Laundering the proceeds of environmental crime: Time for the UK to clean up its act?
Climate change has the world’s attention. A recent study highlights the calamitous effect of several disastrous tipping points in the event that global temperatures rise beyond 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels. The International Panel on Climate Change estimates that half the world’s population could be exposed to life-threatening heat and humidity if temperatures rise to 1.8oC. Since COP26 last year, floods and storms in Africa and Pakistan have affected 33 million people and impacted 1.7 million homes, with wildfires causing havoc throughout Europe. It therefore comes as no surprise that the crucial discussions at COP27 dominate global news headlines.
Europol, in a threat assessment report published in June 2022, identified the impact of organised environmental crime on climate change:
“Extreme weather conditions, such as droughts and desertification, floods and inundations, as well as the spread of diseases and ultimately climate change, are consequences of harmful human activities, including environmental crimes. In some deeply affected regions of the world, environmental crimes also threaten people’s food safety and food security, with effects in terms of growing poverty, political instability, conflicts and forced migrations.”
Click here for the full article.