UK Expecting to Show a 23% Decrease in Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Next Year

World Environment Day 2009. Stock Image.

LONDON- The United Kingdom is on track to almost double its greenhouse gas reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, according to a new report by the country’s Department of Energy and Climate Change given to the United Nations.

The report’s findings predict that by 2010, the country’s greenhouse emissions will be 23 percent below levels recorded in 1990, “well in excess of the target of 12.5 percent set out under the Kyoto agreement.”

The report to the UN outlines the policies and programs that the UK has put in place, including:

• the Climate Change Act of 2008.
• energy efficiency programs.
• emissions targets for road vehicles, aviation, and industry in Europe.

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Declaration on Climate Change Adopted by African Ministers

NAIROBI, Kenya- In a special session yesterday, the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment has adopted the Nairobi Declaration which provides African countries with a platform to make a strong case for international support at the upcoming Copenhagen Convention for combating climate change.

“Africa’s environmental ministers have signaled their resolve to be part of the solution to the climate change challenge by forging a unified position, with diversity of economics, in advance of the crucial United Nations climate convention meeting in Copenhagen (Denmark) in just 192 days time,” said Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Programme, which hosts the AMCEN secretariat.

Mr. Steiner added in his statement that, “the development prize for Africa is an acceleration of clean and renewable energy projects and payments for carbon-storing ecosystems from forests up to eventually perhaps dryland soils, grasslands, and sustainable agriculture.”

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Sale of Seal Products Banned in European Union

Stock photo.

STRAUSBOURG, France- The trade of seal products in the European Union has been banned as a result of an overwhelming vote in the European Parliament earlier this month.

The 550 to 49 vote forbids the sale of seal products for profit within the EU, with an exception for Inuit and other indigenous peoples.

Robbie Marsland, the United Kingdom director of The International Fund for Animal Welfare, Yarmouth Port, Mass., exclaimed, “The Parliament has hammered the final nail in the coffin of the sealing industry’s market in the EU.

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EPA Launches Grants Initiative to Clean Up Brownfields Across the Country

A Lawrence, Mass. Brownfield transformed into the Dr. Nina Scarito Park.

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the availability of an estimated $111.9 million in grants to help communities clean up polluted sites known as Brownfields.

The grants include $74.6 million from the EPA Brownfields general funding program, and $37.3 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Communities in 46 states, four tribes, and two U.S. Territories will share in these grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites.

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Outraged Senator Introduces Federal Act to Protect Young Children From Widespread Contaminants in Personal Care Products

Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) . Stock photo.

NEW YORK- In response to a children’s health study done by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Sen. Krsiten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has introduced the Safe Baby Products Act into the federal legislature.

In conjunction with the bill, now awaiting a reference number, Gillibrand wrote a letter to Frank M. Torti, acting commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, stating that “due to complete and total lack of oversight, the products that we use to care for our children could be putting their health and lives at risk. I find it to be unacceptable that the FDA does not regulate personal care products, as it does food and drugs.”

Gillibrand went on to say in her letter that, “The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics commissioned laboratory tests that revealed that personal care products are commonly contaminated with formaldehyde or 1,4-dioxane, which have been linked to cancer and skin allergies.

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