Shell predicts us a black future
Press release n°1
The first generation of offshore oil platforms is getting old and the oil fields are running dry. In the North and Norwegian seas, about a hundred platforms will be dismantled between now and 2030. In 2050, there will be 500 platforms waiting to be dismantled.
Robin des Bois and the OSPAR Commission. Cork, Ireland. June 26-29, 2017
OSPAR is an International Cooperation Convention dedicated to the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, which came into effect in 1998. France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Iceland , Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Union are members, as well as Luxembourg and Switzerland due to the influence that the rivers flowing through them have on the Atlantic. Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) has had observer status at the OSPAR Commission since 2005.
OSPAR loses the Arctic
Report
OSPAR comes from the fusion in 1992 of the Paris Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution from Land-based Sources and the Oslo Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by navy and aircraft immersion operations. The latter was initiated following the shock of the oil spill from the Torrey Canyon March 18, 1967.
OSPAR is dedicated to the protection of the northeast Atlantic Ocean. It is a pilot fish. The work of its 5 committees – Biodiversity, Offshore Industry, Radioactive Substances, Environmental Impact of Human Activities, Hazardous Substances and Eutrophication – allows better understanding and combat of the many pressures on marine ecosystems from the open sea of Portugal to the Arctic Ocean. This success is notably materialized by a quality status report without concession of the OSPAR zone in 2010 (1). Seven years later, the OSPAR pilot fish is threatened of asphyxia by the Arctic countries. Robin des Bois has returned from the Biodiversity and Offshore Industry committees which gathered in Berlin and in Oslo the first two weeks of March.
(Français) Eoliennes offshore : la mer vendue à la découpe et transformée en zone industrielle
(Français) 19 organisations demandent le gel des subventions et des installations de l’offshore éolien ainsi que l’organisation d’une Conférence
The Cape Ray arrives in Northern Europe
The US Navy chemical factory ship will in the coming days proceed into the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay heading towards the North sea.
The Cape Ray is loaded with 6000 tons of chemical aqueous and solid waste issued from the neutralization in the Mediterranean Sea of 560 tons of precursors of the Syrian chemical weapons.
The Cape Ray mission was carried out from July 9th to August 18th. It consisted in diluting precursors of sarin (540t) and of sulfur mustard agent (20t) pulled out of the Syrian territory. Only laconic communiqués from the Pentagon have dotted this sea run neutralization. No circumstantial account of weather conditions, ship spottings, technical uncertainties, air release has been published.
Destruction of Syrian Chemical Weapons (n°5)
According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) the most challenging phase towards the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons has just ended with the removal of the last declared precursors and other chemicals from Syrian soil. This first step was constantly delayed in spite of a good knowledge of the associated risks and the participation by numerous State Parties of the OPCW Convention.
However, the next step will enter into unknown territory. The plan is to neutralise 20 metric tonnes of mustard agent and 540 metric tonnes of sarin precursor at sea.
