QMS & EMS London

Oceans need urgent protection to stem the erosion of their resources, which are worth around $24 trillion, WWF warned last week. In a report produced with the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland and the Boston Consulting Group, the charity highlighted the value of oceans, which includes direct outputs from fishing and aquaculture, tourism, education, trade and transport as well as other benefits, such as carbon sequestration. According to WWF, goods and services from oceans are worth US$2.5 trillion a year, ranking it just below the UK in terms of economic value. Neglecting this asset could in some ways be likened to not investing in a fund that yielded a 10% return, it says.

Jo Baker, senior environmental manager and Emma Robinson, associate director at Terence O'Rourke consider the best timing for EIA screening to take place. EIA screening, the procedure used to determine whether a proposed project is likely to have significant effects on the environment, is traditionally considered an exercise to be completed early on in the development of a project. Indeed, it is often the first involvement an EIA practitioner has in a scheme.  The online planning practice guidance from the communities department (DCLG) states: “EIA screening should normally take place at an early stage in the design of the project. However, it can also occur after a planning application has been made or even after an appeal has been made.” 

British Prime Minister David Cameron's government announced the creation of the world’s largest contiguous ocean reserve on Wednesday, setting aside 322,000 square miles (830,000 square kilometres) around the remote Pitcairn Islands in the South Pacific for special protection. The new reserve is nearly three and a half times bigger than the landmass of the United Kingdom—larger than the state of California—and is home to a stunning array of sharks, fish, corals, and other marine life, says Enric Sala, a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence who led a five-week Pristine Seas expedition to the island group in March 2012 that helped establish a scientific case for the reserve.

Worldwide investment in renewables surged 17% to $270 billion in 2014, bringing the total invested in renewable energy to $2 trillion over the past 10 years, according to UNEP. The UN environment programme’s latest annual report, Global trends in renewable energy investment, says record investments in offshore wind projects across Europe, combined with major expansion of solar installations in China and Japan contributed most to the increased capacity in 2014 and helped reverse a two-year decline in investment.

The EU should make better use of the ecodesign Directive to improve resource efficiency, according to campaigning NGO, the European Environment Bureau (EEB). The directive is expected to deliver over 40% of the EU’s energy efficiency target by 2020 by setting limits on the amount of power that electrical and electronic equipment can consume, says the EEB. 

Ecosystem services (ES) are being increasingly addressed in international impact assessments, particularly for major infrastructure and extractive industry projects. This follows the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) inclusion of ES criteria in the 2012 versions of its performance standards, which are widely applied by development finance institutions and Equator Principles adherents to their funding clients. Consequently, any project which has to meet the environmental and social standards of participating financial institutions to secure funding must address ES requirements.

Investigating the number of documents typically included in applications for major infrastructure projects. Major infrastructure projects are an important part of the political agenda, demonstrated by the government’s recent commitment to Hornsea Project One (part of a 4GW offshore wind farm) and Hinkley C, which will be the first new nuclear power station in the UK for a generation. Developers of these nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) are required by the Planning Act 2008 to submit a Development Consent Order (DCO) application to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS). A total of 32 NSIPs have been determined since this new regime became effective in October 2009 (31 of which were granted consent and one was refused). A further 22 projects are currently going through the examination process and 50 are at the initial pre-application stage.