Contribution to the sustainable development agenda by calculating and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the waste management sector
ENOn 9 May 1992 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereinafter – the Convention or UNFCCC) was adopted in New York and was signed by 155 parties at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also known as the Rio Earth Summit) in June of that year (O'Riordan and Jäger 1996). Currently, there are 199 parties to the UNFCCC. The Convention entered into force on 21 March 1994. Currently, there are 199 parties to the UNFCCC. The ultimate objective provided in Article 2 of the Convention is “to achieve (…) stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system (…)” (United Nations [UN] 1922). The Kyoto Protocol was adopted on 11 December 1997, but entered into force only on 16 February 2005. The Kyoto Protocol “operationalizes the [Convention] by committing industrialized countries and economies in transition to limit and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets. The Convention itself only asks those countries to adopt policies and measures on mitigation and to report periodically” (UN, n.d.-a). With the Paris Agreement – which was adopted on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016, and is often referred to as an essential international instrument for combating climate change because it is a legally binding international treaty – the parties agreed that “enhancing the implementation of the Convention, including its objective, aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, including by.(a) Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change (…)” (UN 2015a). As far back as 1987, the United Nations Commission on the Environment and Development’s report “Our Common Future” defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of society today and does not diminish the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (UN 1987). In 2019, in pursuit of the objectives of the Convention and the Paris Agreement, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal (European Commission [EC] 2019) – in other words, guidelines for action to promote resource efficiency in the transition to a clean circular economy, halt climate change and biodiversity loss and reduce pollution. Another important document is Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 June 2021 establishing the framework for achieving climate neutrality and amending Regulations (EC) No 401/2009 and (EU) 2018/1999 (“European Climate Law”). This was adopted on 30 June 2021, and set a legally binding objective for the European Union to reach climate neutrality by 2050 (European Parliament [EP] and the Council of European Union [CEU] 2021). This directly applicable regulation also sets an intermediate target, which is also binding on Member States, to reduce net GHG emissions by at least 55 % compared to 1990 levels by 2030 (EP and CEU 2021a). y at least 55 % compared to 1990 levels by 2030 (EP and CEU 2021a).The legally binding objectives to reduce GHG emissions by 2030 to an appropriate extent and to become a climate-neutral region by 2050 stem from a sound understanding of the environment, climate change and the resulting and potential future consequences not only for the environment but also for human health. The idea of the need to preserve a healthy and clean environment for future generations is not new; the preamble of the Stockholm Declaration emphasized the need “to defend and improve human environment for present and future generations [..]” in 1972 (UN 1972), but the importance of this idea is much greater today. In order for future generations to be able to exercise their right to a healthy and clean environment, and in order to achieve the ambitious goal of a climate-neutral region, today’s societies need to make a major change in environmental protection, including waste management. In 2000, the United Nations signed the Millennium Declaration, which set out eight goals to be achieved by 2015, such as supporting gender equality, reducing child mortality, and eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. One of the goals was also to protect the environment (UN 2000) – to “ensure environmental sustainability” (UN, n.d.-b). At the end of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations adopted a new declaration for the period up to 2030, during which even more (seventeen) goals should be achieved. These goals in the new declaration were identified as the Sustainable Development Goals (UN 2015b). The European Union has also contributed to the above-mentioned United Nations Declaration on the Sustainable Development Goals until 2030 (EC, n.d.-a), and the Sustainable Development Goals have been defined by 169 targets that further refine them (UN 2017). [Extract, p. 417-418]
