The International Network for Environmental
Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) is the only global network of
environmental compliance and enforcement practitioners dedicated to
raising awareness of compliance and enforcement; developing networks
for enforcement cooperation; and strengthening capacity to implement
and enforce environmental requirements. INECE communicates that
environmental compliance
and enforcement play a fundamental role in
building the foundation for the rule of law, good governance, and
sustainable development.
News & Events
Web Site Features
Ozone Treaty Parties Agree to Start Cutting More Climate Emissions Doha, Qatar, 20 November 2008 – The 193 Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer agreed for the second year in a row to strengthen their treaty to provide additional protection for both the ozone layer and the climate system. The Parties will start collecting and destroying ozone-depleting substance from stockpiles and from discarded products and equipment that are the easiest to reach. These “reachable” substances will be emitted by 2015 without action through the Montreal Protocol. Destroying them will speed recovery of the ozone layer by up to two years, and avoid up to 6 billion tonnes or more of CO2-eq. in climate emissions.
Launch of Global Military Partnership to Protect Ozone and Climate 20 November 2008 – In cooperation with the governments of the United States, Argentina, Australia, The Netherlands, and Mauritius, the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) and the INECE announced new plans to collaborate with military organizations worldwide to collect and ultimately destroy unwanted ozone-depleting substances (ODS) that are also potent greenhouse gases. This cooperation is significant because military organizations have developed the technology, logistical strategies, and management practices that minimize cost and chemical emissions. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates recovery and destruction of unwanted ODS can avoid the equivalent of 6 billion tonnes or more of carbon dioxide emissions by 2015, which is equal to 3 years of Kyoto targets.
INECE Climate Compliance Alert: New US Law Could Protect Forests Worldwide Recent amendments to a US federal wildlife trafficking statute known as the "Lacey Act" extend capacity for combatting the import of illegally harvested timber. "The U.S. Lacey Act Should Help Protect Forests Worldwide" presents information and analysis of the potential impact of the new amendment. Given the US’s status as the world’s largest importer of wood products, proper enforcement of the Lacey Act has potential to help protect forests around the world. Further, the approach used in the Lacey Act – in which violations of the law of the country of origin of the timber are enforced domestically – offers a model worthy of consideration to other countries with a strong commitment to preserving forests globally.
INECE Convenes Kick-Off Meeting of its Seaport Environmental Security Network
INECE EPC Co-chair Gerard Wolters welcomed a global group of environmental and customs experts to Interpol's Headquarters on 9 October to respond to "one of the big global environmental challenges: transboundary movement of hazardous wastes." The group worked over the next two days to identify capacity building, informational, and operational needs of developing countries and to select priority areas for enforcement cooperation under the Seaport Environmental Security Network.
The
Importance of Military
Organizations in Protecting the Climate: 2008
The European Commission Defence Environmental Network, the US
Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of Defense, the
United
Nations Environment Programme, the Institute for Defense Analyses,
Ministries of Environment and Defence Ministries of France, Germany,
Italy,
Netherlands, UK, and others will meet in Paris in November
to
discuss how militaries
worldwide are responding to threats of climate change and acting now to
reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. For more information, please see the
event announcement and
agenda overview.
Jump-Starting
Climate Protection: INECE Targets Compliance with Laws Controlling
Black Carbon INECE is launching a program to protect the
climate by strengthening compliance and enforcement with national
policies and measures pursuant to Article 4 of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change that mitigate climate emissions and
enhance carbon sinks. "INECE
Targets Compliance with Laws Controlling Black Carbon,"
the first in a series of INECE Climate Compliance
Alerts, focuses on black carbon, an aerosol component of soot.
8th
International Conference on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement
held in South Africa
INECE held its 8th International Conference on
5-11 April 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa. At the Conference more than
200 enforcement specialists from 60 countries gathered to share
successful strategies from around the world and to devise new ways to
ensure that all public and private actors are complying with
environmental law. Please visit the Conference Web Site
for more detailed information about the specific workshops and topics
discussed.
Designing
Effective Compliance Systems to Support Emissions Trading INECE hosted a workshop
on the elements necessary for cooperation among
different emissions trading systems in Dublin, Ireland, on 8-9 March
2007. The workshop explored the shared responsibilities of regulatory,
industrial, and financial communities to ensure compliance. The Proceedings, now available online, demonstrate the importance
of establishing a standard language and set of procedural guidelines as
soon as possible to guide compliance and simplify enforcement in
current systems and to create a basis for formally linking trading
systems in the future.
Improving
Competitiveness Through Good Environmental Regulation A
statement by the Heads of Europe's Environment Agencies, agreed to in
Prague, brings together an expanding international body of research to
indicate that "good environmental management and regulation does not
impede overall competitiveness and economic development."
INECE Secretariat Director Durwood Zaelke had the
opportunity to discuss the Prague Statement
with Barbara Young, the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency for
England and Wales and a lead author of the publication. A short film of
their conversation is available at http://inece.org/praguestatement/,
along with a link to the full text of the Prague Statement and other
background information.
INECE
Publishes Groundbreaking Collection of Literature on Environmental
Compliance
and Enforcement Making
Law Work: Environmental Compliance & Sustainable Development
is a compilation in two volumes of the best literature on topics
related to environmental compliance and enforcement. The insights,
concepts, and strategies contained in Making Law Work
will empower actors of all types at all levels to take action to
promote sustainable development, enforce compliance with environmental
law, and make law work. Excerpts from Making Law Work
are available on the Table of Contents page.
"A vital and
important book that will become required reading for all who share our
concern about the Earth's environment and who know that enforcement and
compliance are the bedrock of the rule of law and sustainable
development." -- Gus Speth, Dean, Yale School of Forestry
& Environmental Studies