Waste and Security

1
Lecture 11

• Waste and Security

2
Export of (hazardous) Waste

• South has said NO
• South has pushed for regime
• Sound regime on paper bad practice
• Main exporters Ger, NL, Bel, Switz, USA

3
How it started

• Mid-1980s UNEP working group gt Cairo Guidelines
  (prior notification/ consent for recipient,
  verification for exporter RE standards)
• African states wanted more
• 1987 UNEP preparations for Convention African
  states wanted total ban export state liability
  exporters wanted informed consent
• At Basel, 1989, veto coalition led by USA versus
  Organisation of African Unity

4
Basel Convention

• Convention on the Control of Transboundary
  Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal
• Explosive, flammable, poisonous, infectious,
  corrosive, toxic, ecotoxic
• Prohibits waste export to (1) countries that do
  not want it, (2) non-parties to Convention
• Need to inform and give consent allows for less
  advanced storage facilities

5
Further pressure

• 1991 OAU Bamako Convention going it alone
• 1994 over 100 countries banned import, published
  report with Greenpeace
• US Clinton Admin made concessions
• Geneva Meeting gt Ban Amendment adopted 1995
  ban from OECD to non-OECD recyclables
• 1998 CoP more specific on hazardous/
  non-hazardous waste
• 1999 protocol on liability and compensation
• 2002 CoP strategic plan for implementation

6
Policy practice and final thoughts

• Still problem of illegal waste export
• India favoured global dumping ground
• Computer e-waste
• EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic
  Equipment
• Still huge divide, pressure on South

7
Environmental Security

• Is there such a thing?
• It depends how nervous you are (Hugh Dyer)
• Causal link increasing competition for resources
  cause security problems conflicts/ war cause
  environmental problems.

8
Establishing a discipline

• Richard Falk (1970)
• Arthur Westing (1980s)
• Toronto Group scarcity leads to social/
  political conflict
• Simon Dalby (2004) resource curse
• NATO acknowledged link
• US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
  Environmental Security

9
Features

• Resource gap or curse
• Ingenuity gap
• Leading to conflict or cooperation
• Scientific evidence
• Case studies
• Kursk nuclear submarine

10
Responses

• Lesson learning
• Mass migration
• Outside help UN Johannesburg

11
Conclusions

• There is some truth in it
• Two directions
• No clear research boundaries
• Yet common features link between cause effect
  government failure internationalisation.
• Future issue water