European Union News - Environmnet

Despite ever greater efforts to protect biodiversity, this precious resource continues to decline. Now a group of scientists and conservationists warns that to reverse this troubling trend, society must urgently rethink its attitudes to biodiversity and change its behaviour accordingly. The team hopes its message will be heeded by world leaders when they attend the forthcoming 65th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, which will be devoted to the subject of biodiversity. In addition, the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is scheduled to take place this autumn.

The Commission reminds companies that they must register the most widely used or most dangerous chemicals by the deadline of 30 November 2010. Registration is one of the milestones of REACH, the EU Regulation on chemicals and their safe use Companies are also reminded that they must notify the Classification and Labelling of their chemicals to European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) by 3 January 2011.

New rules to enhance and improve the safety performance of ships were adopted by the European Commission on 13 September. The rules will introduce, from 1 January 2011, a new online register to "to name and shame" shipping companies which are performing poorly on vital safety inspections (port state controls), while those with strong safety records will be given good public visibility.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) for Local and Regional Policy Makers report shows local policy makers how to improve their understanding of the value and services provided by natural capital like woodlands, parks and waterways, and to reap benefits in local policy areas such as urban management, spatial planning and protected areas management.

One of the biggest challenges the World in general has to face today is what to do with the growing mountains of rubbish. According to researchers in Ireland, compost production may be the answer to this problem.

The Official Journal of the European Union published on 7 September 2010 Commission's Decision amending the rules for the implementation of the Community civil protection mechanism. This amendment introduces measures which are needed at Union and participating state levels to enhance the interoperability of civil protection modules, notably regarding training and exercises.

The European Ombudsman, in its decision on the case 0676/2008/RT, required the European Commission to grant access to a series of letters relating some meetings between the Commission and representatives of cars manufacturers, which were requested by an non-governmental organization active environmental issues. Back in March this year the Ombudsman criticized the lack of cooperation from the Commission in this matter.

The European Commission has adopted a Decision outlining the criteria necessary to achieve good environmental status for Europe's seas. This will help Member States to develop coordinated marine strategies within each regional sea, ensuring consistency and allowing progress to be compared between regions.

Research under the Census of Marine Life initiative, funded in part by the EU, has resulted in the discovery of at least 1,200 new species, and generated more than 2,600 publications. The latest in a long list of achievements is a species inventory of distribution and diversity in 25 key ocean areas. The inventory is part of a collection of articles published in PLoS (Public Library of Science) ONE.

An international team of scientists working from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile has discovered a neighbouring planetary system that shares many features with our Solar System. The findings, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, are an outcome of a large-scale survey being conducted with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS spectrograph.