International conference:
What governance for high seas biodiversity?
The high seas, an area beyond national jurisdiction, represent 64% of the total surface of seas and oceans. Long governed by a principle of freedom established at a time when the marine environment was still a vast unexplored desert, it is a global public good par excellence, and is currently threatened by the intensity and diversity of anthropogenic uses.
Indeed, the exponential growth of the activities traditionally conducted in this area (international shipping, the exploitation of fishery resources, etc.) and the development of new ways of using these resources (oil and gas extraction, bioprospecting, etc.) place the high seas at the heart of many different issues that threaten the exceptional biodiversity they contain, and which the scientific community is only just beginning to assess.
Henceforth, at a time when discussions on the establishment of a truly international environmental governance are growing in number, it will become essential to determine an appropriate political, legal and institutional framework for the sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction.
Organized in partnership with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the Agence Nationale des Aires Marines Protégées (French marine protected areas agency) and the French Global Environment Fund (FFEM), the international seminar “Towards a new governance of high seas biodiversity”, to be held in Monaco on 20 and 21 March 2008, will bring together high-level international experts in order to examine potential ways to improve biodiversity governance in these high seas areas.
Download the conference program
AGENDA
* Wednesday 12 March, Paris (14:45 – 16:45)
Conference-debate "The Cattle Realm: A new phase in the livestock colonization of Brazilian Amazonia" organized by IDDRI with Roberto Smeraldi (Director of the Brazilian NGO, Friends of the Earth), in the presence of Brice Lalonde (Ambassador for climate change negotiations) and Jean-François Tourrand (Assistant Director of the INRA-CIRAD FRAI public interest group). The conference will shed light on the recent determinants of the expansion of cattle ranching in Amazonia, an activity deemed to be the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
The conference program
*Thursday 13 March, Paris (17:00 – 19:00)
Conference-debate “Energy efficiency in housing in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries”, with Carole-Anne Sénit (IDDRI – Sciences Po), Benoît Lebot (UNDP) and Christian de Gomard (AFD). Carole-Anne Sénit will present an overview of energy efficiency policies for housing set up in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries and will open the debate on the issue of encouraging stakeholders in the building sector to address the energy efficiency problem.
Sign up for the conference
* Tuesday 25 March, Paris (17:00 – 19:00)
Conference "International Investment Law and Sustainable Development: Challenges for a New Agenda" as part of the Seminar on Sustainable Development and Environmental Economics. This session, presented by Howard Mann, will be devoted to international law on investments for the implementation of new technologies and the dissemination of innovation, in order to move from an unsustainable development trajectory to a sustainable one.
Presentation of the session
* Friday 28 March, New York
Laurence Tubiana will take part in the 5th edition of the State of the Planet international conference organized by the Earth Institute, which will focus this year on “seeking solutions” in order to ensure development is sustainable. The event will bring together key figures from not only the academic environment, but also the political world and the media in order to define the outlines of policies to meet the objectives of sustainable development.
Find out more: Presentation of the conference / Conference web site
Observatory for Sustainable Development
A selection of sustainable development highlights by IDDRI and the Courrier de la Planète, with the support of AFD as part of their partnership for the yearly edition of Regards sur la terre.
* Climate: California takes on the federal government
2 January 2008 / California has lodged an official complaint against the United States government for having prevented the application of its law on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from vehicles. In 2002, California voted a law obliging automobile manufacturers to reduce pollutant emissions from vehicles by 30% between 2009 and 2016. But the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refused to grant it the derogation needed for the implementation of these more restrictive standards.
* World Watch Institute: publication of the annual State of the World report
9 January 2008 / According to the World Watch Institute, by failing to recognize the value of nature, the global economic system remains the principal offender in the degradation of the environment. But the report also highlights the emergence of new positive economic trends. Environmental protection (waste reduction, recycling, GHG emissions reduction) are for example playing an increasing role in entrepreneurial strategies, especially due to the costs of inaction that are starting to weigh on economic actors.
* Reducing GHG emissions in France
22 January 2008 / The French Environment Minister announced that French greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.5% in 2006 compared to 2005. According to the ministry’s inventory, French GHG emissions are estimated at around 541 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE) for the year 2006, and have fallen by 13.8 MMTCE in a year. They are therefore around 4% lower than the ceiling set by the Kyoto Protocol for the 2008-2012 period.
* Europe: new directives to promote renewable energies
23 January 2008 / The European Union published a new draft directive on renewable energies aimed at stimulating production to increase it from 8.5% today to 20% in 2020. In this context, all 27 members of the Union must increase their share of renewable energy by 5.5% in relation to 2005. The objective set by the European Union is binding and could lead to the Commission taking legal action against states that fail to progress quickly enough. The text also provides for the virtual exchange of renewable energies with guarantees of origin, which make it possible to prove the renewable nature of the source of the electricity produced. The criteria for renewability should be drawn up by 2010.
All the highlights of the last few months
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with a threefold mission: identifying the challenges, informing the debate and mobilizing sustainable development
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Publications
*Adapting to Climate Change in the Mediterranean: Some Questions and Answers. Raphaël Billé
This summary presents some of the main findings from CIRCE's first stakeholders meeting, organized by IDDRI on 18 and 19 October 2007. The paper takes stock of the need for “adaptation” in the Mediterranean, its adaptation capacity, the instruments for its implementation, and the way in which the need for adaptation may be an opportunity for the region.
Download Synthèse 01/2008
* L’accès aux services essentiels dans les pays en développement au cœur des politiques urbaines, Carine Barbier, Pierre-Noël Giraut, Joël Ruet, Marie-Hélène Zérah
IDDRI, with the scientific assistance of Cerna- École des Mines de Paris, organized a monthly seminar, “Access to basic services in urban areas in developing countries” on the technological and socio-economic conditions and the urban dynamics of the development of the provision of basic services in developing and emerging countries. This analysis presents the main findings of the 12 sessions of this seminar.
Download Analyse 04/2007
* Dancing with Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
Jean-Frédéric Morin
In this article, Jean-Frédéric Morin reviews the most recent changes in trade relations between developed and emerging countries (BRICS for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and their political implications. A prominent trend made spectacular by the rise of emerging countries and the proliferation of bilateral trade agreements over the last 10 years.
Download Idées pour le débat 02/2008
IN BRIEF
* Publication: Courrier de la Planète, special edition “emerging countries”
The Courrier de la Planète issue (n°84 – April/June 2007) on the concept of “emerging countries”, further to the conference organized by IDDRI in July 2007, “Emerging countries and global governance: new challenges and opportunities”, has just been published.
Courrier de la Planète, in cooperation with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and France Cooperation, is taking this opportunity to organize a conference-debate on “Development assistance: emerging donors”, on 11 March from 14:00 to 18:00 (information and registration: cdp@courrierdelaplanete.org).
Journal web site
* IDDRI is recruiting
The intensity of negotiations and international activities on issues relating to energy, the climate and avoided deforestation is leading IDDRI to build up its research team in order to develop its debates and scientific productions in this field.
IDDRI is therefore recruiting a Program Officer, specializing in avoided deforestation issues.
We are also looking for an Associate Researcher, specializing in one of IDDRI’s research areas (climate change, natural resources, trade liberalization and global governance).
Finally, IDDRI is looking for an “Energy and climate change” Program Director.
Find out more: Download job descriptions
* Podcast of the conference “After Bali: What are the prospects?”
The video of the conference debate of 15 January, with Rajendra K. Pachauri, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Nicolas Hulot and Laurence Tubiana is now available online. See all of the debates and interventions of this exceptional conference, which brought together over 500 people at Sciences Po.
See the video
