WWF Welcomes Bid For International Agreement on Oil Spills

WWF, 29 June 2010

As oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico more than two months after the explosion and fire from the site of BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig, WWF has welcomed a Russian proposal for an international mechanism for preventing, dealing with and cleaning up oil spills.

Although the proposal presented to the just-concluded G20 conference by Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev was short on specifics, WWF applauded the recognition that catastrophic oil spills were an international issue. A major oil spill is a growing possibility in many sensitive areas such as the Arctic and a daily reality in the Niger delta.

Following Medvedev’s call, the summit participants ordered experts to prepare materials dealing with international spill responses. The experts are to report back on progress at the next G20 summit, in Seoul, South Korea, later this year.

But while the proposal is welcome, measures under it are likely to take months or years to take effect. In the meantime, said Alexei Knizhnikov, oil and gas spokesperson for WWF-Russia, issuing new licences for offshore drilling is unsafe.

Temporary moratorium on all new drilling

"We believe it is important to state the need for a temporary moratorium on all new drilling to exploit oil on the shelf,” he said. “This is particularly urgent for Arctic waters, where the capacity just does not exist to deal with major spills, and clean-up is complicated by ice and severe weather conditions."

While the experts consider an international solution to offshore spills, President Medvedev says Russia does not intend to wait to take action.

He says Russia "will show an example" to other countries and the Russian government will consider a special bill on protection of the marine environment from oil pollution.

The concept of the Federal Law "On Protection of the seas of the Russian Federation from Oil Pollution" was developed by WWF-Russia, the Institute of environmental and legal problems "Ecojuris" and supported by many other environmental organizations.

Source: WWF