At midnight today (9 April), the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission reached agreement on a long-awaited EU regulation to prevent plastic pellet losses in the environment, a major source of microplastics pollution. The decision came in the wake of yet another disastrous pellet spill in European waters off the English coast due […]
Hundreds of thousands of dolphins, porpoises and whales (collectively known as cetaceans) are bycaught in fishing gear every year and tens of thousands die in European waters. This has been happening for decades. Governments have been slow to act, to understand bycatch impacts and, more critically, to prevent bycatch from happening despite stringent laws in […]
Loopholes in EU regulations appear to be driving unsustainable and fraudulent palm oil trade. EIA’s new briefing The Palm Oil Black Box – EU trade loopholes analyses EU trade patterns for palm oil and reveals a significant increase in the imports of waste and residues used to make biofuels. Biofuels are renewable fuels used as […]
Almost four decades after the 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling put an end to the mass slaughter of whales, opposition to commercial whaling around the world is stronger than ever. Yet as we mark World Whale Day 2025, Japan, Norway and Iceland – three of the world’s wealthiest nations that otherwise generally abide by […]
Senior European lawmakers have been urged to ensure human rights and deforestation issues are kept at the heart of a new forest products risk-ranking system for countries. The proposed country risk benchmarking system will operate under the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which seeks to prohibit trade in timber, beef, leather, chocolate, soy, palm oil and […]
This year is a big one for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), with the 78th meeting of the Standing Committee (SC78) kicking off in Geneva, Switzerland from 3-8 February. This will be followed by the much larger 20th Conference of the Parties (CoP20) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan later in the year. EIA […]