Projecten (4)

De snelle groei van geospatiale technieken, zoals ruimtelijke statistieken en aardobservatie remote sensing technologie, evenals de recente vooruitgang in kunstmatige intelligentie, hebben de mogelijkheden vergroot om milieuprocessen te monitoren. In de afgelopen decennia is men zich er steeds meer van bewust geworden dat geospatiale technologie de mogelijkheid biedt om het milieu te monitoren, inspecteren en beoordelen en de informatie te produceren die regelgevers nodig hebben om onderzoek naar milieucriminaliteit en overtredingen van milieuwetten te ondersteunen. Bevoegde autoriteiten in de hele EU moeten echter uitzoeken hoe informatie die wordt gegenereerd met behulp van geospatiale intelligentie het beste voldoet aan de eisen voor het onderzoeken van specifieke ecocriminele handelingen op de meest efficiënte manier, zodat deze kan worden gebruikt in de rechtbank.

The project aims to define criteria for the assessment of environmental damage and imminent threat of damage and build technical and procedural capacity in screening cases and determining clues and evidence of environmental damage and threat of damage under the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD), caused by environmental incidents, violations, eco-criminal acts.

There is a diversity of national laws and regulations requiring operators to put in place plans and arrangements to prevent, respond to, and remediate environmental damage as a result of natural and technological incidents. Environment Protection Agencies also operate under a variety of duties and requirements to help operators prevent incidents, and to plan and execute incident and emergency response. This diversity of duties and requirements is likely to have resulted in inconsistent arrangements to prevent, and respond to, environmental incidents.

When sites go into liquidation provisions are generally not made for environmental clean-up and leave substantial environmental legacies which need subsequently to be addressed. Different solutions have been sought across Europe and include the use of insurance policies, financial provisions, and bonds. The issue of insolvency remains and even if provisions are made these are often ignored by the liquidator with the result that nothing is left for the environment as it is seen as subservient to company law. Ultimately lengthy legal battles may still result in the tax payer covering the expense – in direct contradiction of the polluter pays principle.