DOCSLIB.ORG

What Is Synthetic Biology?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
What Is Synthetic Biology? ETC Group Heinrich Böll Stiftung ...works to address the socioeconomic Fostering democracy and upholding and ecological issues surrounding new human rights, taking action to prevent technologies that could have an impact the destruction of the global ecosystem, on the world’s poorest and most advancing equality between women and vulnerable people. We investigate men, securing peace through conflict ecological erosion (including the erosion prevention in crisis zones, and defending of cultures and human rights); the the freedom of individuals against development of new technologies excessive state and economic power – (especially agricultural but also other these are the objectives that drive the technologies that work with genomics ideas and actions of the Heinrich Böll and matter); and we monitor global Foundation. We maintain close ties to governance issues including corporate the German Green Party (Alliance 90 / concentration and trade in technologies. The Greens) and as a think tank for We operate at the global political level. green visions and projects, we are part of We work closely with partner civil an international network encompassing society organizations (CSOs) and social well over 100 partner projects in movements, especially in Africa, approximately 60 countries. Asia and Latin America. The Heinrich Böll Foundation works www.etcgroup.org independently and nurtures a spirit of intellectual openness. We maintain a Extreme Biotech Meets Extreme Energy world­wide network with currently is ETC communique #113. 32 international offices. We cooperate closely with 16 state-level Böll Original Research by ETC Group with Foundations in each of Germany’s the financial support and collaboration federal states, and we support talented, of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. socio-politically engaged undergraduate Copy-editing and proof-reading: and graduate students in Germany and Holly Dressel abroad. We gladly follow Heinrich Böll’s Design and artwork by Stig exhortation for citizens to get involved First Published November 2015. in politics, and we want to inspire others CC-BY-NC-ND – Attribution- to do the same. NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 www.boell.de/en 2 Extreme Biotech meets Extreme Energy Issue Fora The extreme genetic engineering industry of Synthetic Biology At the nation-state level, the US (Syn Bio) is rapidly shrugging off earlier pretensions that it Government’s Department of Energy is might usher in a clean, green, post-petroleum future. Instead, actively convening and funding research many Syn Bio executives and start-ups are now trying to create work on Synthetic Biology for the benefit of alliances with fracking, oil and shale interests, which will the extractive fossil industries. However, no actually increase the fossil–based extractive economy that has international policy discussion has yet taken already brought planetary climate change and other ecological place as to the implications of this shift and social problems. New Syn Bio-enabled techniques of towards supporting fossil fuel extraction in “gaseous fermentation” allow for natural gas to be the SynBio Industry. In particular, the transformed into fuels, chemicals, plastics and societal and ecological challenge of possibly even proteins, adding even more value to As the extreme new biotechnologies propping the gas coming from oilfields and frackfields and biotech industry and the up the aging fossil fuel industry potentially making economical the 40-60% of extreme extraction industry has not been discussed in the global gas reserves currently lost or “stranded” move towards deeper vital context of climate (gas that is not currently economically collaboration, biosafety risks and negotiations. Despite this, in recoverable). At the same time, fossil producers climate risks emanating from an on going process, the 194 are becoming intrigued by the possibility that both will start to become parties to the UN Convention applying engineered microbes to existing wells and ever more entangled. on Biological Diversity (CBD) coal seams could enable them to access more of the 2 have passed several precautionary to 4 trillion barrels of oil in existing oil fields, oil that has international decisions urging proper been considered inaccessible. Pumping microbes into oilfields is regulation and assessment. The topic of a technological gamble that might expand global oil reserves by Synthetic Biology returns to the CBD’s 150% if it pays off, and it could also liberate more gas from coal SBSTTA (scientific and technical body) in reserves. As the extreme biotech industry and the extreme April 2016. extraction industry move towards deeper collaboration, biosafety risks and climate risks emanating from both will start Policy to become ever more entangled. Most urgently, a dialogue needs to get Actors underway between movements opposing fossil fuel extraction and expansion (e.g. anti- A rash of Syn Bio start-ups and more established biotech firms fracking or anti-pipeline), and those tracking making fuels and chemicals are switching their feedstocks (the developments in biotech. Civil society material the engineered bacteria eat) from biomass to natural organizations could recommend a gas; they have been encouraged and subsidised to do this by the moratorium on the environmental release US Department of Energy. More established companies in this and commercialisation of Synthetic Biology “dash to gas” include Calysta, Intrexon, Coskata and Lanzatech. applications, which would include A leading bioplastic company, Natureworks, is also switching to applications in the extractive industry sector. a Syn Bio/gas feedstock plan. Meanwhile, nascent oil company In climate negotiations, civil society and interest in pumping engineered organisms into extraction sites policymakers should be vigilant that neither appears to be led by BP and Du Pont, with smaller actors also the capture of stranded gas for Syn Bio pioneering the field. They include Craig Venter’s Synthetic transformation nor the use of MEHR Genomics Inc., and California’s Taxon Biosciences. There is less (Microbially Enhanced Hydrocarbon interest so far in applying Synthetic Biology to mine for non- Recovery) are misleadingly promoted as a fossil minerals, but this is still under development, with San climate solution, and moreover that the very Francisco’s Universal Mining as the standout pre-commercial considerable climate and biodiversity risks of player. these techniques are very clear to all parties. ETC Group & Heinrich Böll Stiftung 3 Introduction Modified Climates and Modified Microbes - Two Bad Ideas Find Each Other A quarter century ago, in his groundbreaking book The These techniques have evolved with such speed and depth End of Nature, ecological writer Bill McKibben pointed out of intervention that there are as yet few methods (to say that humans were now interfering with nature in two nothing of regulatory bodies), with which to begin to fundamental ways.2 The prime subject of his safely assess their impacts on the natural book was that the burning of fossil fuels is genomes they will invade. Roboticised altering Earth’s atmosphere, creating an “Why then does it genetic engineering platforms now unnatural climatic state everywhere (genetic modification) sound enable Syn Bio companies to generate on the planet. The second “end of so awful? Because of course it tens of thousands of novel species at nature” was that humans were for represents the second end of nature. one go, releasing these constructs, the first time crossing natural We have already, pretty much by whose effects on the evolution of species barriers, intentionally accident, altered the atmosphere so badly Earth's lifeforms are completely altering the genetic code of living that nature as we know it is over. But unknown. This amounts to organisms through genetic this won’t be by accident – this will be intervening in evolution itself at an engineering. on purpose.” unprecedented scale and speed. As the planet’s atmosphere, now - Bill McKibben, The End And now, these two “end of nature” 1 loaded with carbon dioxide to over 400 of Nature scenarios are becoming synergistic. As the parts per million, inexorably warms towards a multibillion dollar Synthetic Biology industry dangerous 2 degree centigrade average temperature rise, searches for viable products, new markets and new funding, more and more civil society, climate scientists and a number of private companies and even some governments governments are reaching the logical conclusion that only a are seizing on the idea of using the extreme genetic serious phase-out and winding down of the global engineering of Syn Bio to further extreme energy extraction extractive fossil fuel economy can safely ward off dangerous in the fossil fuel economy. This is a potent and potentially climate change. Part of preventing fossil expansion means lethal synergy; it combines the biosafety risks of synthetic striking out any policies, proposals or technologies that biology with the climate risks of fossil fuel extraction. would increase the extraction of fossil fuels, including new The new alliance, unfortunately, makes excellent “extreme energy” approaches such as fracking, coal bed economic sense for the carbon majors,3 that is, the large methane recovery, deep water drilling, shale oil mining and coal, gas and oil companies who have been most enhanced oil recovery. Given the planet's current responsible for human-made climate change. These warming state, developing and deploying these hugely powerful
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Who Will Control the Green Economy? ETC Group, 2011
    !"#$%&''$(#)*+#'$*",$ -+,,)$.(#)#/01 23$4#5,+)/,)*3$6+,67+,$*#$37)(*&#)$7$-+,,) .(#)#/0 7*$8&#9:;<$.=>$-+#?6$6+#5&@,3$ 7)$?6@7*,$#)$(#+6#+7*,$6#%,+$7)@$ %7+)3$*"7*$*",$A?,3*$*#$(#)*+#'$B&#/733$ %&''$6,+6,*?7*,$*",$-+,,@ .(#)#/0C %%%C,*(4+#?6C#+4 “We are told by men of science that all the venture of mariners on the sea, all that counter-marching tribes and races that confounds old history with its dust and rumour, sprang from nothing more abstruse than the laws of supply and demand, and a certain natural instinct for cheap rations. To any one thinking deeply, this will seem a dull and pitiful explanation.” —Robert Louis Stevenson, Will o’ the Mill, 1901 “As long as the maximization of profit remains the cornerstone of acquisitive society and capitalist economy, corporations will retain their interest in scarcity as a creator of economic value.” —German-born economist, Erich W. Zimmermann, in World resources and industries: a functional appraisal of the availability of agricultural and industrial materials, 1933 2(D)#%',@4,/,)*3 All original artwork, including the cover illustration, “BioMassters: The Board Game,” and report design by Shtig. ETC Group gratefully acknowledges the financial support of SwedBio (Sweden), HKH Foundation (USA), CS Fund “Trickle Down” by Adam Zyglis used with permission. (USA), Christensen Fund (USA), Heinrich Böll Who Will Control the Green Economy? is ETC Group Foundation (Germany), the Lillian Goldman Charitable Communiqué no. 107. Trust (USA), Oxfam Novib (Netherlands) and the Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development. November 2011 ETC Group is solely responsible for the views expressed in All ETC Group publications are available free of charge this document.
    [Show full text]
  • Putting the Cartel Before the Horse ...And Farm, Seeds, Soil, Peasants, Etc
    Communiqué www.etcgroup.org September 2013 No. 111 Putting the Cartel before the Horse ...and Farm, Seeds, Soil, Peasants, etc. Who Will Control Agricultural Inputs, 2013? In this Communiqué, ETC Group identifies the major corporate players that control industrial farm inputs. Together with our companion poster, Who will feed us? The industrial food chain or the peasant food web?, ETC Group aims to de-construct the myths surrounding the effectiveness of the industrial food system. Table of contents Introduction: 3 Messages 3 Seeds 6 Commercial Seeds 7 Pesticides and Fertilizers 10 Animal pharma 15 Livestock Genetics 17 Aquaculture Genetics Industry 26 Conclusions and Policy Recommendations 31 Introduction: 3 Messages ETC Group has been monitoring the power and global reach of agro-industrial corporations for several decades – including the increasingly consolidated control of agricultural inputs for the industrial food chain: proprietary seeds and livestock genetics, chemical pesticides and fertilizers and animal pharmaceu- ticals. Collectively, these inputs are the chemical and biological engines that drive industrial agriculture. This update documents the continuing concentration (surprise, surprise), but it also brings us to three conclusions important to both peasant producers and policymakers… 1. Cartels are commonplace. Regulators have lost sight of the well-accepted economic principle that the market is neither free nor healthy whenever 4 companies control more than 50% of sales in any commercial sector. In this report, we show that the 4 firms / 50% line in the sand has been substan- tially surpassed by all but the complex fertilizer sector. Four firms control 58.2% of seeds; 61.9% of agrochemicals; 24.3% of fertilizers; 53.4% of animal pharmaceuticals; and, in livestock genetics, 97% of poultry and two-thirds of swine and cattle research.
    [Show full text]
  • A Long Food Movement
    A Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2045 Lead authors: Pat Mooney, Nick Jacobs, Veronica Villa, Jim Thomas, Marie-Hélène Bacon, Louise Vandelac, and Christina Schiavoni. Advisory Group: Molly Anderson, Bina Agarwal, Million Belay, Jahi Chappell, Jennifer Clapp, Fabrice DeClerck, Matthew Dillon, Maria Alejandra Escalante, Ana Felicien, Emile Frison, Steve Gliessman, Mamadou Goïta, Shalmali Guttal, Hans Herren, Henk Hobbelink, Lim Li Ching, Sue Longley, Raj Patel, Darrin Qualman, Laura Trujillo-Ortega, and Zoe VanGelder. This text was approved by the IPES-Food panel and by ETC Group in March 2021. Citation: IPES-Food & ETC Group, 2021. A Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2045. 2 Acknowledgements The lead authors were responsible for the development and drafting of this report through their participation in a Management Committee, under the leadership of Nick Jacobs (IPES- Food Director) and Pat Mooney (Project Lead, IPES-Food panel member and ETC Group co-founder). Research and editorial work was ably assisted by Anna Paskal in the final stages. Throughout the project, the Management Committee has been guided by the contributions of a 21-member Advisory Group, drawn from various world regions and civil society constituencies (including Indigenous peoples, peasant organizations, food workers, and youth climate activists) as well as from multilateral institutions, many scientific disciplines, and business. Although these experts have contributed extensively to guiding the analysis, their participation in the Advisory Group does not imply full validation of the report or specific ideas therein. The management committee would like to thank Advisory Group members for their invaluable commitment and expertise. They are also grateful to the full IPES-Food panel, which has played a key role in shaping and developing this project, and the full ETC Group team for their many research and review contributions, especially Neth Daño and Zahra Moloo.
    [Show full text]
  • Synthia Is Alive … and Breeding Panacea Or Pandora's Box?
    ETC Group News Release 20 May 2010 www.etcgroup.org Synthia is Alive … and Breeding Panacea or Pandora's Box? As Craig Venter announces lab-made life, ETC Group calls for Global Moratorium on Synthetic Biology. In a paper published today in the journal Science, the J. Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics Inc announced the laboratory creation of the world's first self- reproducing organism whose entire genome was built from scratch by a machine.(1) The construction of this synthetic organism, anticipated and dubbed "Synthia" by the ETC Group three years ago, will stir a firestorm of controversy over the ethics of building artificial life and the implications of the largely unknown field of synthetic biology. Panacea, or…? According to today’s publication, "Synthia" could be a boon to second-generation agrofuels making it – theoretically – possible to feed people and cars simultaneously. The article further suggests that Synthia, or synthetic biology, could help clean up the environment, save us from climate change, and address the food crisis. "Synthia is not a one-stop-shop for all our societal woes," disputes Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group, an international technology watchdog based in Canada. “It is much more likely to cause a whole new set of problems governments and society are ill-prepared to address." …Pandora's Box? "This is the quintessential Pandora’s box moment - like the splitting of the atom or the cloning of Dolly the sheep. We will all have to deal with the fall-out from this alarming experiment," comments Jim Thomas of the ETC Group.
    [Show full text]
  • Geoengineering: Parts I, Ii, and Iii
    GEOENGINEERING: PARTS I, II, AND III HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION AND SECOND SESSION NOVEMBER 5, 2009 FEBRUARY 4, 2010 and MARCH 18, 2010 Serial No. 111–62 Serial No. 111–75 and Serial No. 111–88 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology ( GEOENGINEERING: PARTS I, II, AND III GEOENGINEERING: PARTS I, II, AND III HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION AND SECOND SESSION NOVEMBER 5, 2009 FEBRUARY 4, 2010 and MARCH 18, 2010 Serial No. 111–62 Serial No. 111–75 and Serial No. 111–88 Printed for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 53–007PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HON. BART GORDON, Tennessee, Chair JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois RALPH M. HALL, Texas EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER JR., LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California Wisconsin DAVID WU, Oregon LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas BRIAN BAIRD, Washington DANA ROHRABACHER, California BRAD MILLER, North Carolina ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio W.
    [Show full text]
  • CBD/POST2020/WS/2020/2/2 20 February 2020*
    CBD Distr. GENERAL CBD/POST2020/WS/2020/2/2 20 February 2020* ENGLISH ONLY THEMATIC CONSULATION ON CAPACITY-BUILDING AND TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION FOR THE POST-2020 GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK Rome, 1-2 March 2020 REVISED DRAFT PROPOSALS TO STRENGTHEN TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION IN SUPPORT OF THE POST-2020 GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK Note by the Executive Secretary 1. In its recommendation 23/6, the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice took note of the proposals to strengthen technical and scientific cooperation in support of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework contained in annex I to the recommendation and invited Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations, including members of the Consortium of Scientific Partners on Biodiversity, to submit to the Executive Secretary, by 20 January 2020: (a) Additional views and suggestions regarding the proposals referred to above, including elements of technical and scientific cooperation for enabling technology horizon scanning, assessment and monitoring, avoiding duplication of related technologies considered by the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Synthetic Biology; (b) Examples of effective institutional mechanisms, partnerships, networks, and regional and subregional institutional arrangements; 2. The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice also requested Executive Secretary to further develop the proposals, taking into account the submissions made by Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations,
    [Show full text]
  • Geopiracy: the Case Against Geoengineering I Geopiracy: the Case Against Geoengineering
    “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein “We already are inadvertently changing the climate. So why not advertently try to counterbalance it?” Michael MacCracken, Climate Institute, USA About the cover ETC Group gratefully acknowledges the financial support of SwedBio The cover is an adaptation of The (Sweden), HKH Foundation (USA), Scream by Edvard Munch, painted in CS Fund (USA), Christensen Fund 1893, shown on the right. Munch (USA), Heinrich Böll Foundation painted several versions of this image (Germany), the Lillian Goldman over the years, which reflected his Charitable Trust (USA), Oxfam Novib feeling of "a great unending scream (Netherlands), and the Norwegian piercing through nature." One theory is Forum for Environment and that the red sky was inspired by the Development. ETC Group is solely eruption of Krakatoa, a volcano that responsible for the views expressed in cooled the Earth by spewing sulphur this document. into the sky, which blocked the sun. Geoengineers seek to artificially Copy-edited by Leila Marshy reproduce this process. Design by Shtig (.net) Geopiracy: The Case Against Acknowledgements Geoengineering is ETC Group We also thank the Beehive Collective Communiqué # 103 ETC Group is grateful to Almuth for artwork and all the participants of First published October 2010 Ernsting of Biofuelwatch, Niclas the HOME campaign for their ongoing Second edition November 2010 Hällström of the Swedish Society for participation and support as well as the Conservation of Nature (that Leila Marshy and Shtig for good- All ETC Group publications are published Retooling the Planet from humoured patience and professionalism available free of charge on our website: which some of this material is drawn).
    [Show full text]
  • Extreme Genetic Engineering: an Introduction to Synthetic Biology January 2007
    EXTREME GENETIC ENGINEERING An Introduction to Synthetic Biology January 2007 This page intentionally left blank. EXTREME GENETIC ENGINEERING An Introduction to Synthetic Biology January 2007 ETC Group gratefully acknowledges financial support of the International Development Research Centre, Canada for our research on the implications of synthetic biology. We are grateful for additional support from SwedBio (Sweden), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Marin Community Foundation (USA), CS Fund (USA), and HKH Foundation (USA). The views expressed in this document, however, are solely those of the ETC Group. Original artwork by Reymond Pagé. ETC Group is an international civil society organization based in Canada. We are dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights. ETC Group supports socially responsible development of technologies useful to the poor and mar- ginalized and we address international governance issues affecting the international community. We also monitor the ownership and control of technologies and the consolidation of corporate power. ETC Group’s series of reports on the social and economic impacts of technologies converging at the nanoscale include: Extreme Genetic Engineering: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology January 2007 Nanotech Rx – Medical Applications of Nanoscale Technologies: What Impact on Marginalized Communities? September 2006 NanoGeoPolitics: ETC Group Surveys the Political Landscape July/August 2005 Nanotech’s Second Nature Patents: Implications for the Global South June 2005 Down on the Farm: The Impacts of Nanoscale Technologies on Food and Agriculture November 2004 These and other publications are available free-of-charge on our website. www.etcgroup.org ii Table of Contents Extreme Genetic Engineering: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology ...............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Etc Group External Review Report
    ETC GROUP EXTERNAL REVIEW REPORT Presented to ETC Group and the Swedish International Biodiversity Programme Jaap Hardon Camila Montecinos Tim Roberts April 18, 2005 External Review – ETC Group Contents 1. Executive Summary… 2 2. Introduction… 7 3. Who is ETC and what is its mission?... 7 4. What has ETC done?... 8 5. With what resources does ETC work?... 16 6. What do others think of ETC?... 22 7. What is the value of ETC’s work?... 26 8. What are the criticisms?... 31 9. Conclusions and recommendations … 36 10. Appendix… 41 2 ETC ETC Review. Final Text External Review – ETC Group 1. Executive Summary Between early November 2004 and mid-April 2005, the three-member review panel undertook interviews with 110 individuals from South and North Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), scientific institutions, governments (South and North), the private sector, and secretariat members of United Nations agencies. Panel members also visited the four ETC Group offices in Ottawa, Carrboro, Mexico City, and Oxford and talked with staff, board representatives, and donor organizations. The panel had the opportunity to observe ETC staff giving seminars, participating in meetings, and lobbying at intergovernmental meetings. The panel also reviewed historic and current ETC Group communiqués and studies. Although the panel’s investigations were wide-ranging, its intent was to develop an overview of the work and worth of the Group and to make general recommendations regarding its future activities and organization. Thus, while wide-ranging, the review process was not in-depth. With this caveat, the review panel has no hesitation in presenting its response to the questions laid out for it in the Terms of Reference agreed.
    [Show full text]
  • Resilient People, Resilient Planet: a Future Worth Choosing
    RESILIENT PEOPLE RESILIENT PLANET A Future Worth Choosing THE REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL’S HIGH-LEVEL PANEL ON GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY RESILIENT PEOPLE RESILIENT PLANET A Future Worth Choosing THE REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL’s HIGH-LEVEL PANEL ON GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY Electronic copies of this report, including versions in other official languages of the United Nations, are available at www.un.org/gsp. eBook and hard copies are available through United Nations Publications at http://www.un.org/publications. Disclaimer: The members of the Panel endorse the report and generally agree with its findings. The members think that the message of this report is very important. The recommendations and the vision represent the consensus the Panel members reached, but not every view expressed in this report reflects the views of all individual Panel members. Panel members naturally have different perspectives on some issues. If each Panel member had individually attempted to write this report, she or he might have used different terms to express similar points. The Panel members look forward to the report stimulating wide public dialogue and strengthening the common endeavour to promote global sustainable development. Reproduction is authorized provided the source is acknowledged. Suggested citation: United Nations Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (2012). Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A future worth choosing. New York: United Nations. Design and layout: Bibi Singh and WhatWorks Inc. This report is printed on low-density paper that is chlorine free and meets the Sustainable Forest Initiative guidelines. Both cover and text papers are printed with vegetable-based inks and produced by means of environmentally-compatible technology.
    [Show full text]
  • LIST of IPCC OBSERVER ORGANIZATIONS (174 As of 16 April 2021)
    LIST OF IPCC OBSERVER ORGANIZATIONS (174 as of 16 April 2021) List of UN Bodies and Organizations as Participating Organizations (30) No. Name of organization Relevance to Observer of IPCC UNFCCC 1 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution Y Y (LRTAP) 2 UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Y Y 3 UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Y Y 4 UN Economic Commission for Africa Y Y 5 UN Economic Commission for Europe Y Y 6 UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Y Y 7 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Y Y 8 Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO) Y Y 9 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Y Y 10 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Y Y 11 International Labour Organization (ILO) Y Y 12 International Maritime Organization (IMO) Y Y 13 Ozone Secretariat (Sec. for the Vienna Convention for the Y Y Protection of the Ozone Layer and for the Montreal Protocol) 14 Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Y Y 15 Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Y N.A. (UNFCCC) 16 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Y Y 17 United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Y Y 18 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Y Y 19 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Y Y (UNESCO) 20 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Y Y 21 United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN- Y Y HABITAT) 22 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Y Y 23 United Nations University (UNU) Y Y 24 World Bank Y Y 25 World Food Programme (WFP) Y Y 26 World Health Organization (WHO) Y Y 27 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Y Y 28 World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Y Y 29 World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Y Y 30 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Y Y Rights (OHCHR) List of IPCC Observer Organizations - IGO’s (26) Relevance to Observer of No.
    [Show full text]
  • Genetically Engineered Clothes: Synthetic Biology’S New Spin on Fast Fashion
    SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY SECTOR STUDIES: TEXTILES GENETICALLY ENGINEEREDSynthetic Biology’s New Spin CLOTHES: on Fast Fashion Acknowledgements Genetically Engineered Clothes: Synthetic Biology’s New Spin on Fast Fashion September, 2018 About ETC Group: ETC Group works to address the socioeconomic and ecological issues surrounding new technologies that could have an impact on the world’s marginalized people. It operates at the global political level and works closely with partner civil society organizations (CSOs) and social movements, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. ETC Group is headquartered in Val David, Canada, and Davao, Philippines, with offices in Mexico City and Guelph, Canada. ETC Group acknowledges support from the Frontier Co-op Giving Fund, The CS Fund and The AgroEcology Fund in our ongoing work on synthetic biology. About Fibershed: At Fibershed, we work to develop regional natural fiber systems that generate lasting prosperity for our local economies, stabilize our global climate, while enhancing the health and diversity of our eco- system. We understand that the way we produce and consume clothing needs to be transformed. Our work is focused upon generating new work- ing models that strike a balance between the intersection of meaningful livelihoods and the protection & regeneration of natural systems. Executive Summary Source: PaigeGreenPhotography Synthetic biology start-ups and giant chemical such as silk, they claim that in time microbes can companies want to genetically engineer the shirt be engineered to produce
    [Show full text]