US-China Pledge to Ban Imports Emanating from Illegal Deforestation: No Time for A Mirage

London/Washington, D.C. - The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow brought renewed attention to fighting deforestation and forest degradation.

• Forests
• China - Forests

On Thin Ice

An EIA investigation has uncovered deeply troubling information that the National Hockey League (NHL) agreed to accept millions of dollars from the Chemours Company (Chemours) to promote their HFC products as environmentally sustainable under the NHL Green program in ice rinks and beyond.

• Climate

EIA denounces FSC move to reinstate Austrian multinational HS Timber

As the COP climate talks begin in Glasgow, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is opening its doors to one of Europe's worst forest offenders, HS Timber Group.

• Romania

Indonesia President Urged to Take Immediate Action to Protect Orangutans

Indonesia’s president must act now to prevent the irreversible decline of Asia’s only great ape, warns a new report by the Washington, DC-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). EIA’s report reveals that Indonesia’s orangutan population is on a steady march to extinction due to a combination of habitat loss, illegal killings, and wildfires. In just four years, from 2016-2019, more than 1.825 million acres of intact orangutan forest was deforested according to EIA’s analysis. EIA’s findings are alarming in light of a 2018 study that found the island of Borneo alone lost an estimated 148,500 orangutans between 1999 to 2015.

• Wildlife

Presiden Indonesia Didesak agar Segera Mengambil Tindakan untuk Melindungi Semua Orang Utan

Presiden Indonesia harus bertindak sekarang untuk mencegah penurunan permanen populasi satu-satunya kera besar di Asia, demikian peringatan yang diberikan dalam laporan terbaru dari Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) yang berbasis di Washington DC.

• Wildlife

EPA Grants Petitions to Transition Technologies Away from HFCs

Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) responded to a series of petitions requesting certain sectors be required to transition away from using most hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in newly manufactured products. EPA granted or partially granted multiple petitions, including the petition submitted by EIA that calls on EPA to replicate HFC regulations recently finalized in California. Other petitions submitted by the California Air Resources Board and other states, and the International Institute for Ammonia Refrigeration call for a similar approach.

• Climate
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Set to Introduce Groundbreaking Legislation to Take on Global Deforestation and Environmental Crime

Senator Brian Schatz and Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Fitzpatrick today announced the introduction of the FOREST Act, which would prohibit imports of agricultural commodities sourced from illegally deforested land. The law requires companies who import certain raw materials from regions with high rates of illegal deforestation to trace their supply chains back to the source and show the goods were produced in compliance with local laws.

Grupo bipartidista de legisladores presentará ley para enfrentar la deforestación y delitos ambientales a nivel global

El senador Brian Schatz (D-HI) y los congresistas Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) y Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) anunciaron hoy la presentación de la Ley de Bosques (FOREST Act), la cual, de ser aprobada, prohibiría la importación de productos agrícolas producidos en áreas que hayan sido deforestadas ilegalmente. La ley exige que las compañías que importen ciertas materias primas desde regiones con altas tasas de deforestación ilegal deben trazar sus cadenas de suministro hasta el punto de origen y demostrar que los productos fueron producidos en cumplimiento con las leyes locales.

US Company Pleads Guilty to Importing Illegal Timber from Peru

A United States timber importer, Global Plywood and Lumber Trading LLC, has pleaded guilty to importing illegal timber from Peru in violation of the US Lacey Act, which prohibits trade of illegal timber products into the country. A six-year investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Justice, proved that at least 92% of the Global Plywood timber in this shipment had been illegally logged in the Amazon rainforest

• Forests
• Peru

Empresa norteamericana se declara culpable de importar madera ilegal del Perú

Este mes, un importador de madera de los Estados Unidos, Global Plywood and Lumber Trading LLC, se declaró culpable de importar madera ilegal del Perú en violación de la Ley Lacey de los Estados Unidos, que prohíbe el comercio de productos madereros ilegales en dicho país. Una investigación de seis años llevada a cabo por las autoridades del gobierno norteamericano Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection y el Departamento de Justicia, demostró que al menos el 92% de la madera de Global Plywood en este envío había sido talada ilegalmente en la selva amazónica.

• Forests
• Timber
• Peru

Landmark EPA Climate Rulemaking Takes Aim at U.S. Phasedown of Super-Pollutant HFCs

The Environmental Protection Agency has published a landmark new climate regulation to establish an allocation system to cap and begin phasing down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the super pollutant greenhouse gases used mainly in cooling.

• Climate
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

The Lie Behind the Ply

European Consumers of Tropical Plywood have been the Unwitting Drivers of Threatened Forest Degradation

• Forests
• Timber
• EUTR
• Investigation

Tokyo Fumbles Short-Term Ivory Trade Action

Conservation, environmental and animal welfare groups bemoaned measures announced today by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to address Tokyo’s illegal ivory trade as a missed opportunity. Tokyo’s short-term plan is focused only on consumer awareness and falls dramatically short of expectations for substantive action, instead replicating previous failed awareness efforts by Japan’s national government.

• Elephants
• Ivory
• Wildlife
• Japan - Wildlife
• Tokyo2020

First-Ever Walmart Shareholder Resolution on Climate-Damaging Refrigerants Passes Key Threshold for Support

Today, Walmart investors voted on the first-ever shareholder resolution on refrigerants and their related climate impacts. The initial count indicates 5.5 percent of investors voted in favor of the proposal filed by Rhode Island Treasurer Seth Magaziner, urging Walmart to disclose how it will limit its impact on climate change by increasing the scale, pace, and rigor of its plans to significantly scale back hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in its operations.

• Climate
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Press Release: Tainted Beef

A new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals how beef sold in Colombian supermarkets is fueling illegal deforestation in protected Amazon forests and contributing to financing armed groups.

• Forests
• Colombia

Shipping Industry: Where There is a Will There is a Way

66 Containers of Stolen Illegal Timber Return to Mozambique

• Forests
• Mozambique - Wildlife

U.S. EPA Proposes Landmark Climate Rule to Initiate HFC Phase-down

Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposed rulemaking to establish an allocation system for the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The proposed rule is the first step to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (AIM Act), the new climate law that sets the U.S. on course for compliance with the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The rule proposes an allowance allocation and trading system, which will determine the amount of HFCs an entity can produce or consume, and create the mechanism to phase-down domestic HFCs.

• Climate
• Country Transitions
• HFC-free Alternatives

The Origin App

EIA Launches Mobile App to Help Consumers Seek and Demand Wood Product Origin Information to Achieve Greater Supply Chain Transparency

EIA Petitions EPA to Restore US Climate Ambition on HFCs

Today the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) joined by several other organizations petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restrict the use of super-pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in key cooling sectors, under new authority from the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act. HFCs are man-made climate pollutants thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. HFCs are used mainly as refrigerants in air conditioning, heat pumps, and refrigeration, with other applications in foams, aerosols, fire suppression, semiconductor manufacturing, and solvents.

• Climate

EIA Calls on Chemours to Immediately End Activities Causing HFC-23 Emissions

A press release from the American chemical giant, the Chemours Company reveals the company’s unfulfilled promises and blatant disregard for the global climate.

• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

EIA Applauds Newly Announced U.S. Bill to Tackle Global Deforestation; Urges Biden-Harris Administration to Support

Senator Brian Schatz revealed plans today to introduce legislation that would put in place import requirements for agricultural commodities associated with illegal deforestation. The bill would oblige companies bringing commodities such as beef, leather, palm oil, soy, and cocoa into the U.S. to know where these goods originated and to ensure they were produced in compliance with laws of the country where they were grown or raised.

• Forests and Climate

ORAU Statement on the murders of two indigenous Cacataibo leaders in Peru

EIA joins ORAU in expressing outrage at the murders of human rights defenders who are protecting the Amazon region and their communities, and echoes ORAU’s calls for urgent and immediate actions. Here is an EIA-translated version in English of ORAU’s original letter in Spanish.

• Forests
• Peru

Leaking Havoc

An EIA investigation into dozens of supermarkets in the greater Washington, D.C. area, including Virginia and Maryland, found a majority of stores to be leaking super-pollutant hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants

• Climate
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
• Montreal Protocol

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Romania’s New Timber Traceability System Removes Public Transparency

On January 31, Romania released a new electronic timber traceability system, an important step in its transition to a fully digital forest sector. Unfortunately, the new system has inexplicably removed all public transparency.

• Forests
• Timber

U.S. Congress Passes Bipartisan HFC Legislation

Legislation passed by the U.S. Congress this week to provide COVID relief and fund the U.S. government includes a bipartisan climate agreement to phase-down production and consumption of super-pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFC). The bill authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement the 2016 agreement to phase down HFCs under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, and provides broader authority to manage existing sources of HFC emissions.

• Climate
• Country Transitions
• Global Actions
• Standards
• HFC-free Alternatives
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)