Panama Ratifies the Bunker Fuel Pollution Liability Convention
Saturday, January 17th, 2009On 14 January Panama’s National Assembly ratified the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage (“Bunker Convention”). The Convention, negotiated under International Maritime Organization (IMO) auspices, was adopted in 2001 but did not come into force until last November. Until Panama ratified, the only Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations that had […]
Some Eye-Opening Graphics on GHG Emissions & Carbon Credits
Sunday, January 4th, 2009There’s a wonderful resource for graphics related to environmental issues run by the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) GRID-Arendal center in Norway. I started browsing it regularly for their maps, but have found their graphical depictions of tough issues to be quite useful. Recently I came across several regarding climate change that I thought I’d share […]
Grappling with Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008How best to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships? That is the tricky issue the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) is currently grappling with. The IMO is the United Nations specialized agency created in 1959 to facilitate cooperation among governments in all technical matters involving shipping engaged in international trade, including prevention and control […]
Coral Reef Protection, Part II: The Current Situation
Tuesday, September 5th, 2006In the first part of my primer series on coral reefs in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), I examined why it is important to protect coral reef systems, what sort of things threaten their survival. Here in Part II, I look at what coral reefs LAC has, what condition they are in currently, and a brief overview of what currently […]