African nations have long been at the centre of incidents involving hazardous waste dumping. From the leaking barrels of toxic waste in Koko, Nigeria in 1988 and the Probo Koala scandal in Cote d’Ivoire in 2006, to the current piles of e-waste threatening the health of West African communities; the continent continues to be disproportionally affected by the dumping of harmful chemical materials.

In an effort to prevent incidents such as “Koko” and “Probo Koala” from happening again, and to reinforce existing international treaties surrounding the shipment and disposal of hazardous waste – as established in the Basel Convention and Bamako Convention – African States have come together for the second Conference of the Parties (COP2) to the Bamako Convention.

The conference holds from Tuesday, January 30 to Thursday, February 1, 2018 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. While pursuing the objectives of the Convention, COP2 has been designed as a platform to discuss ways and means of ensuring that the continent rids itself of hazardous wastes and contribute to the achievement of a pollution-free planet.

“We have a collective responsibility to safeguard communities from the environmental and health consequences of hazardous waste dumping,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director of UN Environment. “The creation of regional Public-Private Partnerships could lead to the creation of adequate facilities to manage hazardous waste internally generated in Africa. Previous experiences have led us to establish these international treaties around chemical waste, and together we must ensure they continue to be adhered to.”

The Basel Convention, established in 1989, prevents the shipment and disposal of hazardous waste from industrial to developing countries. This international treaty establishes a procedure of strict requirements and consents of any transboundary movement of hazardous waste.

To complement the Basel Convention, African Nations established the Bamako Convention in 1991. The Convention, which came into force in 1998, is aimed at protecting the health of populations and the environment of African countries through a ban on the import of all hazardous and radioactive wastes. It also prohibits the dumping or incineration of hazardous wastes in oceans and inland waters, and promotes the minimisation and control of trans- boundary movements of hazardous wastes within the African continent. The Convention also aims to improve and ensure ecologically rational management and handling of hazardous waste within Africa, as well as the cooperation between African nations.

“It is expected that at COP-2 of the Bamako Convention, Parties will reaffirm their engagement for an effective implementation of the Convention including establishing synergies with other international treaties,” said Julliette Biao Koudenoukpo, Regional Director and UN Environment Representative in Africa.

“Parties are also expected to identify mechanisms and financial resources to implement the Convention,” she added.

The first Conference of the Parties (COP-1) to the Convention took place from June 24 to 26, 2013 in Bamako Mali. One of the outcomes of this Conference is a declaration by African Ministers of Environment in which they state their determination “to prevent Africa from becoming a dumping ground for toxic wastes through an effective implementation of the Bamako Convention”. The declaration further states that “the import of hazardous waste into Africa is a crime against humanity” and commit “to prompt action to overcome barriers to effective management and minimization of waste in Africa through increased knowledge on waste scenarios in order to prevent harm to health and environment.”

Probo Koala incident

In 2006, a Panama-registered cargo tanker, chartered by Trafigura, a commodities trading multinational, dumped over 500 cubic meters of highly toxic waste in Abidjan, killing 17 people and poisoning thousands.

Koko, Nigeria incident

In 1988, Italian businessmen illegally dumped over 2,000 drums, sacks, and containers full of hazardous wastes in a small fishing village in southern Nigeria. The waste was claimed by the dealer to be fertilisers that would help poor farmers, but instead it turned into a nightmare. Few months later the containers started leaking causing stomach upset, headache, failing sight and death to the local community. The area around the dumpsite was rendered inhabitable and 500 residents were evacuated. People in the Koko village still remember this accident as “drums of death”.

The Second Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Bamako Convention (also known COP2) kicked off on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 in Abidjan, the capital city of Cote d’Ivoire.

The conference, which holds under the theme: “The Bamako Convention: a platform for a pollution-free Africa”, will be rounded up on Thursday, February 1, 2018.

“COP2 aspires to provide a platform to discuss ways and means of ensuring that the continent rids itself of hazardous wastes and contribute to the achievement of a pollution-free planet,” says Mme Aida Keita M’bo, President of the COP and Malian Minister for Environment, Sanitation and Sustainable Development.

Host Minister and Ivoirian Minister for Public Health, Environment and Sustainable Development, Mme Anne Désirée Ouloto, urged her colleagues to work towards a COP2 outcome that will “prevent Africa from becoming a dumping ground for toxic wastes through an effective implementation of the Bamako Convention”.

“The importation of hazardous waste into Africa is a crime against humanity and we must commit to prompt action aimed at overcoming barriers to effective management and minimisation of waste in Africa through increased knowledge on waste scenarios in order to prevent harm to health and environment,” Mme Ouloto added.

“We have a collective responsibility to safeguard communities from the environmental and health consequences of hazardous waste dumping,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director of UN Environment.

“Africa is not the dustbin of the world,” Thiaw added while reinstating UN Environment’s commitment to a pollution-free world.

From Basel to Bamako Convention

The Bamako Convention is a treaty of African nations prohibiting the importation of any hazardous (including radioactive) waste into Africa.

The convention which came into force in 1998  is a response to Article 11 of the Basel convention which encourages parties to enter into bilateral, multilateral and regional agreements on Hazardous Waste to help achieve the objectives of the convention.

African Nations established the Bamako Convention in 1991 to complement the Basel Convention.

The Convention, which came into force in 1998, is aimed at protecting the health of populations and the environment of African countries through a ban on the import of all hazardous and radioactive wastes.

It also prohibits the dumping or incineration of hazardous wastes in oceans and inland waters, and promotes the minimisation and control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes within the African continent.

The Convention also aims to improve and ensure ecologically rational management and handling of hazardous waste within Africa, as well as the cooperation between African nations.

Courtesy: PAMACC News Agency

The European Commission on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 summoned ministers from nine EU member states for a final chance to pledge how they will tackle air pollution before facing legal action for failing to meet the bloc’s emissions limits.

According to EU Environment Commissioner, Karmenu Vella, every year, over 400,000 Europeans die prematurely due to poor air quality, which triggers conditions such as asthma, heart disease and lung cancer.

One of the main pollutants in cities is vehicles, especially those running on diesel fuel.

The nine countries invited to the Brussels talks, Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, all face court proceedings if they do not take steps to curb emissions.

“It is clear that the agreed air quality limits for several key pollutants had to be met already many years ago,’’ Vella wrote recently, adding that measures introduced or planned by the member states in question “are not enough.”

During the talks, activists from the environmental campaign group Greenpeace protested outside the European Commission with banners demanding “Clean Air Now.”

According to Benjamin Stephen of Greenpeace, car fumes are killing tens of thousands across Europe, accusing governments of failing to take the necessary steps to meet air pollution limits.

“That is criminal, and should be penalised,’’ Stephen added.

German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks has said ahead of Tuesday’s talks that Berlin had failed to take the necessary steps, while also appealing to the car industry to clean up diesel vehicles.

The number of companies forging ahead with an industry-leading approach to tackling emissions in the supply chain has doubled in a year,according to new research by CDP, the non-profit global environmental disclosure platform, with analysis provided by McKinsey & Company.

CDP has awarded 58 companies – out of a total of +3,300 – a place on its second annual Supplier Engagement leader board, double the 29 identified in 2017. These leaders – which include Bank of America, BT Group, Nestlé, Panasonic, Rolls Royce, Société Générale, Tokyo Gas Co. and Unilever – are recognised for their work with suppliers to reduce emissions and lower environmental risks in the supply chain.

The leaders are announced as more companies than ever before are looking at water security in their supply chains – leading to a 15% rise in suppliers disclosing water data to their customers through CDP in 2017 – and organisations including Klabin, L’Oréal and McDonald’s are among the first to work with CDP to tackle deforestation in their supply chains.
Examples of leadership among the 58 companies include:

• Ajinomoto: the Japanese food, chemicals and pharmaceuticals corporation worked with a key supplier to become the only company worldwide to sell drinks in 100% recycled heat-resistant PET bottles, reducing the use of virgin plastics from fossil fuels by around 2,000 tonnes a year.
• Kellogg Company: the global food company operates its Origins programme across 21 countries, supporting around 294,000 farmers to become more sustainable and build resilience to the impacts of climate change.
• Sky: in partnership with a key supplier, the European entertainment and telecommunications company is pioneering a circular economy model for its new set-top box, using sustainable product design to create a closed loop system with zero waste to landfill.

Gabrielle Ginér, Head of Sustainable Business Policy at BT Group, said: “We’re proud to be recognised on CDP’s Supplier Engagement leader board for our efforts to engage suppliers on climate change. Reducing our supply chain emissions is an essential component of our ambitious science-based target to help keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C. Working with suppliers through CDP’s supply chain programme is crucial to driving this change.”

Closing the Gap: Scaling up sustainable supply chain practices, CDP’s Global Supply Chain Report 2018, is based on climate, water and deforestation-related data collected from 4,872 supplying companies across global supply chains at the request of 99 of the world’s largest purchasing organisations. Wielding a combined purchasing power in excess of $3 trillion, these organisations include Accenture, BT Group, Cisco, KMPG UK and Philips Lighting.

Last week’s discussions at Davos concerning international trade – which is projected to grow fourfold by 2050, from a baseline year of 2010 – and the World Economic Forum’s recently published Global Risks Report 2018 – which confirmed environmental risks as the most significant facing humanity – has all highlighted the importance of addressing supply chains when tackling environmental challenges. This is especially significant because greenhouse gas emissions located in the supply chain are on average four times higher than those arising from direct operations.

“Delivering on the ambitions of the Paris Agreement will require businesses to play a key role to reduce emissions, manage water resources and limit deforestation within their operations and their supply chains,” commented Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, who has written the foreword in the report.

“I am pleased to see that an ever-increasing number of companies reporting to CDP are integrating sustainability-thinking into their business models and applaud the members of the CDP supply chain program for being pioneers in this regard. I encourage businesses to work with suppliers to raise ambition across their supply chain.”

The report – which includes commentary from The Carbon Trust – reveals that this leadership is paying dividends, as awareness of climate change-related risks and opportunities is increasing down the supply chain. Over three quarters (76%) of suppliers responding to CDP have identified some inherent climate change risks to their business and more than half (52%) report that they have integrated climate change into their business strategy.

There is huge potential for positive impact. Reductions equivalent to 551 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide – more than Brazil’s total emissions in 2016 – were reported by suppliers worldwide in 2017. This is an increase from 434 million metric tonnes reported in 2016. Cost savings amounting to $14 billion were reported in 2017 as a result of emissions reduction activities.

Yet, this impact is only a fraction of what could be achieved if all organisations at each tier of the supply chain were engaged and working to drive down emissions. Currently, less than a quarter (23%) of supplier respondents are in turn engaging with their own suppliers to reduce emissions, suggesting that many may be missing out on business opportunities and financial savings.

Dexter Galvin, Global Director of Corporates and Supply Chains at CDP, said: “Big businesses have for some time understood the importance of managing their Scope 1 and 2 emissions, but Scope 3 emissions, hidden in the value chain – and far greater in volume – are just as vital. While it’s encouraging that awareness of climate-related risk is filtering down the supply chain, it’s crucial that engagement and action follows. As our findings show, this not only makes sound business sense, but can result in considerable cost savings for both purchasing organisations and their suppliers.”

In addition to a global analysis, the report looked more closely into eight major economies to compare how well-prepared suppliers are to mitigate environmental risk. It found that suppliers in some countries are taking a clear lead, while others are lagging behind:

• France: Reflecting the national momentum signalled at the recent One Planet Summit in Paris, supplying companies in France are the most likely to have climate change integrated into their business (80%), while 74% report board-level responsibility for climate change
• Japan: Despite the government’s historic focus on energy security over climate change, Japanese companies have the highest rates of disclosure – 87% of suppliers responded to the CDP climate change questionnaire – and are the most likely to set emissions reduction targets (77%).
• United States: The US administration might be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, but American corporates are saying ‘We are Still In’ and stepping up on climate: 33% of organisations on the Supplier Engagement leader board are US, making it the best-represented nation, ahead of the UK at 15%.
• Brazil: Abundant in national resources, but plagued by economic and political instability, Brazil has the lowest level of target setting (just 21% of respondents have set emissions reduction targets and a mere 8% have set renewable energy targets) and only 6% of supplying companies are engaging with their own suppliers on climate change.
• China: While it has above-average disclosure rates for Scope 1 and 2 emissions – awareness of which will likely be bolstered by the recently announced national emissions trading system – only 15% of Chinese respondents are engaging with their own suppliers on the issue.

Steven Swartz, a partner in the McKinsey & Company Southern California office, said: “We’re seeing investors and businesses placing substantial capital into the low-carbon economy, driven by the expectation of sound long-term economics. This is a major opportunity for businesses to take the lead, and an especially good time for them to have impact as cost of clean technology continues to fall.”