KNEBWORTH ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP
Support the local community and help save the planet
KEG would like to wish everyone a happy Easter. This month we have our own good environmental news. Many of you will recall that just before Christmas in Egypt the UN biodiversity conference agreed a target to protect 30% of the global ocean by 2030. In early march the UN announced
agreement on, the “High Seas Treaty”, to establish marine protected areas in the seas not claimed by countries. These areas put limits into how much fishing, exploration, mining and shipping lanes can ingress to ensure activities are carried out responsibly and sustainably. The treaty still needs to be ratified by 60 countries but goes a good way towards the 30%.
We can help: The High Seas Treaty is an international agreement. It is well known that the fight to “keep our planet happy” has to have everyone on the planet working together. We sometimes feel helpless owing to the scale of what needs to be done. We can help, the above agreements would not have come about if it were not for pressure groups such as supporters of Greenpeace. For us to help further we all need to be keep pressure on our government to include this treaty within UK law and to encourage other nations to do the same so that the agreement becomes a working reality rather than an empty set of words.
More pressure needed: Another example of where your help is needed is the Energy Charter Treaty. The charter was set up in 1994 to protect energy firms working in former Soviet countries and allows investors to sue governments which enact policies that undermine the value of any investments made. (E.G., phasing out coal powered electricity in favour of wind turbines.) This treaty is now being used to prevent governments moving their economies away from fossil fuels into greener alternatives. The European commission has recommended that the entire EU withdraws from the treaty and many countries such as France and Germany have already announced their withdrawal as they see the
treaty as incompatible with climate objectives. Clearly, we have to encourage the entire world to join in protecting the world and not force them to pollute. At the time of writing this article our government has not announced its decision on withdrawing or maintaining membership of the ECT
despite having hosted the climate COP 26 in Glasgow.
You can help: To ensure the government does not prevent other governments from reducing their carbon footprints it is important for people to write to their local MPs to demand Britain’s withdrawal from the ECT. (Stephan McPartland, Stevenage, (stephen@stephenmcpartland.co.uk) Grant Shapps, Welwyn Hatfield, G.S is also one of the ministers with responsibility for our ECT membership, both MPs can be written to at: House of Commons, Westminster, LONDON, SW1A 0AA)
To find out more visit our website (https://e-voice.org.uk/knebworthenvironmentalgroup/) where there is more information and some useful links to other sites.
Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/knebworthenvironmentalgroup). You can also contact us via email to Kristin at knebworthenvironmentalgroup@gmail.com. Our next meeting is at 8PM on the 8th of March at the Station pub: you can email in advance or just turn up.