Environment

The lead administration for environment is the United Kingdom.

At the first British-Irish Council Summit it was agreed that the UK Government would take responsibility for advancing work in relation to the Environment.

There have been 11 Ministerial level meetings of the Environment Group since its inception, with Member Administrations taking it in turns to host the event. The first one was held in London in October 2000, with subsequent ones in Edinburgh in February 2002; London in January 2003; Isle of Man in October 2003; Cardiff in July 2004; Dublin in April 2005, Guernsey in July 2006; Bangor and Northern Ireland in February 2008; Jersey in April 2009; Newcastle in July 2010 and Wales in February 2011. Communiqués

Ministers have discussed a very broad range of environmental topics throughout the history of the British-Irish Council. In Cardiff in July 2004, Ministers discussed how the Council could help deliver the objectives set out in the Oslo and Paris Convention (OSPAR) Strategies, along with the European Marine Strategy, Sustainable Development and biodiversity.

In Dublin in 2005, discussions covered Sellafield and radioactive waste, Integrated Coastal Zone Management, and waste management. This meeting also reviewed the success of the report “Scenarios of Climate Change for islands within the BIC region” originally presented at the Ministerial in the Isle of Man in 2003 and which contained the most detailed climate model results anywhere in the world at that time.

Also in 2005, officials from the Environment sectoral group took part in a conference organised by the Irish Presidency of the EU - Challenge and Opportunities for Sustainable Development in EU25. This was organised in partnership with Comhar (Ireland’s National Sustainable Development Partnership), and was valuable in promoting the Sustainable Development agenda within the Council.

In June 2006, environmental issues were the focus of a British-Irish Council Summit meeting. The event was hosted by the UK in London and focussed on adapting to the unavoidable impacts of climate change that face the administrations in the British-Irish Council region. The Council’s discussion paper was later submitted to the 2nd European Climate Change Programme to help feed into the development of an EU Commission Green Paper on Adaptation to Climate Change.

The Summit agreed a future work programme of activity for the Environment Group which was developed by the subsequent Ministerial event in Guernsey in July of that year. As part of this agreed programme, an Extreme Weather Events workshop bringing together technical experts from around the BIC administrations has already been held in Dublin with a follow up policy seminar scheduled for later in 2007.

In 2008, the Ministerial meeting concluded that: the adaptation work programme continues and the Environment Group receives further updates next year; Ireland submit their joint discussion paper on Sellafield and radioactive waste; more supporting analysis is provided on the cost issues of the Fishing for Litter project with officials to explore these and agree a way forward, and Member Administrations to continue to share ideas and ensure coordination between individual coastal policies and strategies.
In April 2009, Ministers reflected briefly on the creation of a new BIC Energy workstream, and the group received a presentation from the Hadley Centre on extreme climatic events, ahead of the launch of the sixth generation of climate scenarios.  Ministers agreed that Marine will be the theme for the 2010 Ministerial Meeting, and approved the approaching context and issues for discussion by the British-Irish Council Environment Sector in 2009-10.

In July 2010, the main focus of the meeting was on marine issues and was hosted by the Dove Marine Laboratory in Cullercoats, Newcastle. Ministers were given the opportunity to view the work of the laboratory and also to be informed about the work of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP), as part of a ‘market place’ event. Ministers were also presented with update papers on Fishing for Litter and Integrated Coastal Zone Management. Ministers welcomed the continued close co-operation between Member Administrations on environmental issues.

In February 2011, the meeting included updates on Climate Change and Marine, but focussed mainly on waste issues. Ministers discussed a wide range of waste related topics, including: the definition of Zero Waste; the use of carbon metrics to calculate waste streams; the use of voluntary initiatives versus regulatory approaches; how to effect individual behavioural change, recognising that the financial drivers that motivate business do not apply to individuals; and what approaches have worked for reducing and managing food waste. Ministers welcomed the opportunity to exchange ideas and case studies, and gave a commitment to work closely together as Member Administrations developed their strategies for reducing and managing waste.

It was agreed that among the main items for discussion at the next meeting of the Group would include: Waste, Climate Change; Sellafield and radioactive waste; ICZM.

The Group welcomed and noted that the ninth Ministerial meeting of the BIC Environment will take place in Jersey in 2009.