Literature Review

Following the decision of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) to start negotiations for a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, discussions and reflections are ongoing on why and how plastic chemicals and polymers of concern should be integrated into the global plastics treaty. One of the points that has been identified as requiring attention is the reduction of the complexity of the composition of plastic objects. This article, addressed to decision-makers and other stake-holders involved in the negotiations, illustrates in a practical and graphical way what complexity means in the case of the presence of inorganic additives.

In 2020 Colombia’s Constitutional Court handed down a decision disallowing a writ of habeas corpus originally brought by a law professor to protect the individual freedom from captivity of a spectacled bear named Chucho. This paper explores the background to the case and the legal opinions expressed by members of the Constitutional Court regarding the possibility of assigning the status of ‘subject of rights’ to a non-human animal. It discusses a recent attempt to theorise non-human legal personhood and makes the invitation for a shift of emphasis: away from the ‘subject of rights’ and toward a jurisprudence that pays attention to the ways in which species of animal such as bears feature as active participants in legal thought.

At the heart of this Note is the need to preserve Tribal sovereignty. This Note focuses on a lesser-known issue currently being debated in circuit courts: whether Tribes should be permitted to banish Tribal members from their ranks without submitting to the scrutiny of federal courts. Recently, there has been a resurgence in banishment discussions in Indian Country. To justify banishment, an individual's actions must reach the point that they disrupt Tribal cohesion, the Tribe's overarching cultural identity, and its bylaws. Banishment comes under federal review when banished individuals file a writ of habeas corpus under section 1303 of the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA). This provision provides that habeas review shall be available to any person to test the legality of their detention by an Indian Tribe. In 2022, the Tenth Circuit decided Chegup v. Ute Indian Tribe of Uintah & Ouray Reservation, which addressed whether the banishment of a Tribal member counted as "detention" within the meaning of the habeas provision of the ICRA. If the court agreed with the banished Tribal members that banishment constitutes "detention," then federal courts could impose themselves on issues of Tribal membership. However, if the court agreed with the Tribe that banishment does not include "detention," then the banished individuals would have no further federal remedy. The Tenth Circuit did not formally rule on this issue, but the court articulated it in a way that highlighted the relevant circuit split and opened the door for future courts to consider the issue. Chegup also brought to the forefront the debate of Tribal sovereignty versus individual civil rights. This debate comes down to the fact that some individuals feel that they have been unjustly banished and attempt to circumnavigate a Tribe's sovereign decision-making power regarding membership by seeking a remedy from the federal courts instead. Should the habeas provision of the ICRA be read broadly to include banishment as "detention," thereby preserving individual civil rights and the individuals' right to remedy? Or should the provision be read narrowly so as not to include banishment, thereby preserving the critical practice of Tribal sovereignty and Tribal control over membership decisions? This Note argues the latter. It is reasonable to ask if banishment constitutes a severe restraint on liberty and is subject to habeas review. However, if Tribes do not have control over determining Tribal membership, then their unique sovereign powers are significantly undermined. This must be avoided even if a few banished individuals, while still provided with procedural fairness through the Tribal court process, are left without legal remedy in federal court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations defines Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns) as doing more and better with less. Food loss and waste contribute to environmental pollution and the degradation and depletion of natural resources. Food loss reduces the amount of food available for consumption. The recommendations to meet SDG12 include decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, increasing resource efficiency and promoting sustainable consumption. Food loss is food that suffers a reduction in quality (such as spoiling, spilling or bruising) before it reaches the consumer, during the production, storage, and processing stages of the food supply chain. In addition, food loss results from limitations in agriculture (and trade agreements), storage, infrastructure, packaging, and marketing. In general, food loss and waste (FLW) only considers agricultural products intended for human consumption. This excludes any products used for animal feed or non-food uses, such as biofuels. Unconsumed food also uses large amounts of land and water resources and contributes unnecessary pesticides and chemical fertilisers to the environment. Diverse solutions to FLW exist in the following categories: food banks and food surplus supermarkets, technology, behaviour change and market reform.

Plastic pollution poses a signiicant challenge to the environment, biodiversity, and human health. Each year, the world produces 300 million tons of plastic waste, equivalent to the weight of the planet's entire human population. Only 9% of plastic products worldwide are recycled due to a pervasive throw-away culture and ineficient policies for managing single-use plastic. Over time, plastics fragment into smaller pieces, distributed across ecosystems by wind and rainfall. Marine and terrestrial wildlife accidentally ingest these smaller plastics, leading to a build-up of toxins in tissues. These toxins are transferred to other species, including humans, through the food chain. This document proposes two policy options to address this issue: (a) replacing conventional plastics with more environmentally friendly alternatives or (b) transitioning to a circular economy focused on reducing, reusing, repairing, and recycling. We urge the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to pursue the latter by leading the development and implementation of a comprehensive global policy agenda for the appropriate and effective management of plastics. This would include the development of inancial, environmental, and social estimators to quantify, manage, and reduce plastic waste. A UNEP-led global plastic policy agenda has the potential to standardize and regulate plastic production, consumption, and waste management and ultimately reduce the negative impact of plastics on ecosystems and human health.

The study’s main objective was to identify the leadership style(s) practised in UNEP and to examine its effects on organisational performance. The study addressed the following specific objectives: To determine the effect of transformational leadership style on organisational performance at UNEP; To investigate the effect of democratic leadership style on organisational performance at UNEP; and, To determine the effect of charismatic leadership style on organisational performance at UNEP. The researcher adopted descriptive research design since the information gathered involved administering questionnaires. The population for this study therefore comprised of all staff working at UNEP as at 31st December 2014. For this study, forty-one (41) respondents was selected using stratified random sampling, which represented ten percent (10%) of the employees of UNEP. This comprised of Supervisors (G-7) and Managers (P-D level) of UNEP. Research findings illustrated that majority of the respondents (36.59%) indicated that the respondents practised transformational leadership. Findings also illustrated that majority of the respondents (82.93%) indicated that management had no elaborate ways and methods to make many people work together for a common task. Findings further illustrated that the respondents considered leadership style practised by overall management at UNEP as valid with regard to its effect on organisational performance. Research findings illustrated that the respondents considered transformational leadership style, democratic leadership style, and charismatic leadership style practised by overall management at UNEP. It was concluded that transformational leadership style significantly affects organisational performance at UNEP. The researchers recommended that management should strive at using specific ways and methods to make many people work together for a common task which should be aimed at achieving UNEP’s mission and vision. That its leadership focuses on the development of staff members and their needs as this had the highest significance with regard to its effect on organisational performance.

Increasing plastic pollution is looming worldwide, damaging biodiversity, marine ecosystems, and human health. At the global level, no overarching normative framework sets out the specific rules and principles of general application in international environmental law, leading to difficulties in compliance and enforcement of plastic pollution governance. Developing an effective and legally binding instrument to tackle this emerging issue is imperative. The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) has called for developing an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, based on plastic’s full lifecycle approach. As one of the active participants in the negotiations, the European Union (EU) has discussed various aspects of the instrument in detail and sought to introduce the EU governance experience at the international level. This article develops a framework that considers contextual, actor, and process factors to assess the extent of achieving EU targets. On this basis, we argue that the EU’s objectives for the international instrument may be achieved at a high level. However, how the EU responds to challenges will also impact subsequent development, which may require the EU to adopt a more moderate stance and compromise on some controversial issues.

Climate change is a global environmental problem, one of the causes of which is deforestation. As the second largest province in Indonesia, with forest area reaching 50% of the total area, Central Kalimantan has a vital role in environmental problems and deforestation. Government policies that convert forests into non-forest areas increase the rate of deforestation and increase global emissions. Deforestation is a worldwide problem that requires joint attention in handling, especially for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as the international environmental regime. This research is a type of qualitative research that uses analytical descriptive methods to describe the phenomenon of deforestation in Central Kalimantan and UNEP's role in overcoming it. Library study techniques are used to collect research data in documents, which are compiled, analyzed, and concluded. UNEP's role in realizing SDG 13 is examined using an international regime approach through global diplomacy. The research results show that UNEP, as an international regime, plays a vital role in making global regulations regarding handling climate change from the deforestation sector through REDD+. In its implementation, UNEP assisted Indonesia in implementing REDD+ in Central Kalimantan and acted as a catalyst, facilitator, advocate, and educator on the issue of deforestation in Central Kalimantan in 2017-2020. This research is essential to show the urgency of the multi-stakeholder role in global diplomacy in dealing with climate change.

This Assessment Update by the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) considers the interactive effects of solar UV radiation, global warming, and other weathering factors on plastics. The Assessment illustrates the significance of solar UV radiation in decreasing the durability of plastic materials, degradation of plastic debris, formation of micro- and nanoplastic particles and accompanying leaching of potential toxic compounds. Micro- and nanoplastics have been found in all ecosystems, the atmosphere, and in humans. While the potential biological risks are not yet well-established, the widespread and increasing occurrence of plastic pollution is reason for continuing research and monitoring. Plastic debris persists after its intended life in soils, water bodies and the atmosphere as well as in living organisms. To counteract accumulation of plastics in the environment, the lifetime of novel plastics or plastic alternatives should better match the functional life of products, with eventual breakdown releasing harmless substances to the environment.

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Your Excellency William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya, Your Excellency Leila Benali, President of UNEA-6 and Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development of Morocco, Your Excellency Dennis Francis, President of the 78th UN General Assembly, Her Excellency Paula Narváez, President of the Economic and Social Council, Excellencies, distinguished guests and friends. Welcome to the opening of the High-Level Segment of the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi. The environmental capital of the world, as we like to call it. My thanks to you, President Ruto, for continuing and strengthening Kenya’s commitment to UNEP and indeed to global environmental action. Excellencies, We are here because the environmental crises facing the world are spreading and intensifying. We are living in an age of climate emergency; the warning lights on the planetary dashboard are glowing red hot. We are living in an age of withering nature, dying lands and vanishing species. We are living in an age of a planet and people poisoned by chemicals, by plastic, by waste and pollution of all kinds. Our high-carbon, resource-hungry growth has sent some planetary systems teetering to the edge of tipping points. Once these systems fall, they may never rise again. And humanity might also find itself floored. But we cannot and must not despair. Because the power to change lies with us. With you. With the members of this Assembly, the governments they represent and all who make up the wider UNEA and UNEP family – from Multilateral Environmental Agreements to scientists, from civil society to youth, from Indigenous Peoples to the businesses and financiers who know they must do things differently. We, this global family, must stand shoulder-to-shoulder and push back, as one, against the triple planetary crisis to create space for the climate to stabilize, nature to recover and pollution to recede, in so doing providing the basis for economies and societies to flourish sustainably. We must push back against this crisis in lockstep to create space for those who follow, in so doing creating intergenerational equity and helping youth to grow stronger and wiser than those whose who went before. Excellencies, We cannot push back with the force required if we are divided. True strength comes from unity. So, I ask this Assembly to do what it does best. I ask this Assembly to put aside national and regional differences and remember that we all live on this little blue planet called Earth. Think of planetary cycles, not electoral cycles. Think long term. Look beyond the horizon. Remember that if my air is dirty, if my climate is changing, if my shores are awash with plastic, yours are too. We stand together or we fall together. That is inclusive environmental multilateralism. I ask this Assembly to once again show the Nairobi Spirit that fills these rolling hills. The Spirit that, two years’ ago, put us on a path to ending plastic pollution. To conclude the hard work that has gone on over the past weeks and months by passing the resolutions and decisions on the table in the strongest form possible. Show the world that the Nairobi Spirit is alive. And, of course, implement the resolutions with speed and determination. But I also ask you to recall that this Assembly is much more than one set of resolutions or decisions. This is where the global community gathers to think big and dream bigger. To reimagine how we can work better, smarter, harder and faster – together. To hold the future that we want in our mind’s eye and make it happen. We saw that vision yesterday, when many of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements that set the global guardrails on the environment came together in Nairobi for the first time. It was a bit of a family reunion. They sought ways to lift each other up, unite and become more than the sum of their parts. These agreements have already delivered many results. Protected the ozone layer, many species and huge areas of land and sea. Slowed the rate of climate change. Raised the profile of desertification and land degradation action. Eliminated toxic substances dangerous to human and planetary health. And more. Made in UNEP, they are making massive progress and delivering on environmental multilateralism. If they can do more by unifying their efforts, and if we can all follow suit, the future we all want will become a reality. Excellencies, As I said, we are living in an age of intensifying environmental threats. But we are also living in an age of cascading commitments, hope and action. The environmental movement, as embodied in this Assembly, is bigger than ever. Stronger than ever. More united than ever. We can push back against the triple planetary crisis if we show unity of purpose, at this Assembly and beyond. Purpose to shun fossil fuels and look to renewable energy sources. Purpose to conserve and restore the natural world and our lands, which give us life. Purpose to keep harmful chemicals, pollution and waste out of our ecosystems and yes, out of our bodies. This is our great task, the most important one we will ever undertake. Billions of people are depending on us to succeed. Let us not let them down. Thank you.

Coastal resilience is critical for soft-sediment ecosystems vulnerable to climate change and human-induced pressures (O'Leary et al., 2023). Current engineering approaches fall short, prompting a shift toward Nature-based Solutions (NbS), which mimic natural ecosystem features and processes (Faivre et al., 2017; Seddon et al., 2020). NbS, defined by the United Nations Environment Program, offers a holistic approach by simultaneously addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges (UNEP, 2022). The European Commission aligns NbS with EU policies, emphasizing the need for legislative frameworks and international standards for effective implementation. EU Legislative frameworks, such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the Habitat and Birds Directives, and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, as well as the Marine Spatial Planning Directive, play crucial roles in guiding NbS implementation. The DAPSI(W)R(M) framework (Drivers-Activities-Pressures-State change-Impacts (on human Welfare)-Responses (using Measures)) (Patrício et al., 2016) can be employed to assess NbS in the context of the EU legislative landscapes, as explored by this study (Semeraro et al., submitted). The framework connects human pressures (referring to the drivers e.g. coastal defence and the activities e.g. aquaculture coastal infrastructure, which enhances pressures on the environment), state changes in marine ecosystems (through criteria and indicators), impacts on human welfare (through ecosystem service indicators), and responses or measures to prevent or mitigate impacts for deploying a NbS. The application of this framework is illustrated for Nbs on sandy coastlines, with the Coastbusters project as a pioneering example (Goedefroo et al., 2022; Coastbusters (2020); Coastbusters 2.0 (2023)). The Coastbusters concept exemplifies NbS application in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS), focusing on mussel beds and tube-worm aggregations. This public-private partnership induced mussel biogenic bed formation through innovative reef-facilitating systems. The DAPSI(W)R(M) framework allows us to illustrate the multifaceted challenges related to the integration of seaward NbS in sandy coastlines, as the Coastbusters concepts. The novelty here is that it also emphasizes the importance of integrating social concerns into environmental assessments, highlighting the scarcity of recent information on public perceptions of NbS.