A farmer in Bukidnon, Philippines, shows some of her biotech maize crop.

By Kathryn McConnell
IIP Staff Writer,
Washington,
February 7, 2012
Agricultural biotechnology continues to grow around the world at unprecedented rates, with 8 percent more biotech hectares planted in 2011 than in 2010, according to a major international research group.

During 2011, 160 million hectares were planted in crops developed through biotechnology, a 94-fold increase over hectares planted in 1996, when biotech crops first were commercialized. Farmers in 29 countries, including 19 developed countries, planted and replanted a total of 1.25 billion hectares of biotech crop land between 1996 and 2011 — an area 25 percent larger than the total land mass of the United States and China, said Clive James, author of an annual biotech crop report released February 7 by the research group International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

“That makes biotechnology the fastest-adopted agricultural technology in history,” James said. “It reflects the confidence small-, medium- and large-size farmers have in biotech,” he added.

The report, Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2011, was launched via a worldwide webcast to journalists.

From 1996 to 2010, biotech crops contributed significantly to food security and environmental protection, James said. Biotech crop production increases are valued at more than $78 billion. Requiring less pesticide use and tilling, biotech crops have saved hundreds of kilograms of pesticides from entering the soil and water, and reduced carbon emissions.

HIGH ADOPTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Developing countries, which represent 40 percent of the world’s population, are adopting biotech twice as fast as industrialized countries. In 2011, biotech crops grown in developing countries for the first time were close to half of global crops grown, James said.

While the United States continued to be the lead producer of biotech crops in 2011 with 69 million hectares planted, Brazil was second with 30.3 million hectares planted. It is followed by Argentina at 23.7 million hectares and India at 10.6 million hectares. Rounding out the top 10 countries that each grew more than 1 million hectares of biotech crops were Canada, China, Paraguay, Pakistan, South Africa and Uruguay.

“We expect Brazil to be the leader in planting biotech soybeans and maize,” James said, noting that Brazil is bringing more land into arable production and is expected to devote a large portion of that to biotech.

ACCEPTANCE BY OTHER COUNTRIES

In 2011, six counties in the European Union planted biotech maize, 26 percent more than in 2010. Two more European countries planted a high-starch biotech variety of potato. Sixty countries accept biotech crops for import for food and feed use, including major food importers like Japan, which does not plant biotech crops.

NEW VARIETIES

The rate of new variety development has accelerated in recent years, and stacked traits are an important feature, James said. Twelve countries planted crops with two or more traits in 2011; nine of those were developing counties. A stacked variety carries more than one beneficial trait.

In 2012, a stacked soybean that resists insects and is herbicide tolerant will be introduced in Brazil and is expected to be released in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, James said.

In 2013, the first variety of drought-tolerant maize will be grown in the United States. In either 2013 or 2014, a “golden rice” enhanced with Vitamin A will be introduced in the Philippines and then in Bangladesh, saving millions from death or blindness every year, according to James.

Also in 2014, a variety of soybeans containing healthy omega-3 oils will be introduced worldwide, he said.

The United States works with ISAAA and other international research groups to encourage the adoption of proved technologies, including biotechnology that produce more per hectare while using less water, fewer herbicides and pesticides, and less energy.

FUTURE PROSPECTS

The years to 2015, the target world leaders set in 2000 to cut hunger in half, look “encouraging” for biotech, James said. Experts say that beyond that, the world needs to produce 70 percent more food by 2050 to meet the needs of a population that the United Nations estimates will be more than 9 billion.

Biotech will be an important tool in meeting those needs, James said.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray and Dutch Ambassador Renée Jones-Bos with the LEED Silver Certificate awarded to the Dutch Embassy by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Jane Morse
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,

February 3, 2012

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson kicked off the conference with remarks at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

By MacKenzie C. Babb
IIP Staff Writer
Washington,
06 February 2012

More than 400 global policymakers, development chiefs and technology leaders have gathered in California for a three-day conference to discuss using connection technologies, like the Web and mobile phones, to advance sustainable development in the fields of health, the environment, agriculture and economic growth.

The February 2–4 conference at Stanford University, “Rio+2.0: Bridging Connection Technologies and Sustainable Development,” was sponsored by the U.S. government in preparation for the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“As Rio+20, the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit, approaches in June, we have a chance to learn lessons, build partnerships and put in place innovative strategies that can reshape the economic and environmental future of our entire planet,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said February 3 during her conference keynote address. She added that the collaboration offers “the rarest of opportunities to truly change the world and make a difference that will benefit billions of people.”

Jackson called on participants at the conference to find creative ways to apply existing and cutting-edge technologies to advance sustainable development around the world.

She said communications technologies, such as the Internet, SMS and mobile phones, have proven effective in helping underserved communities around the world gain access to information, better jobs and an improved quality of life.

“In my travels as administrator, I have been to parts of the world where it seemed like everyone had access to a cellphone, but not everyone had access to clean water,” Jackson said. “The opportunities are there to use that technology to make a difference.”

She said connection technologies have the potential to bring together stakeholders from across the spectrum, helping governments, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector and individuals share information about sustainable development.

The administrator added that new technologies allow laws, regulations and compliance assistance to be made available on the Internet and on mobile phones and also simplify the process of reporting environmental violations and corrupt practices.

“Through broad public and private collaboration, made possible through new technology, we can show the world how to build 21st-century urban communities where the environment, health, social inclusion and economic prosperity all go hand in hand,” Jackson said.

She was joined at the conference by several State Department leaders, including Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Robert Hormats; Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Kerri-Ann Jones; and Senior Advisor for Innovation Alec Ross.

Other U.S. government participants included Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education and Economics Ann Bartuska; the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Senior Counselor and Chief Innovation Officer Maura O’Neill; and Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley.
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Peace Corps volunteer Jessica Jackman joins Ukrainian students for a picnic to celebrate the end of the school year.

Washington,
February 2, 2012

A U.S. Peace Corps volunteer is helping her Ukrainian community take advantage of the sun’s power by working with them to build two greenhouses equipped with solar-powered heating and irrigation systems.

Ambassador Betty King speaking on World Wetlands Day at the U.S. Mission in Geneva

Remarks by Ambassador Betty King
on the occasion  of  World Wetlands Day

Geneva, Switzerland,
February 2, 2012

Welcome and thank you for joining us today to celebrate World Wetlands Day 2012.  It’s really a pleasure to have you all here with our co-host, the Republic of Botswana and his Excellency Ambassador Palai.  We are delighted to have the chance to partner with Botswana on this celebration and we’re really looking forward to hearing about the wetlands preservation and promotion efforts underway there.  We’re also very pleased to have with us today our colleagues from the IUCN and the Ramsar Secretariat.

World Wetlands Day gives us a unique opportunity to highlight and celebrate our diverse wetlands around the globe.  Only recently have we begun to understand the important functions that wetlands perform – they are the world’s most productive environments, comparable to coral reefs and rain forests, and a vital link between water and land.  With this as inspiration, the U.S. State Department chose to initiate a photo celebration to focus global attention on wetlands.  We liked the idea of using the World Wetlands Day 2012 theme of “Wetland Tourism: A Great Experience” to remind people about the opportunities for sustainable tourism in wetlands and to highlight these extraordinary and vastly diverse ecosystems.  So, the State Department worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in partnership with the Ramsar Secretariat and its five international organization partners to coordinate a photo celebration using social media.

Starting in late December, the celebration and related themes have been featured on State Department and partners’ websites and social media outlets around the world.  Our mission here has participated actively in this social media effort encouraging awareness of wetlands.  U.S. Secretary of State Clinton even tweeted to her more than 200,000 twitter followers to encourage participation in the wetlands day celebration.  Today, the photo celebration serves as a backdrop for the discussion we hope to have about wetlands tourism and its role in sustainable tourism and national development.

Now, many of you are already familiar with wetlands-focused work through the Ramsar Convention.  The work Ramsar does is critical to highlighting the links between wetlands and human well being and the health of the planet.  A the same time, work related to wetlands policies and programs is not limited to just Ramsar but also takes place in a broad array of fora under many labels — biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, ecosystem services and economic green growth, to name a few.  To give you a sense of the significance of what we are dealing with — in the United States the total value of ecosystem services provided by wetlands in 2008 was $27.5 billion annually or $10,600 per acre per year.

Yet, we are facing a global crisis in terms of unprecedented and unacceptable biodiversity loss with many of our most iconic species and valuable ecosystems threatened.  One of the primary reasons this continues unabated is the undervaluation of biodiversity and ecosystem services – including by wetlands – in conventional markets and systems of national accounts.

The upcoming Ramsar Convention 11^th Conference of the Parties to be hosted by Romania in July will provide an excellent opportunity to advocate for international cooperation and active engagement by all Ramsar parties.  Also, we need to use the conference to ensure that we integrate the best science and management practices available, backed by strong wise-use policies, to protect our wetlands around the world.

When people experience wetlands for themselves – as tourists, birders, scientists, or residents – there is often an immediate connection to their beauty and importance.  This is reflected by the enthusiasm that the photo celebration generated.  Nearly 900 photos from around the world were submitted, and the favorites in four categories – landscapes, plants, tourists, and wildlife – were chosen by the public.  Not surprisingly, the photos submitted showcase the diverse wonders of wetlands, with photographers and photo locations from every region.  The fan favorite photos were taken in Mexico, Ghana, the United States and Cambodia.  We look forward to sharing them with you later in the program.

The U.S. approach to conserving biodiversity emphasizes improving the scientific basis for policy and action so that crucial ecosystems, like the wetlands that brought us together today, can be sustainably used.  We are working with partners around the world to strengthen governance and participation by affected communities, and to improve wetlands preservation and conservation enforcement.

We look forward to finding ways to improve the ability of markets and government policies to adequately recognize the values of biodiversity and ecosystems and to incorporate those values in economic planning and decision-making.  We also look forward to continuing our work together to conserve the world’s wetlands.

With that, allow me to wish you a Happy World Wetlands Day 2012!  I now turn it over to Liz Lord, one of our environment officers at the Mission.

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Seattle, Washington

Worried that warming temperatures and glacier melt might endanger Seattle’s water supply, city officials took bold steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The city invested in public transportation to reduce auto travel. It rebuilt neighborhoods to create compact, walkable communities that are less dependent on the automobile. It offered incentives to homeowners and building owners to invest in energy-saving retrofits.

The effort paid off: In 2008 — four years ahead of deadline — Seattle met the Kyoto Protocol goal of reducing its greenhouse emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels set for the United States.

Seattle’s recycling and compost rates are among the highest in the United States. Cruise ships bound for Alaska now plug into the electric grid while at port, rather than idling their engines along the waterfront. According to Greg Nickels, Seattle’s former mayor, who spearheaded the environmental initiatives, cities are “laboratories for solutions.”

A graphic provided by NASA depicts debris in Earth's orbit. Space junk is one of the reasons the United States will join other nations to develop a code of conduct for space

By Charlene Porter
IIP Staff Writer
Washington ,
January 18, 2012

The United States will join other nations and the European Union to develop an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities to maintain “long-term sustainability, safety, stability, and security of space by establishing guidelines for the responsible use of space,” according to a January 17 statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The decision to join the talks comes as the “sustainability of our space environment is at serious risk from space debris and irresponsible actors,” according to the statement. The statement also predicted that space might become “hazardous to human spaceflight and satellite systems,” which have become a vital part of communications at all levels of government, business and national infrastructure.

A fact sheet that accompanied Clinton’s statement said space is vital to U.S. economic prosperity and national security interests. The document further detailed the many activities of a 21st-century nation dependent on information collected via space activity:

● Warning of natural disasters.
● Facilitating navigation and transportation globally.
● Expanding scientific frontiers.
● Providing decisionmakers with global communications, command and control.
● Monitoring strategic and military developments.
● Verifying arms control compliance.
● Providing global access to financial operations.

Space could become “increasingly congested,” according to the fact sheet, with 60 nations and government consortia operating satellites in addition to a great number of commercial and academic organizations also operating satellites. Also, a considerable amount of useless debris orbits the planet along with functioning satellites. The U.S. Department of Defense tracks approximately 22,000 objects of considerable size in orbit, of which 1,100 are active satellites, according to the fact sheet. Further, countless bits of debris too small for detection clutter space and remain hazardous to satellites, spacecraft or spacewalking astronauts.

Secretary Clinton’s January 17 announcement means that the United States will formally work with the European Union and other spacefaring nations to develop and advance an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. The fact sheet says an existing E.U. draft code is “a good foundation” for a code that will focus on “voluntary and pragmatic transparency and confidence-building measures to help prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust in space.”

The Clinton statement also makes clear “that we will not enter into a code of conduct that in any way constrains our national security–related activities in space or our ability to protect the United States and our allies.”

The decisions on opening talks for an international code of conduct for space activity are an outgrowth of the overarching space policy goals outlined by the Obama administration in mid-2010.

The president said, “The United States … calls on all nations to work together to adopt approaches for responsible activity in space to preserve this right for the benefit of future generations.”

Concern about the potential dangers created by space junk date back to the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, NASA developed guidelines to address the problem by limiting the debris created in normal operations, lessening the potential for craft disintegration and planning for post-mission disposal of vehicles in low Earth orbit. A 2006 research paper by NASA’s Nicholas L. Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris, says that more recent progress has been made on the issue in U.N. forums, the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

“Today, a firm international consensus is rapidly
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Ambassador King decorates the “United Nations tree”

Remarks by Ambassador Betty E. King
for the International Year of Forests Closing Ceremony

Palais des Nations,
Geneva,
December 13, 2011

Good evening!  I’d like to thank the UNECE, the FAO and UNOG for organizing this final event celebrating the International Year of Forests.  We also particularly appreciate the opportunity to co-host, with Undersecretary Zaleski and the Republic of Poland, the reception to immediately follow this ceremony.  I am so pleased, personally, and on behalf of the US government, to have been involved from start to finish in events that commemorate this important year.

Some of you here may have viewed the exhibit the United States co-sponsored back in February called the “Art of Trees: A Forest Gallery.” There were over 80 live trees and art work by an American artist on display.  Following that exhibit, I helped plant one of the trees here on the UN grounds.  I see that tree – which I check on from time to time – as an enduring symbol of the US commitment to sustainable management and preservation of forests both domestically and globally.

Now, some of you may ask yourselves whether this past year commemorating forests has had any impact.  Why does it matter?

Well, from our perspective it does matter and 2011 has delivered compelling examples from across the globe of national and international efforts to sustain and preserve forests.  Rwanda’s Forest Landscape Initiative is one such example.  In February of this year, the Rwandan government committed to border-to-border restoration of its natural ecosystems, including forests. Rwanda’s national commitment has helped build the momentum for a global landscape restoration drive.  At the recent Bonn Challenge on Forests, Climate Change and Biodiversity, a joint commitment by involved countries and the private sector was made to restore 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes by 2020.

As for the United States, we are working both domestically and internationally to combat the illegal logging and deforestation that are destroying the world’s forests.  With our partners in the Asia-Pacific region, we are developing an expert group on illegal logging that aims to promote trade in legally-harvested forest products.  In Africa, we collaborate with more than 50 countries, organizations, and businesses through the Congo Basin Forest Partnership to improve management of the world’s second largest tropical forest.

Domestically, the U.S. government is sponsoring a program called Wings Across the Americas, which works to conserve forest habitats for birds, bats, and butterflies. We’ve also amended U.S. legislation – the Lacey Act – to prevent the importation of illegally-harvested plants and their derivatives.

The International Year of Forests has served to successfully engage the global community on a topic that is vitally important to the sustainability of our planet.  And, what better way to highlight that success than through this tree standing here before us – resting at the crossroads of multilateral diplomacy and decorated by Geneva-based missions to the UN; each decoration contributed symbolizes the cultural, economic, environmental and social importance of forests in the countries represented here in Geneva.

Though today commemorates the end of the International Year of Forests, it also marks the beginning of a new chapter for the international community.  The United Nations has declared 2012 the International Year of Sustainable Energy.  It could not come at a better time.  Just last week, it was announced that global emissions of carbon dioxide rose 5.9% in 2010, the biggest jump ever recorded.  Sustainable energy is, as we all know, a central ingredient to achieving the goal of reduced global carbon emissions.

Now, more than ever, we must work together not only to protect forests, but also to promote sustainable energy practices globally.  Our collective ambitions are lofty but attainable. Yesterday, we lit our trees with incandescent bulbs. Today, we light this UN holiday tree with LEDs. Tomorrow, we may light the world with sustainable energy.  A cleaner, brighter future is ours if we want it.  And, the International Year of Sustainable Energy is a strong contributing step in that direction.  Thank you and I look forward to you joining us at the reception.

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