News

A Step by Step Guidance for Permitting and Inspection by IMPEL
21 Nov, 2022
A Step by Step Guidance for Permitting and Inspection was produced between 2016 and 2018 by the Doing the Right Thing Project, a result from the cooperation between the Expert Teams Cross Cutting and Industry and Air.
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IMPEL Handbook – Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Inspections and Certification of Environmental Management Systems is now available
16 Nov, 2022
The climate emergency as well as an increasing awareness of the impact of plastic, biodiversity decline and now the impacts of a global pandemic & potential green recovery are having a profound impact on policy, how we regulate and on those that we regulate. That is the reason why IMPEL started its Climate Emergency Program in 2021.
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Water and Land Remediation conference 2022
08 Nov, 2022
Water and Land Remediation conference 2022
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The Industry & Air Expert Team Meeting took place on 25th October 2022
07 Nov, 2022
Industry and Air meeting Ghent 25th of October The Industry & Air Expert Team Meeting 2022 took place on 25th October, in Ghent and online. It was organised together by the Department of Environment and Spatial Development of the Flemish Government in Belgium under the umbrella of European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL). After the meeting almost all working groups had a meeting on 26th of October.
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IMPEL Wastewater in Natural Environment (WiNE) Project Team made their first site visit in Madeira, Portugal
04 Nov, 2022
The IMPEL Wastewater in Natural Environment (WiNE) aims to identify the best solutions in facilities, activities and final products to promote “reuse/circular markets” and improve a better water use efficiency, considering both quantity and quality. The project results are also intended to contribute to zero pollution solutions and, whenever possible, within the nexus water-food-energy-ecosystems. According with former outcomes (IMPEL project “Integrated Water Approach” 2018-2019), it was noticed that water reuse cannot be seen as single quantitative measure to reduce water abstraction, but instead quality must be linked with quantity to ensure safety and increasing of value through the chain of use, by the promotion of the natural values and activities directly connected with the emissions receiving environment. On a former phase of the project an indicator (the Water Circularity Index), and an excel tool for its assessment were developed. This indicator combines water quality and quantity aspects within installations and was applied to several examples. In this new phase, the project team intends to improve the indicator to be applied to final products, namely local/regional products with impact on local economies, food products irrigated/produced with reclaimed waters and products from large industrial installations.
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Criteria for the Assessment of the Environmental Damage (CAED) project meeting was held on 27-28 October 2022
03 Nov, 2022
The IMPEL project team on Criteria for the Assessment of the Environmental Damage (CAED) held its second meeting of 2022 on 27th and 28th October. The meeting was "hybrid" with most participants being on site in Berlin, at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection. Presentations were given on various case studies of biodiversity damage, water and land damage where CAED Practical Tables where tested with success for further enhancement. Project members are currently working on further improving and simplifying the CAED Practical Tables and on building a specific check-list for inspectors in order to identify potential ELD cases and initiate ELD procedures. The project foresees finalising this current work by summer 2023.
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The use of drones in the surveillance of illegal water abstraction
31 Oct, 2022
The IMPEL Tackling Illegal Drilling and Abstraction project team (IMPEL TIGDA) would like to thank General Inspection of Agriculture, the Sea, the Environment and Spatial Planning (IGAMAOT) for hosting in Lisbon the recent project team meeting on the 13th and 14th of October. Project team especially grateful to Ana Garcia, Mário Gracio and Aline Silva from IGAMAOT.
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IMPEL Ship Recycling Project
26 Oct, 2022
The IMPEL Ship Recycling project aims to improve the collaboration between environmental and maritime authorities involved in this field. Different EU legislation and related competences make implementation, supervision and enforcement challenging. To preventing illegal shipments guidance material for authorities and other stakeholders involved will be developed and capacity building for inspectors and other stakeholders is organized. Also, the cooperation with other institutions, agencies, networks within and outside the EU as with non-governmental bodies will be explored.
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Trend Reversal in Groundwater Pollution project meeting was held on 11th October
19 Oct, 2022
In association with the IMPEL Water & Land Conference in Lisbon, the IMPEL project group on „Trend reversal in groundwater pollution“ held its final meeting for 2022 on 11 October.
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A Guide for Inspectors: Enforcing National Legislation on Plastic Waste Shipments
13 Oct, 2022
A Guide for Inspectors: Enforcing National Legislation on Plastic Waste Shipments provides guidance on enforcing national legislation on shipments of plastic waste. The Guide provides a summary of the changes to the Basel Convention regarding plastic waste that have applied since January 2021 and lists the plastic waste types that inspectors are most likely to encounter. It also assists with the selection of the most appropriate waste classification codes and includes a series of
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