Radio Newsletter

Key words:  Radio Gibraltar     Bayside Environmental Event   GibDock  New Town Act   Idling  DPC   Tuesday Volunteer Day

Momentous year for Radio Gibraltar just celebrated its 60^th year of existence. Where would we be without it indeed! Here’s to the next 60!! The ESG have ourselves somewhat of a historic link now with Radio Gibraltar carrying out our own Environmental Newsletters fortnightly for the best part of 12 years. It is a great help to us to be to share our views, concerns and actions on local and cross border environmental issues in this way where we can reach so many people, if only briefly, and are grateful to have this opportunity. We have published our newsletters on our website since we started and anyone can access these by visiting esg-gib.net under news and archive sections.

This morning, as we heard on our local radio, Bayside School is holding a stalls event for NGOs as part of an Environmental Week being held for the first time. The ESG is supporting this event which it believes is a great idea and hopefully, the first of many! We will be promoting our core values and aims from climate change to renewable energy, waste, cleanliness, pollution, traffic and many others, information on which you can also find by visiting our home page on our website. There will be a focus on traffic issues given many youngsters opt for motorised transport at the earliest possibility to help engage them on the issues and how we need to change the present status quo for healthier forms of transport and calmer roads etc. We would like to wish Bayside School success in its first Environmental Week. Of course Bayside has been a major partner in the Clean up the World Campaign since we first started addressing litter and waste issues on the Rock. New ideas and projects for this years Clean Up will soon be rolled out and we very much look forward to working closely with Bayside School and all our usual partners.

Last week we raised the issue, once again, of the pollution crossing the fence line at GibDock. While issuing public statements we are also meeting and contacting the authorities urging best technologies to be implemented. It was good to see this discussed in the House of parliament and most importantly that the Gibraltar Government has also publicly pledged to see actions taken to reduce the impact from power use, paint overspray and noise pollution produced by this industry. We avidly look forward to concrete steps taken to ensure these results are achieved as soon as possible and that a time frame will be provided to explain when residents can enjoy a reprieve from current impacts.

DPC met this week and another lengthy session ensued once again. There had been talks some time back of having televised DPC sessions. This could be useful as they could be watched later online by anyone interested in establishing the decision making process behind any one application. This would provide the background behind the summarised reports we see in the media – am sure you would agree that 5 hours of discussion can be very challenging to summarise to say the least!

The ESG welcomes the publication of the Green Paper on the New Town Act. The group had submitted its concerns and recommendations during the public consultation rounds and will be checking that these have been addressed.

Finally, on car idling. New cars have built in features to stop this unnecessary use of fuel and pollution to cut out the engine as soon as a car is at standstill. Older cars, however, require human intervention to use common sense and switch off the engine when stopped for more than a few minutes. If more of us do this then we can all open our windows. Imagine! At present, and especially near the border area, idling is a huge problem and has to be better managed. Watch out for a campaign on this soon. It would benefit us all.

Tuesdays is becoming a very busy day for us at our new premises and we shall be inviting groups and members of the public to join us at selected workshops focusing on the practical but always on the environmental!!

Thanks for listening – send us an email at esg@gibtelecom.net Call 200-48996 and visit esg-gib.net for more information.

The ESG notes with interest the statement issued by the Gibraltar Government today clarifying that plans for onshore power supply to vessels are underway.

Government states its aims are to minimise the use of on-shore generators, to see the reduction of paint overspray and emissions and the restriction of noisy operations to daylight hours.

The ESG welcomes the efforts being made to reduce pollution in the area and believes this can be achieved with the application of best available technology and practice.

It therefore hopes to see an onshore power connection and conversion facility installed and up and running as soon as possible with old technologies such as skip mounted generators relegated to the past.

ESG Press Release

 At the end of January the ESG team paid another visit to the New Power Station as the project has significantly evolved in the last few months with the arrival of major equipment components.

The group welcomed the chance to visit all sectors of both the power station and LNG storage facility over a two-hour period accompanied by the GEA and Bouygues top technical team.

For a place like Gibraltar this major project is certainly impressive on a technical level and seen up close the ESG could fully appreciate the scale of the operation and standards being adopted.

The group’s long-term interest and concern with the new power station has always been its environmental impact and safety given its location. It was therefore positive to see the various mitigation measures taking shape and the stack monitors and real-time monitoring equipment in place.

The group welcomes the transparency and time given by all concerned to facilitate these visits, in particular the CEO of the GEA, Michael Caetano and the Minister for the Environment Dr John Cortes. “We look forward to a further visit in the near future when advances regarding monitoring aspects have been completed”, said an ESG spokesperson.

ESG Radio Newsletter 

Key words:  Clean up the World  Presentations    Climate Change and Storms     2nd Power Station visit     Sewage Contract    Idling     DPC

 Clean up the World has now seen 13 years of campaigning for a cleaner, litter free Gibraltar. Engaging the public, on a community wide basis, has been central to its continued success in helping achieve real change on the ground over time. We are still surprised to come across people who have not heard about the campaign so a quick reminder here:

Every year we see several schools, clubs and associations, businesses, agencies and many individuals take part in clearing rubbish from nature hotspots throughout Gibraltar. The widespread effort helps to highlight the issues and impacts of social littering, industrial waste and fly tipping in open spaces in Gibraltar. It brings the issues alive to those who take part and makes a strong case for civic pride and how we are each responsible for looking after our homeland.

This hands-on action has motivated others in the community to launch parallel initiatives, which are gathering pace today. This issue of ever growing waste and litter is a modern world problem, not just ours, but, like many other busy, urbanised communities, we also need to get a grip on our waste issues and improve our record in protecting our natural environment. There are some European countries achieving incredible results on waste management so it clearly can be done.

The date for this years Clean up has not yet been finalised but will take place in September. Final details will be provided soon. As Gibraltar has grown and changed over the years so too are it’s cleaning and maintenance needs and we therefore hope to see the awarding of the new cleaning contract issued as soon as possible.

Our work is not confined to the clean up weekend though with on-going clean ups, certificate ceremonies, talks and presentations going on since the start of the year. Watch out for more details to be released in the media soon.

Moving on to other issues – the recent gale force winds remind us of our place in the world and how very fortunate we are to live in relative safety and comfort for much of the time. Not so for other parts of the world where flooding, severe artic conditions and general mayhem are now generally accepted to be occurring with greater frequency. All points to the need for communities everywhere to address climate change and green up their economies, services and activities and we in Gibraltar, small though we are, are reminded of this responsibility too, especially as we lick our wounds and carry out what are thankfully minor repairs to damages sustained in recent weeks.

The ESG took up the opportunity of visiting the new Power Station and LNG site recently as more of the infrastructure is in place and real-time monitoring equipment beginning to arrive. It was a most interesting 2 hour visit where the group welcomed being able to ask many questions from the project leaders and would like to thank the Minister for the Environment for making this possible. We continue to monitor and closely follow the projects progress and will be releasing a press release on this latest visit this week.

The issuing of the Sewage Contract is welcomed by the group who has campaigned for this for many years. We also welcome posters going up in bus stops reminding drivers not to idle their engines unnecessarily.

The Next DPC session is on Tuesday the 20^th February and you will be able to obtain details for that agenda a week beforehand on the Town Planning website.

Go to: www.esg-gib.net for details on all our newsletters and press releases. Contact us at esg@gibtelecom.net if you want more information. Thanks for listening.

ESG Press Release

Sewage Treatment Plant announcement

Key words: Sewage Treatment Plant   Reference to ESG objectives on this issue

The ESG is obviously delighted to hear today’s announcement regarding the awarding of the contract for our much needed Sewage Treatment Plant.

It has been a core objective of the group and we have lobbied for this for over 15 years following the matter very closely. (see below for link to our list of objectives dated 2017 and Section on Sewage Treatment)

We look forward to discussing this further with the Minister for the Environment and his team and will be interested to learn more details about the project.

http://www.esg-gib.net/dev/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/New_ESG-OBJECTIVES-2017-Complete-Short.pdf

ESG Press Release and Tap Water

Key words: UK Campaign    Free tap water   EU Plastics Strategy paper   Hunter/Nautilus/GoG   AquaGib

The ESG regards the news of the nationwide UK campaign of providing free tap water to the public in restaurants and bars as a game changer. This is happening at a time where heightened news coverage globally on the serious effects of plastic waste on the environment is calling for meaningful, widespread measures of this kind. Indeed the UK has only recently been exposed as failing in handling its plastic recycling efficiently choosing instead to export huge volumes to Asia.

In the last few weeks, the EU has published a detailed paper on the question of plastics (manufacture / consumption / waste treatment) to bring about a change to the present disastrous situation.

The ESG believes that decisive action to reduce single-use plastic bottles and other items is absolutely essential.

The idea of providing free drinking water to the public has already been taken up locally by the Hunter Group. This was promoted recently by the Nautilus Project, itself carrying out important awareness campaigns about the harmful effects of plastic waste on marine life.

AquaGib is also supporting this great idea to help cut back on plastic bottled water and the ESG would like to congratulate the initiative locally and hope this spreads nationwide in Gibraltar too.

The ESG also welcomes the positive steps taken by HM Govt in partnership with AquaGib to introduce reusable bottles filled with local tap water for the upcoming Island Games.

Link to EU Paper on Plastics:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/pdf/plastics-strategy.pdf

Plastic waste in the natural environment has now become a major priority for environmentalists and policy makers.

At long last we may now start seeing real change from manufacture to the consumer – change is needed at every level and at every stage of handling and consumption.

An interesting read is a comprehensive document produced and published a week or so ago by a EU paper on how it proposes the problem of plastic waste must be tackled.

It is successful in including all the relevant factors but needs to inject more urgency in the process. Public pressure must be maintained and volunteers need to continue to pull  plastic waste out of natural habitats and ecosystems.

Link for paper here:  

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/pdf/plastics-strategy.pdf

Key Words:  DPC/ New Centre / Community Support/ Volunteers / New Cleaning Contract/ Plastics !!

With January fast coming to a close the ESG would like to offer some information on issues it is following very closely.

With planning, for example, yesterday saw the first 2018 DPC meeting, that’s the Development and Planning Commission, lasting close to 5 hours. Many items were on the agenda and a note to those interested that detailed minutes of all such mtgs are eventually posted on the Town Planning Website, clicking on the DPC page. The local media have today focused on the proposed new clay pigeon shooting, schools and apartment projects. You can find out all about those in the press. The ESG also raised concerns about a new marine diesel-fuelling project for the Port and had recommended fume capture technology, which was discussed and conditioned as part of the permit.

We are presently going through a busy and very positive period in developing our small base with a great team of volunteers, and also involved in a series of talks and presentations. This forms a major part of our outreach programme which is brought about via the community wide Clean up the World Campaign we have run for the past 13 years. It helps maintain a focus on our natural environment and need for greater civic pride as well as shine a light on all key environmental issues we face as a community.

Our community has also been generous in assisting us in our work and centre with recent donations very gratefully received from Bassadone Gibraltar and Eroski. We thank them both very sincerely.

Clean up the World has since 2005 tackled specific clean ups in green areas, coastal and underwater sites and cliffs. All these are important wildlife habitats as well part of our homeland and their historic neglect has fuelled our passion to see this change. With persistence and sustained lobbying things are changing and we hope a new cleaning contract, soon to be awarded to take Gibraltar onto another level of care and maintenance will eliminate more of our clean up hotspots.

Plastics: Global awareness of the plastic threat has reached new heights with news emerging daily of the urgency and scale of the problems. The UK has been exposed in its failure to cope with its plastic recycling sending a vast amount of this waste collected to China. The UK Govt is now pledging to do more- clearly a lot more is needed. The EU only last week published a paper on how it proposes this issue must be tackled from production through to consumer and while a critical and impressive document it lacks urgency and immediate action, enforcement etc. It also makes one ask how well is Europe handling its recycling objectives??

You can find links to these reports and more on our website esg-gib.net

We look forward to hearing from you and thanks for listening.

Key words:  Voluntary clean ups continue/ Presentations/ ESG Aims and Objectives/ Cross Border / Community Support /  Fireworks

Hello there- here is our first newsletter for 2018! Good to be back on air after Christmas and New Year. While taking a break ourselves we have still managed to maintain links within the community regarding presentations, receiving reports and even carrying out clean ups. Yes, the festive season brings about an increase in outdoor social littering too and when this affects coastal sites, it becomes a serious problem. So it was rewarding to be able to work with a group of young students in early January where we gathered several bags of mainly plastic waste and filled one ton sacks of assorted large items fly tipped into a green area on the east side of the Rock. What a shame to see such wanton dumping. We live in an enriched environment blessed with wildlife and beauty and we must make greater efforts to instil its value into every citizen. It is also important to have more visible signs urging people to protect and not litter their environment. The ESG will follow up with its recommendations to the authorities as it does after every major clean up, in the hope that more and more of these will be absorbed into day to day practice.

We have more presentations planned in the coming weeks that will also involve outreach components to engage those interested in volunteering and helping out in our projects.

As many already know our focus is not only in cleaning up our environment, important though that is – we also monitor and lobby for cleaner air and improvements in our traffic and transport system which impacts so heavily on our health and on our quality of life. We have engaged in many meetings with the authorities during 2017 pressing for best practice in every sphere of industrial activity and we shall persist in these aims.

Gibraltar is also too small to allow unlimited vehicle numbers and movement and we shall make efforts this year to ensure the powers that be take on this complex issue to deliver real results for the benefit of all. Businesses must also get on board and consider the impact their activity is having and set targets to limit their pollution too.

At cross border level we shall embark with a fresh impetus to re-examine the status of the chemical industries and Oil Refinery across the border and explore all mechanisms to see these better regulated.

As a non-governmental organisation we rely very much on contact and support from the community and look forward to working together in the coming months for a better environment. The ESG would also like to give tribute to other local NGOs who passionately follow their interests year round – they do invaluable work.

On a less positive note we wanted to mention that we share concerns voiced by many about the overwhelming impacts from fireworks during the New Year period. It is not about stopping the fun, or not appreciating how much people enjoy it. It is also about the very real and negative impacts noisy and sudden bangs have on the frail and the vulnerable. We are a caring community as well as fun loving and it is very important to be inclusive for everyone to enjoy this special night. Silent fireworks yes please – bring them on!!

For those who follow development issues in Gibraltar the next DPC mtg is set for the 24^th January.Visit our website: esg-gib.net or email us at esg@gibtelecom.net for more information.

ESG Radio Newsletter 141217

Key words:  ESG issues  New premises   Transport Issues     Renewable Energy Progress  Town & Heritage Acts   Pace of Development on the Rock

Looking ahead to 2018 the ESG will continue pursuing its aims for a safer and healthier Gibraltar by focusing on all its core objectives set out and available for anyone interested to access on our website, that’s esg-gib.net. Our target areas include: climate change and local actions to address this, pollution from all sources, energy generation, particularly renewable energy, traffic and transport issues, cross border impacts, sewage treatment and infrastructure, development and sustainable planning, port impacts, waste treatment-recycling and litter, tourism and beaches, conservation and the updating of the Environmental Action and Management Plan.

Yes, it’s a lot of issues but then, the environment includes everything and we are all affected by these too. We believe that our promotion of these issues over the years has raised a lot of awareness among the community as can be increasingly seen during our many recent talks and presentations and by the quality of debates and discussions generally out there.

Our new home at Wellington Front is starting to take shape and we are confident of developing some exciting ideas in the first quarter of 2018 to engage interested parties in a number of environmental projects. We have faced quite a lot of costs in the move and appeal now for donations, big or small, all welcomed – please get in touch if you would like to help us out with this – email esg@gibtelecom.net. Thanks to those of you who have already stepped forward to help with this.

The ESG met with the Minister for Transport very recently to raise concerns which are mostly contained within the Sustainable Traffic and Transport Plan. This is a key issue for many people and we invite you to go to our news section on our website for more details on that meeting.

A lengthy meeting also took place with the Minister for the Environment to review key issues on sewage, shipping pollution, development, progress on the new power station and a lot more. The ESG will continue to table these issues to ensure they remain high on the agenda for change. It was very positive to hear about legislative changes to allow individuals to feed back excess energy from renewable sources to the grid. This, along with a move to wider use nationally of renewable energy, has been an important objective for us and we must congratulate the Minister for getting this done. We now want to see protocols, information, guidelines and recommendations provided so the public can take the next step. We also hope that financial assistance packages and incentives will be expanded to incentivise people further.

There have been a number of positive announcements recently that will help our environment. We hope to see many more including the publication of the new Town and Heritage Acts particularly when planning and development is scheduled to come under immense pressure from the multiple construction projects announced. The ESG has its own views about the rate and pace of development and the need to complete so many projects at the same time. We shall continue to express and communicate these going forward into the new year hoping that necessary regard will be given to important vistas, open spaces, light and need for greenery between so much concrete development.

On that note, the last 2017 DPC meeting take place tomorrow morning at the John Mackintosh Hall and it promises to be interesting one if you have the chance to attend. Mtg starts at 9.30am.

So Happy Christmas ! Be mindful of the environment during the coming weeks and also spare a thought for those less fortunate.

Congratulations also to GBC for another successful Open Day event too.

See you in 2018!