About the Biodiversity Offsets Newsweek
If you are interested in environmental compensation and biodiversity offsets, there are certainly good news: there is now a whole bunch of information from different sources, locations and viewpoints publicly available (something which wasn’t this easy only a couple of years ago). Now, as has been pointed out (see here) the Biodiversity Offsets Blog aims to compile and somewhat structure this information. But there is not only a wealth of sources already out there on the internet, but also new sources are continuously being added. I am following and collecting the news via Scoop.it and cover the most trending ones in posts on the Biodiversity Offsets Blog. Nevertheless, not all news can be covered (at least not yet) and therefore the “Biodiversity Offsets Newsweek” will list up the headlines of the past week, together with the links and PDFs of the articles or news.
This week: October 20–26, 2014
This week (October 20–26, 2014) some feedback on the (now closed) consultation of the European Commission on its planned No Net Loss Initiative (see my previous posts) came up, in particular from several opponents of biodiversity offsets, who set up a letter to Commissioner Potočnik to stop biodiversity offsetting. Some news on Australian biodiversity offset projects took a critical view on the subject, too. Perhaps most interestingly, a new book by Jane Gleeson-White entitled “Six Capitals: The Revolution Capitalism Has to Have – or Can Accountants Save the Planet?” lays out the case for accounting for externalities like fresh water, sustainable communities, productive soil and a liveable climate. It also analyses the growing number of methodologies for natural capital accounting, their history, upsides and downsides. Some of the mechanisms for mitigating corporate impact are also called into questions, such as biodiversity offsetting. Finally, two interesting initiatives are to be noted: the Biodiversity a-z online glossaries launched by UNEP and the Initiative on Global Biodiversity Impact Indicators for Commodity Production by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Events on Biodiversity Offsets
HG Spotlight on Environment Seminar: Second round of Greentape Reduction reforms and the Environmental Offsets Act 2014, Brisbane (Australia), October 23, 2014, by HopgoodGanim Lawyers
EU consultation on the planned No Net Loss Initiative
Open letter to Commissioner Potočnik about biodiversity offsetting, October 20, 2014, by FERN
Stop biodiversity offsets: Thousands sign letter to the European Commission, October 21, 2014, by Chris Lang
e-petition Ban biodiversity offsetting, October 26, 2014, by Chris Hurst
Biodiversity offset News from Academia
Book review: Can accountants save the planet? October 23, 2014, by Willow Aliento
Biodiversity offsets in Australia
Freeway to extinction, October 21, 2014, by Lucy Jarvis
Indian conservationist brings action against Queensland coal project, October 25, 2014, by Amy Remeikis
Ongoing biodiversity loss
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity Launches Initiative on Global Biodiversity Impact Indicators for Commodity Production, October 20, 2014, by WBCSD
Other biodiversity offset news
Biodiversity a-z — online glossaries launched by UNEP (including biodiversity offsets, the mitigation hierarchy etc.)
PDFs of the Articles/Links
To prevent to loose information find the Pdfs of the articles or news below — as we know, that unfortunately every now and then things are being removed from the internet.
Newsweek 20–26 october 2014_Ban biodiversity offsetting — e-petitions
Newsweek 20–26 October 2014_Book review_ Can accountants save the planet
Newsweek 20–26 October 2014_Letter to Commissioner for the Environment