By Ed King
Canada and the UK have won the COP11 Dodo award for countries who have done most to obstruct the negotiations in Hyderabad.
Organisers the CBD Alliance said Canada was the “clear leader” for breaking UN rules on geoengineering and refusing to consider the impact of biofuels on food.
On Monday the Guardian revealed a Canadian businessman dumped 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean in July, a technique known as ocean fertilization. The Alliance say this was carried out with the knowledge of the Canadian government.
The ocean fertilization experiment off the coast of Canada’s Haida Gwaii islands won the country a Dodo Award. (Source: Flickr/PMorgan)
The UK is accused of blocking attempts in the EU and CBD to develop safeguards for synthetic biology, with the tacit support of the USA, who is not a signatory to the Convention.
Synthetic biology generally refers to the use of computer-assisted biological engineering to design devices and systems that do not exist in nature – and there are concerns that without regulation new organisms could contaminate the environment.
VIDEO: UK awarded COP11 Dodo
Dodo Awards UK from Responding to Climate Change on Vimeo.
VIDEO: Canada awarded COP11 Dodo
Dodo Awards Canada from Responding to Climate Change on Vimeo.