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IPEN CEWE Regional Highlights

 
Dear friends and colleagues,
another year is coming to its end and it is a perfect moment to look back a bit. I am happy to share with you a very short selection of some of the highlights of IPENers' work in the Central, Eastern and Western Europe that has been done in the last 6 months of 2021. Of course, much more has happened, so you can take it as a small sample.
Let me also wish you a wonderful holiday and happy, peaceful and fruitful year 2022.
Best regards
- Jan Samanek, IPEN CEWE regional coordinator.

EVENTS


The German NGO Forum on Environment and Development, in cooperation with WECF, HEJ-Support, PAN Germany and BUND – Friends of the Earth Germany organized a massive online virtual conference "Tomorrow without toxics" at the end of November. The programme consisted of a number of panel discussions, lectures and debates with leading activists or specialists on toxics and related issue. More information can be found at the event website

STUDIES & RESEARCH


ChemSec published this year's ChemScore. It is an annual ranking of the world’s 50 largest global chemical companies based on their environmental impact and treatment of hazardous chemicals, setting the benchmark for a sustainable chemicals industry. This year they found that 38 out of 50 companies (76%) are actively marketing greener, sustainable products on their website. Yet no companies were found to have public information on global hazardous chemicals production; only 4 out of 50 (8%) showed evidence of a public strategy with plans to phase out existing hazardous chemicals; and all continue to produce hazardous chemicals in dangerously high numbers.
Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) released the publication Measuring and reducing plastics in the healthcare sector. It provides data on plastic use in the healthcare sector and successful case studies of reducing plastics. The publication also provides practical steps on how to measure data for your own healthcare facility’s plastic consumption to support a compelling, evidence-based case for taking action on plastic in healthcare. 

POLICY


41 civil society organizations including 6 IPEN Participating Organizationss form the CEWE region urged EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides to guarantee that the ongoing assessment of glyphosate is based on updated independent scientific evidence and remains free from vested interests. In an open letter, the groups expressed their concerns about the current renewal assessment procedure of glyphosate following the preliminary conclusions by four EU member states that the substance has no harmful effects to human and animal health, or any unacceptable effects on the environment.
6 IPENers from our region submitted their comments ents for the the EU commission’s public consultation for the Toys Safety Directive revision and shared them with the hub. They mainly called for broadening of the regulation towards regulation of all endocrine disruptors and persistent and bio-accumulative substances. Sample comments were prepared by the hub and shared with the regional network. 

SKILL SHARING & EDUCATION


Environmental Ambassadors, Serbia launched their online course “Fostering Women's Leadershop: Training women to deal with chemicals and waste in public areas”. The course was developed within the IPEN’s Gender & Chemicals project and is available among other courses at IPEN website.
 
ChemSec organized a webinar on chemicals in food-contact materials.
 
HCWH organized a webinar on tackling hamrful chemicals in the healthcare sector.
 

SHORT NEWS


  • EDEN Center, Albania organized a training " Components of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans ", as part of the project " Green Economy for Advanced Region ", funded by the EU.
    Through this training program, environmental CSO actors, representatives of national and local authorities involved in the design and implementation of environmental and climate policies, and environmental and climate activists were introduced to three of the main chapters / columns of the Agenda.
  • Arnika released the annual charts of the biggest polluters in the Czech Republic in 2020 based on PRTR data that are publicly available. It turned up that more carcinogenic chemicals and endocrine disruptors were released to the environment than in the previous year.
  • Zelena Akcija, Croatia organized a public event that called on the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development to stop the planned construction of a harmful waste incinerator. They also submitted a number of comments to the Environmental Impact Study for the planned waste incinerator in Kutina.
  • ALHem and WECF cooperated on the first training for teachers of the Eco-school that was held in Aleksandrovac, Serbia.
  • Mare Nostrum, Romania, finished their MARLITTER project in July. One of the objectives of the project was to develop and promote an innovative tool that would allow the general public access to essential data on pollution and marine litter, being a real support for the competent authorities. It can be found at the following link: https://marliter.bsnn.org/.
  • Green Home, Montenegro organized a conference "Environment as part of the negotiation process of Montenegro on the road to the EU".
...and of course, there has been much more done by other IPENers in our region.
If you have some interesting story about your work please don't hesitate to let me know or share the news with the listserve.
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Arnika (IPEN CEWE regional hub) · Arnika · Seifertova 327/85 · Prague 13000 · Czech Republic

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