Following issues/events should be given more attention:

 

Technology over Travel

Looking at the ever increasing air traffic contributing to exponential increase in carbon emissions, there is no doubt that there's room to cut back on wasteful spending on travel. Not all travels are necessary. Many can be managed with lower-cost options like videoconferencing. Its high time that people start to consider technology over travel. I don't think it's realistic to cut out travel altogether but employers can have a better mix of technology and travel. Technologies like Videoconferencing still remain largely untapped by government as well as private.

 

In July, a new piece of legislation was introduced in the U.S. that mandates the use of videoconferencing and other alternatives to business travel by public servants. Consider this: The U.S. spends up to US$15 billion a year on business travel costs. The bill, called the "Stay in Place, Cut the Waste Act," would require the feds to reduce agency travel expenses up to 50 per cent by 2017 through the use of videoconferencing technologies.

 

Videoconferencing or other such technologies not only give financial benefits but also environmental ones. They also improve the quality of life as employees get more time to spend with families.

 

Lower energy costs

Governments should review their energy & environment policies and implement projects to meet energy need through diversified sources (clean energy sources) so that consumers get energy at lower cost.

Tackling Air Pollution in Britain

Air pollution, now known to kill nearly 40-50,000 people a year in Britain, will be high on the political agenda in the spring with the government under court orders to publish a new plan to meet EU legal limits. The draft, to be published in April 2017, is almost certain to propose more fully funded clean-air zones in major cities, tighter restrictions on some vehicles and fuels, and further measures to encourage walking and cycling.

London will also come under pressure to join Paris, Madrid, Athens, and Mexico City in pledging to ban diesel vehicles in the city centre within a few years. The movement of world cities signing up to be fossil-free within 30 years is expected to grow too. 

Brexit impact

Brexit negotiations will affect farming subsidies and possibly all European nature protection laws, including those for birds and habitats, air and water pollution, GM foods and animal welfare. If ministers attempt to roll back or trade off decades of environmental regulation, as some have threatened, they are likely to meet the most intense opposition.

Global Climate debate

The global climate debate will be dominated by whether the president-elect Donald Trump withdraws the US from the Paris global agreement to reduce emissions.

He has  appointed climate sceptics to head all the key agencies responsible for either monitoring or dealing with climate change and is known to want to increase oil, gas and coal production. If he pulls the US out of the Paris deal, it would gift China climate leadership, set back efforts to brake emissions and do untold diplomatic damage with hundreds of countries who followed Obama's leadership in 2015. He is planning to ignore the voluntary commitments the US has made and to increase fossil fuel emissions.

Marine protection

Marine protection will be raised up in the political agenda with the first UN oceans conference in June. This will focus on the increasing quantities of plastics polluting the oceans, overfishing, the effects of climate change, and the need for more marine national parks.

Sources:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/dec/25/what-will-be-the-big-environment-events-in-2017

http://www.edie.net/news/6/UK-Government-must-prioritise-lower-energy-costs-in-2017say-manufacturers/