASD as an IPEN Participating Organization (PO). Activities in SAICM and Against Lead Poisoning, contributed to decission.
Right now IPEN has approximately 700 POs around the world. IPEN has eight Regional Hubs, which (among many other things) help to communicate with POs around the world.
A nice little introductory video about POPs and IPEN.
“Little progress” in Chapter 27 issues in 2013, according to EC
Serbian first priority is accession to EU.
EC Delegation in Serbia, present to relevant CSOs, on October 18, 2013 , Serbia Progress Report 2013, in which the Commission services present their assessment of what Serbia as the candidate country has achieved over the last year. Presentation on 2013 Reports’ economic chapters is followed by discussion by CSOs representatives, including the NGOs as the one of category of CSOs. Environmental Chapter have great attention in discussion part of the meeting.
Related to Chapter 27, overall EC conclusions is “little progress”.
Although there are a lot of challenges ( EU Enlargement Factsheets – Energy, Climate Change and Environment ), EC conclusion is in some relevant segments different that ENV.net Study (ENV.net-Study-Extended-Summary-June-2013 ).
ENV.net Serbia Team prepared document: Reading of 2013 Progress Report for Serbia and Strategy by ENV.net Serbia Team ( Serbia 2013 Progress Report and Strategy – Reading by ENV.net Serbia Team ). Resulting key words are : Group 1 : civil society organizations, empowered civil society, Dialogue between decision makers and stakeholders , Public awareness, public participation and consultation process; Group 2: sustainable growth, synergies between environment and economy, emissions to air /air quality , waste management , environmental governance , climate change, protected areas, water management, chemicals management, environmental impact assessment, integral pollution and prevention control (industrial emissions); Group 3: implementation of adopted legislation, Intra- and inter-institutional cooperation, proper functioning of the core institutions, coordination of sectoral policies; Group 4: the skills gap, education and training.
Some background information for SERBIA: candidate – applied in 2009, obtained candidate status in March 2012. The EU-facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina was launched in March 2011. The First agreement of principles governing normalisation of relations was reached with Kosovo in April 2013. The momentum of reforms has also been reinvigorated in Serbia. The European Council decided in June 2013 to open accession negotiations. The first Intergovernmental Conference on Serbia’s accession negotiations will be held in January 2014 at the very latest, after the Council adopts the negotiating framework, which was proposed by the Commission in July 2013. In the meantime, the ‘screening’ began in September 2013. The Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) entered into force on 1 September. – see more
SAICM Regional Meeting, Skopje, September 2013
EASD representative participate at the 5th CEE regional meeting on SAICM in Skopje, Macedonia FYR, from 23 to 26 September 2013. EASD is National NGO/CSO Focal Point for SAICM. Besade the EASD representative, the representative from Cleaner Production Center – Belgrade participated. Overall, the dynamic of the meeting was very positive with a total of 48 people participating, including 11 Governments, 6 IGOs, 3 regional centres and 9 NGOs. List of participants is available ( CEE Rm 5 INF15_LOP ),
First day : CEE regional workshop on endocrine disrupting chemicals, lead by UNEP in collaboration with WHO and OECD.
Second day: Technical Information Sharing session – featuring information on Chemicals in Products, Lead in paints, Children’s environmental health, nanotechnologies and nanomaterials and other themes of interest for the region
Third day – SAICM priority setting workshop, looking at progress to date, identifying gaps and regional priorities and setting the course of action to reach the 2020 goal in the framework of the Overall Orientation and Guidance exercise mandated by ICCM3.
4th day: 5th Central and Eastern European regional meeting on SAICM.
Some of the key highlights of the meeting outcome include:
(i) Selection of Poland as the Regional Focal Point for the remainder of the term until ICCM4;
(ii) identification of priority Strategic Approach implementation activities for the region (that will also feed into the Overall Orientation and Guidance document);
(iii) request to review synergies from a Strategic Approach perspective; and
(iv) identified need and request for WHO to build capacity in the region for Poison Control Centres.
Documents from the meeting are available.
In the corridor of the Meeting, ENV.net networking meetings took place.
ENV.net snapshot analysis: While waiting for EC 2013 Progress Report
ENV.net snapshot analysis
Legislation: In terms of the degree of compliance with the EU environmental acquis, intense legislative activity of the Ministry in charge of Environment and other institutions with responsibility in this area has led to a significant level of transposition of the relevant EU regulations. According to the Progress Monitoring Report for the year of 2012, the majority of EU directives relating to the so-called horizontal issues, nature protection, management of chemicals and noise are completely or almost completely transposed into national legislation. In other areas (air quality, waste management, water protection and industrial pollution control) the bulk of EU legislation has largely been transposed into national legislation. With regard to the obligations of the Republic of Serbia as a non-Annex 1 country in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the complexity and cost of implementation of these regulations, the compliance with the acquis in the climate package has just started. National Environmental Approximation Strategy, with the assumption that the Serbia will be a member of the EU by 2019, provides for the achievement of full transposition of most of the acquis by the end of 2014.
Administrative and institutional capacity: The existing administrative capacity, especially at the local level are assessed as insufficient for adequate implementation. Given the complexity of the environmental acquis, and the fact that the jurisdiction of the EU is divided between a numbers of institutions in this area, there is a strong need to further strengthen inter-agency cooperation and coordination.
Environmental infrastructure: Given the state of the infrastructure, as well as the experience of the new EU member states in this process, the Strategy estimates that full implementation of EU regulations will be completed by 2030, and that the total cost of full implementation of EU legislation in the field of environment will be around 10.6 billion euros.
Financial investments: Given the institutional complexity and multidisciplinary nature of the field of environment, full transposition of the acquis may require a longer time frame, especially in the case of directives that require large financial investments (heavy investment directives).
Year 2013: The activities in the sector stagnated in 2013, and it is to be seen how it will be reported in the 2013 Progress Report, as well as to see the further “speed” to implement commitments in environmental sector.
EASD participated in the process towards Progress report for 2013 (2013-Progress-Report-EASD-contribution).
Workshop “ Chemical and Product Safety in the Western Balkans”, April 2013
Belgrade, April 11, 2013 – The conference address consumer products and chemicals on the market in the Western Balkans which could contain hazardous substances ( Agenda ). It is organized in the frame of the project “ Product and Chemical Safety in the Balkans – civil society cooperation on EU acquis and values for consumer protection and corporate responsibility“ and organised by the International network Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), together with UNDP -Serbia. Presentation includes : the first findings of post-2015 national consultation in Serbia (http://www.worldwewant2015.org/serbia2015 ) , Toy safety in Serbia (the presented findings base on a two year IPA EuropeAid project, which took place in FYR of Macedonia, Albania and Serbia ), as well as need for capacity building and knowledge based actions ( +Prof Mihajlov PRESENTATION – Capacity building for chemicals safety ). EASD is the National NGO SAICM Focal point.
In the capacity of NGO SAICM Focal point, EASD participated with comment to the Concept Note for developing the Overall Orientation and Guidance (open for comment from SAICM stakeholders until 16 May 2013).
In the same process, SAICM organize side-event at the Triple COP: Towards the 2020 Goal of Sound Chemicals Management (4 May 2013 at the International Conference Centre Geneva).
Participation at UNEP Global Major Groups and Stakeholder Forum, Global Ministerial Environment Forum and High-Level Gender Forum
Environmental Ambassadors for Sustainable Development participated at the “Global Major Groups and Stakeholders Forum (GMGSF-14)”, and “The First Universal Session of the Governing Council/ Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC-27/GMEF),” Nairobi, 16-22 February 2013. Ministers meeting for the first time under universal membership of 193 member states- again as a result of the decisions taken and adopted last year at Rio+20 and the UN General Assembly later in the year- adopted a welter of other decisions relating to the way UNEP will operate and work as the global platform for environmental policy-making and action over the coming years and decades. Governments called for the transformation of the existing Governing Council into a UN Environment Assembly of UNEP and to build stronger links between UNEP’s science-based Global Environment Outlook process and its ministerial meetings – further implementing the call by member states at Rio + 20to strengthen the science-policy interface.
Among the wealth of other decisions taken at the first Universal Membership of the UNEP Governing Council were: 1. A UNEP-led consortium will host and coordinate the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) which will be the implementing arm of the Technology Mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2. The CTCN will work on leap-frogging the technical and financial hurdles to the even greater take-up of clean and renewable energies to low carbon tranportation and energy efficient buildings, 3. Full operationalization of a decade-long initiative to decouple economic growth from unsustainable use of natural resources and pollution generation-the 10 Year Framework of Programmes for Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (10YFP for SCP), 4. The UNEP-hosted initiative will assist countries in areas from sustainable public procurement, lifestyles and education to sustainable buildings and construction and sustainable tourism, including ecotourism – again bringing from outcome to implementation other key aspects of the Rio+20 Future We Want, 5. Governments also decided to convene in October this year an intergovernmental diplomatic conference to formally adopt the Minamata Convention on Mercury that was agreed in January in Geneva under a UNEP-facilitated negotiation-again a further implementation of the Rio+20 outcome document.
Over 1300 participants from 147 countries, including 80 ministers, representatives of UN agencies, international organizations, academia, NGOs, business and industry, and women and youth organizations attended the first Universal Session of the GC following the decision of the United Nations General Assembly to strengthen and upgrade UNEP, as called for in the Rio+20 outcome document. Delegates adopted 13 decisions, on inter alia:
– the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES);
– coordination across the UN system, including the Environment Management Group (EMG);
– oceans;
– sustainable consumption and production;
– the green economy in the context of sustainable development;
– advancing justice, governance and law;
– state of the environment; and
– chemicals and wastes.
The GC adopted a decision on institutional arrangements that, inter alia, invites the UN General Assembly to rename UNEP’s governing body “UN Environment Assembly,” and provides that the body “will ensure” the active participation of all relevant stakeholders and explore new mechanisms to promote transparency and effective engagement of civil society in its work and that of its subsidiary bodies, inter alia, by: developing by 2014 a process for stakeholder accreditation and participation that builds on the existing rules of procedure and takes into account the inclusive modalities of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and other relevant UN bodies.
The day before the Governing Council got underway, the Network of Women Ministers and Leaders for the Environment (NWMLE) and UNEP hosted the second High-Level Gender Forum. Prof Andjelka Mihajlov participates, by invitation to “Gender Forum” as a member of the “Network of Environmental Women Ministers and Leaders”, as the former Minister for Protection of Natural Resources and Environment. The forum participants called upon ministers and environmental leaders to have dedicated officials for coordination of related gender and environment programmes and agreed to send a consolidated proposal on gender actions to be forwarded for consideration by UN Secretary General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post 2015 Development Agenda. The women ministers also requested nations to support the ratification of the Minamata convention on Mercury, which opens for signing in October.
More about meetings at www.unep.org . Moments from EASD participation are in Galleries of pictures. These activities are foreseen as the important international cooperation activities.
Prior to this, organisation participate at Rio+20 Conference.