IES/UCL E-waste Tracking

1. IES/UCL E-waste Tracking Chad Briggs Senior Fellow, Institute for Environmental Security Director, GlobalInt LLC cbriggs@envirosecurity.org

2. The Hague Environmental Law Facility • Adressing compliance and enforcement of international environmental law: • need for coordination and capacity building for civil servants, officers, judges and prosecutors • need for access to grievance mechnisms for victims • need for third party verification of national obligations • Earth observation technologies are a valuable tool for all three functions

3. Earth observation technologies for legal compliance – waste regulation University College London AHRC-study 2008: Inspection and enforcement projects coordinated by the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) have shown that approximately 48% of waste shipments leaving the European Union are illegal and reveal a particularly high incidence of illegal shipments from Europe’s ports. GPS for Waste Tracking: • GPS receivers can be used to monitor and track waste movement. • The GPS can be used to determine if there were any irregularities in the intended waste movement from the waste generating facility to its intended storage facility. • The GPS can be used with signatures to fully monitor waste tracking and who was specifically responsible at each point along the journey.

4. GPS for waste tracking „The potential use of GPS as a deterrent was examined in a study by Parker et al. of liquid waste management in Western Australia. This study found that in the early 1990s compliance with regulations for the disposal of liquid wastes in the Perth Metropolitan area was low, even amongst authorised liquid carriers. However, the introduction of measures including the mandatory GPS tracking of licensed tankers practically eliminated illegal activities, with the use of GPS making it difficult for tanker drivers to dump waste illegally or falsify records without detection.“ (Ray Purdy 2008 - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/environment/satellites/docs/22_GPS_and_Waste_Tracking.pdf)

5. Past visible efforts Joint investigation by Independent, Sky News and Greenpeace. TV set from Basingstoke to Lagos.

6. Satellite Monitoring of high risk areas AHRC-study University College London:

7. Satellite monitoring of high-risk areas Figure 2.3 Quickbird images of car parks over Sheffield. Image a) points to how vehicles in normal car parks are organized and aligned; Image b) points to the space between parked vehicles so that vehicles can maneuver in and out of normal car parks; the yellow circle in Image c) shows another example of normal car parks and the red circle in Image d) shows vehicles in a scrap yard.

8. Foresight and vulnerability • Strategic foresight to ID critical areas: • Key vulnerabilities • Critical uncertainties • SAGE scenario process (GlobalEESE GlobalINT) • Open-source and distributed intel

9. Reinventing the How The Present The Path The Future FORECAST Alternative Future Images Current Realities (mental maps) Multiple Paths FORESIGHT Foresight versus forecasts 9 Adapted from Royal Dutch Shell

10. Conclusions • Earth observation technologies can be valuable tools for enforcement actions • Especially their application for high-risk areas and actors • Data must be used in combination with other intelligence and in coordinated effort with all involved stakeholders (investigators, communities, prosecutors, judges) To coordinate these efforts and offer respective workshops for the use of remote sensing data in environmental regulation The Hague Environmental Law Facility proposal is finalised by the Institute for Environmental Security. Requests and support for the project – jsolomon@envirosecurity.org