The European Waste Framework Directive sets a target of 50 per cent of municipal waste to be prepared for reuse and recycling by 2020 in the European Union. With that year approaching, a look at the most recent European-wide statistics on waste generation and treatment published in 2017 shows the progress that countries have made across the continent in reaching this target.
Category Archives: publications
Smoke and mirrors: Smoking Prevalence and Tobacco Advertising Policies
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Cigarette smoking and other uses of tobacco are major contributors to preventable illness and death. A 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) report estimated that around 70 per cent of the adult male population in Russia was smoking. Another WHO study estimated that prevalence of smoking amongst women is about one fifth of that amongst men. Prevalence levels of daily smokers are generally lower.
Inequalities of Gender: Education, work, and politics
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This contribution for Political Insight (June 2019, Volume 10, Issue 2) maps gender inequality around the world and argues that the political sphere is often the most resistant to change. Unequal treatment based on gender is deeply embedded in many countries. Gender studies emerged as an important part of academic research in the 1980s. The issue of gender inequality also emerged on the global political agenda, albeit slowly. Gender-related measures became part of the Human Development Index (HDI) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Bees in trouble? Honeybee Shortages in Europe
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Recent research shows that increasing shortages in honeybees threaten pollination of crops in Europe. Although according to a study covering 41 European countries the overall number of honeybee stocks has increased by 7 per cent between 2005 and 2010 (to an estimated 13.4 million colonies with 7 billion honeybees), 15 countries have also experienced declines ranging from 4 per cent in Slovenia to 47 per cent in Switzerland. At the same time have changes in agricultural practices led to considerable changes in the need for pollination. Increases in pollinated crop areas are contributed to the growth of areas for producing biofuel crops (oilseed rape, sunflower and soybean), as have the use of pesticides led to a decline in the number of bees.
Earth Overshoot Day: Humanity’s Footprints
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This year July, 29th is Earth Overshoot Day: “Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources (fish and forests, for instance) and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. We maintain this deficit by liquidating stocks of resources and accumulating waste, primarily carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Earth’s ability to sustain humanity’s existence is linked to the planet’s productivity and its biological capacity. In the wider sense, this does not only refer to the resources that humans consume, but also nature’s capability to absorb and regenerate the waste that we produce. With a still growing population as well as an increasing use of natural resources, biocapacity is under constant pressure. On a sustainable planet, all of humanity would only use the resources and produces waste at a level that does not deplete nature.
Trading with the Commonwealth: A future perspective for the UK?
Commentators have suggested that the Commonwealth could become more important for UK trade after Brexit. This article for Political Insight (June 2018, Volume 9, Issue 2) maps the current state of British-Commonwealth trade and finds a more mixed picture of UK-Commonwealth trade relations. Continue reading