INTERNATIONAL SOLID WASTE ASSOCIATION - Denkstatt

3.5. EU Committee
In follow-up to an action proposed in a former General
Assembly, a meeting was held in Brussels on 6 June 2011,
to discuss the form and structure of an ISWA European
Network/Committee.
The outcome of the meeting was that such a committee
shall be established to focus on the exchange of good
practice between current EU members, recent and
aspiring accession states; which will seek to acquire new
national and organisation members and establish closer
working relationships with the Commission.
The former ISWA Presidents Håkan Rylander and
Jean-Paul Leglise have volunteered to lead this committee.
3.6. Projects 2010/2011
3.6.1. Waste and Climate Change Lobbying Action Plan
Throughout the last years, mitigation of climate change
has been a priority topic for ISWA. In 2007 ISWA decided
to establish a Task Force to address this issue, two years
later an ISWA White Paper on Waste and Climate Change
was released.
The ISWA White Paper on Waste and Climate Change
has eight key messages regarding how to reduce GHG
emissions by targeted waste management, and five
commitments by ISWA to make the potential reduction of
GHG emissions come true on a global scale. In essence,
waste management can change from being a net GHG
emission source to become a major net saver of GHG
emissions resulting from actions as described in the key
messages stated in the ISWA White Paper (can be downloaded
for free at www.iswa.org).
Moreover it has been proven by a magnitude of studies
that the very act of waste management and recycling
has the potential to reduce GHG emissions by at least
20 % in developed countries, with even more impact
possible in the rest of the world. Since the technology is
proven and easily accessible, waste management is an
essential and very efficient tool that offers tremendous
climate change benefits.
The meeting on the establishment of an ISWA European
Committee was followed by a workshop on “The Future
of Waste Management and Climate Change in Europe“,
which featured 12 speakers from ISWA and from partner
organisations.
This workshop provided a great opportunity for the
sharing of knowledge and experience on key topics, such
as Climate Change and the Illegal Shipment of Waste,
between interested parties from ISWA and the European
Community. Such an event is likely to be a part of future
meetings of the ISWA EU Committee.
These facts are two of the key messages of a
comprehensive lobbying action plan ISWA developed
and started to implement in 2010 and 2011. ISWA’s
lobbying activities aim to secure available climate funds
for investments in sustainable waste management and
recycling. As a prerequisite for reaching that target
“waste management and recycling” must be mentioned
as an area of action in the final UNFCCC (United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change) conference
documents – which is yet to be achieved.
ISWA holds the official status as an Observer Organization
of the UNFCCC. As part of the lobbying action plan
activities, ISWA delegations attended several UNFCCC
conferences, including COP16 (16th Conference of the
Parties in Cancun in December 2010), endeavouring to
make sustainable waste management – and its positive
impact on our climate - an issue in the UNFCCC process.
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An ISWA delegation will also attend this year’s most
important UNFCCC event: COP17 which will take place
at the end of 2011 in Durban, South Africa. For the crucial
phase in the run-up to this event ISWA will also draw