[open-sustainability] Fantastic post

Mon Dec 3 17:23:30 UTC 2012

Thank you for posting Milica, and for the organisers in setting up this list!

I was not able to attend the workshop, but suspected many exciting developments would emerge.

As many of you may know, Canada has been regressing in terms of 
environmental, social and sustainability policies in the last few 
years.  A new petition is now available for Americans (should any be on 
this list) to sign - and for anyone to pass along to our US colleagues and friends - requesting the White 
House investigate Canada under article 1114(2) of NAFTA in regards to 
the Canadian tar sands developments and other regressive environmental 
policies.  

I cannot vouch for the petition or its details, but 
it does come from a reliable source.  Please consider as there have been
 many harmful changes made to federal
 legislation and practices in Canada that is already causing harm to 
sustainable development and the reputation of Canada as a former leader 
in these areas.

Details of the petition are as follows (NAFTA = North American Free 
Trade Agreement) (note the December 20 deadline for signatures):

Please
 sign the White House petition at the following link, asking the Obama 
Administration to seek consultations with Canada under NAFTA Article 
1114(2), regarding Canada's environmental backsliding.  This is exactly 
the kind of race to the bottom that NAFTA was meant to prevent - and 
consultations is NAFTA's only remedy.  If the petition receives enough 
signatures by December 20, the White House will publish a response to 
it!  

Please share this petition far and wide as well - 
with email lists, social media, whatever works! (I apologize for 
cross-mailings and thank those of you who have already signed.)

Anyone with a US zip code can sign.

http://wh.gov/Xu4I

Here's some more information about this petition:
Object to Canada weakening its environmental law by initiating  
consultations under NAFTA Article 1114In NAFTA Art. 1114(2) the Parties agreed not to encourage investment by  
relaxing health, safety or environmental measures. Nonetheless, in recent  
years Canada weakened the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the  
Fisheries Act, and other laws in order to promote investment in tar sands  
development and other resource extraction.  NAFTA Art. 1114(2) lets the US  
seek consultations with Canada in order to resolve these violations.  Unless  
the US rigorously objects to Canada's infringement of Chapter 11, the US  
will seriously undermine the legitimacy of NAFTA and the many trade deals  
since that include similar language. NAFTA was supposedly the most  
environmental trade deal ever, and this provision to prevent a race to the  
bottom was key.  The US must enforce it for NAFTA to stay credible.

--- On Sun, 12/2/12, Milica Begovic <milica.begovic at undp.org> wrote:

From: Milica Begovic <milica.begovic at undp.org>
Subject: [open-sustainability] Fantastic post
To: "open-sustainability at lists.okfn.org" <open-sustainability at lists.okfn.org>
Received: Sunday, December 2, 2012, 7:41 AM

Dear Open Sustainability crew, 

I just came across the post on OKFN (http://blog.okfn.org/2012/11/30/launching-open-sustainability-working-group/) that prompted me to sign up. 

In Montenegro, UNDP is supporting the government in establishing an environmental monitoring information system, where our objective is to try and go beyond the traditional mechanisms of measurement.  We’d like to explore cutting edge technology
 and research that will allow us to both engage citizens in environmental decision making, create rapid/real time feedback loops in various sectors, and open up the data in order to incentivize engagement, innovation and new job opportunities. 

So tomorrow we’re organizing a 1 day meeting with all municipalities to discuss how new technology can be used for
noise management and in about 10 days, a 2-day seminar on
air-quality egg – real time air quality monitoring where emitting data is available in a machine readable form.  We are super interested to partner up and join forces in these and other sectors (GHG
 emissions monitoring, protected areas, water, etc).   

Looking forward to hear from the group 
Best 
Millie  

Milica Begovic Radojevic, PhD

Team Leader  
Economy and Environment 
United Nations Development Programme

Bulevar Svetog Petra Cetinjskog 1a

81000 Podgorica

Montenegro 
Mob: +382 67 289 965 
Landline: +382 20 225 573 (159) 
Skype name: undp-milica

Web: 
http://www.undp.org.me 

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