The Environment Chronicle

On 17 April 2014, the European Parliament endorsed a Directive for Maritime Spatial Planning which should help Member States develop plans to better coordinate the various activities that take place at sea, ensuring they are as efficient and sustainable as possible. With rapidly increasing demand for maritime space for new activities, from renewable energy to aquaculture installations, better and coherent planning of maritime activities at sea is indeed needed. The Directive sets minimum requirements for the drawing up of national maritime spatial plans. These plans will identify all existing human activities, taking into account land-sea interactions, and the most effective way of managing them.

On 13 April 2014 the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented the third part of its report in Berlin. The report makes it clear that the internationally agreed target of limiting temperature change to a maximum of 2°C can still be met through ambitious climate policy. The scientists have illustrated a range of options on how this can be achieved. According to the report, further delays in implementing ambitious mitigation measures would drastically reduce the number of technological options available and significantly increase mitigation costs.

On 3 April 2014 the roughly 2.3-ton, four-metre-high, two-and-a-half-metre-wide satellite Sentinel-1A was launched from the European Spaceport in French Guiana at 23:02 CEST (18:02 local time). The launch of Sentinel-1A also marks the start of the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA) Earth observation programme called Copernicus. The mission is the first of six families of dedicated missions that will make up the core of Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring network. Copernicus will provide operational information on the world’s land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere to support environmental and security policymaking and the needs of individual citizens and service providers. “The launch of the first Sentinel-1 satellite marks a change in philosophy for our Earth observation programmes,” said Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes. “In meteorology, satellites have been providing reliable data for weather forecasts for over 35 years. satellites have been providing reliable data for weather forecasts for over 35 years. With the Copernicus programme, we will now have a similar information source for environmental services as well as for applications in the security and disaster management domain.”

On 3 April 2014, BirdLife Partners DOPPS (Slovenia) and NABU (Germany) submitted three formal complaints to the European Commission, asking for legal action against their respective governments. In both countries, evidence shows widespread loss of farmland birds, even in protected areas such as Natura 2000 sites. This is part of an EU wide crisis involving the massive conversion of biodiversity rich grasslands to maize fields and the ever more intensive use of grasslands for fodder. Heavy subsidies for biogas production drive this crisis and subsequently increase the further intensification of livestock production.

On 3 April 2014, the United States Justice Department announced the biggest environmental cash settlement in history, securing a $5.15 billion deal with Anadarko Petroleum to clean up dozens of sites across the country and compensate more than 7,000 people living with the effects of the contamination. The agreement resolves claims stemming from the toxic legacy of one of the oil firm’s subsidiaries, Kerr-McGee, which operated a range of U.S. chemical, energy and manufacturing businesses over 85 years.

Climbers scaling Mount Everest will have to bring back 8kg (17.6lb) of rubbish under rules designed to clean up the world's highest peak. The rule, one of several new measures for mountaineering in Nepal, will apply to climbers ascending beyond Everest's base camp from April 2014 , said tourism ministry official Madhusudan Burlakoti on 3 March 2014. Authorities would take legal action against climbers who failed to comply, Burlakoti said.

For the first time, monthly concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million (ppm) in April 2014 throughout the northern hemisphere. This threshold is of symbolic and scientific significance and reinforces evidence that the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities are responsible for the continuing increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gases warming our planet. All the northern hemisphere monitoring stations forming the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch network reported record atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the seasonal maximum. This occurs early in the northern hemisphere spring before vegetation growth absorbs CO2.

The Sixth Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety was held from 24 March to 4 April 2014 at the IAEA Headquarters, in Vienna, Austria.

On 24 March the Council triggered a series of measures affecting the trade in fisheries products and other fisheries- related activities with Belize, Cambodia and Guinea in or der to put a stop to commercial benefits stemming from illegal fishing activities. Ultimately, fisheries products caught by vessels from these countries will be banned from being imported into the EU(6262/14).

On 23 March 2014, the gates of Morelos Dam on the Arizona-Mexico border were lifted to allow a "pulse flow" of water into the final stretch of the Colorado River. Officials and scientists hope the water will help restore a landscape that has long been arid but that once supported a rich diversity of life. As agreed upon by the U.S. and Mexico, the total amount of flow over the period will be 105,392 acre-feet of water (130 million cubic meters). This is the first time that water has ever been released into Mexico for environmental purposes.

On 19 March 2014 , the Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) project launched its Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, a visually attractive and interactive online mapping platform detailing around 1000 environmental conflicts (and growing). It allows users to search and filter across 100 fields and to browse by commodity, company, country and type of conflict.

On 18 March 2014, around 60 activists from environmental group Greenpeace occupied France’s oldest nuclear power station Fessenheim. The activists who include nationals from several European countries broke into the Fessenheim plant in the early hours of the morning. Some of them climbed up to the roof of part of the plant next to one of the nuclear reactors to unfurl a banner reading “Stop risking Europe”. French police arrested 57 Greenpeace activists.

17 March 2014 marked the start of regular reduced carbon permit auctions in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) under the backloading plan.

On 13 March 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency and BP executed an agreement resolving all suspension and debarment actions against BP that barred the company from doing business with the federal government following the company’s guilty plea in the Deepwater Horizon disaster of April 2010. The administrative agreement will be in place for five years.

A proposed update of EU law to make environmental impact assessments clearer, ensure they take account of biodiversity and climate change and involve the public, was backed by the European Parliament on 12 March 2014 in Strasbourg. This update, already informally agreed with the Council of Ministers, was approved by 528 votes to 135, with 15 abstentions.

An Italian judge has ordered the shutdown of a coal-fired power plant that has been blamed for at least 442 deaths. On 11 March 2014, police followed the judge’s orders and shut down the two 330-Megawatt coal-fired units of the Vado Ligure plant.

EU states would have to reduce the consumption of most common and polluting plastic bags by 80% by 2019, under draft rules backed by the Environment Committee on 10 March 2014. To this end, MEPs recommend using economic instruments such as taxes and levies, marketing restrictions or bans.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have identified four new human-made gases in the atmosphere. New research published on 9 March 2014 in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals that more than 74,000 tonnes of three new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) have been released into the atmosphere. Scientists made the discovery by comparing today’s air samples with air trapped in polar firn snow – which provides a century-old natural archive of the atmosphere. They also looked at air collected between 1978 and 2012 in unpolluted Tasmania. Measurements show that all four new gases have been released into the atmosphere recently – and that two are significantly accumulating. Emission increases of this scale have not been seen for any other CFCs since controls were introduced during the 1990s. But they are nowhere near peak CFC emissions of the 1980s which reached around a million tonnes a year.

On 5 March 2014, Greenpeace activists from national and regional offices took action across Europe to highlight the risk of ageing nuclear reactors. Greenpeace activists broke into the grounds of nuclear plants in six European countries Wednesday, urging governments to close down ageing reactors on safety grounds.

The EU's TEN-T Programme will invest over €4 million in the development of an open access fast charging station network in Europe. This project aims to create an open access fast charging corridor along major highways connecting Sweden, Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands, to allow 'green' travel between these countries. The pilot project will install a total of 155 chargers along the main motorways: 30 in the Netherlands, 23 in Denmark, 35 in Sweden and 67 in Germany. The new electric vehicle transport road will help accelerate electric vehicle uptake in northern Europe and will serve as best practice to other European countries.

On 26 February 2014, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera, visited the Bay of Tic-Toc to inaugurate the new Tic-Toc Marine Park. The reserve spans a marine area of 87,500 hectares, stretching from Punta Yeli to Punta Guala on the southern border of the Los Lagos region. From now on it will be used only for scientific and recreational activities; all industrial activities are prohibited. Located off Chile’s southern coast, the new Tic-Toc Marine Protected Area is an important feeding and nursing ground for the blue whale. In addition to blue whales, unique species of dolphins such as the Chilean dolphin and Peale’s dolphin, as well as two endangered species of otter are found in the Tic-Toc Marine Protected Area ecosystem, says the global conservation organization WWF. The achievement is the result of 15 years of work by several conservation groups to protect the waters against threats such as overfishing and aquaculture activities.

New rules designed to achieve the CO2 emission reduction target of 95g/km for new cars by 2020 were endorsed by Parliament on 25 February 2014. The text retains this target, albeit with a one-year “phase-in” period in 2020. It also allows “super credits”, whereby the cleanest cars in each manufacturer’s range count for more than others, to apply from 2020 to 2022. The text was approved by 499 votes in favour, 107 against and 9 abstentions.

A man in a smog-ridden northern city has become the first person in China to sue the government for failing to curb air pollution, a state-run newspaper reported on 25 February 2014.

On 24 February 2014, a Cabinet Office official told reporters that Tamura city, located around 20 kilometers away from Fukushima, will be open to its former residents, as “The formal lifting of the evacuation order will come on April 1, affecting around 300 people.” .

On 20 February 2014 the European Commission published a new report paints a worrying picture of Europe's seas. The Commission's analysis, shows a marine environment that will require urgent efforts to reach good status by 2020. The report, together with the European Environment Agency's "Marine messages" offers the first comprehensive overview of the state of EU seas. Member States have reported on the state of their marine waters, on what they consider to be "good environmental status", and on the targets they have put in place to reach good status.

The European Commission has launched legal proceedings against the UK for its failure to cut excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide, a toxic gas. The UK Supreme Court has already declared that air pollution limits are regularly exceeded in 16 zones across the UK. The Court also noted that air quality improvement plans estimate that for London compliance with EU standards will only be achieved by 2025, fifteen years after the original deadline, and in 2020 for the other 15 zones. EU legislation contains flexibility as regards the deadlines for returning air pollution to safe levels. Although the original deadline for meeting the limit values was 1 January 2010, extensions have been agreed with Member States which had a credible and workable plan for meeting air quality standards within five years of the original deadline, i.e. by January 2015. The UK has not presented any such plan for the zones in question. The Commission is therefore of the opinion that the UK is in breach of its obligations under the Directive, and a letter of formal notice has been sent. The UK has two months to respond.

The Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Pak Agus Dermawan, signed a new regulation,creating the world’s largest manta sanctuary, encompassing a massive 6 million square kilometers of ocean, enforcing full protection for Oceanic and Reef Manta Rays (Manta birostris and Manta alfredi) in Indonesia.

The Lao government’s decision to forge ahead with the Don Sahong hydropower project in southern Laos, located just one kilometre upstream of the core habitat for Mekong dolphins, could precipitate the extinction of the species from the Mekong River, warns a new WWF brief. According to the WWF paper, the dam builders intend to excavate millions of tonnes of rock using explosives, creating strong sound waves that could potentially kill dolphins which have highly sensitive hearing structures. Increased boat traffic, changes in water quality, and habitat degradation represent other major direct risks to the dolphins, along with the cumulative indirect effects of disturbance and stress. The dam will block the only channel suitable for year-round fish migration, putting the world’s largest inland fishery at risk.

The UK Government is set to examine the activities of Soco, a London-based oil company, over alleged violations of environmental protections and human rights abuses in a protected African World Heritage Site. It was announced on 14 February 2014, that a complaint filed by WWF has been accepted, and issues related to respect for human rights and the environment in Virunga National Park, will be thoroughly examined for the first time. WWF officially filed an OECD complaint against Soco, the oil company threatening Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in late 2013.

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the World’s largest solar thermal power project in the California Mojave Desert, formally opened on 13 February 2014.

ECHA has recommended a new batch of substances for authorisation to the European Commission. Four of them have hazardous properties for human health being classified as carcinogenic, toxic for reproduction or respiratory sensitisers. The fifth entry comprises an SVHC which has effects to the environment due to its degradation to a substance with endocrine disrupting properties.

On 6 February 2014, France destroyed three tonnes of seized ivory, two months since the announcement of its national action plan against poaching and illegal wildlife trade.

On 5 Febuary 2014, European Parliament calls on the Commission and EU countries, in its resolution adopted on Wednesday by 341 votes to 263, with 26 abstentions, to set a 2030 EU target to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% from 1990 levels. It also wants an energy efficiency target of 40%, in line with research on the cost-effective potential, and a commitment to producing at least 30% of total final energy consumption from renewable energy sources. These targets should be binding, MEPs say, and implemented through individual national targets, taking account of each member state’s situation and potential.

On 3 February 2014, a broad coalition consisting of 34 NGO’s, farmers’ and breeders’ organisations from 27 European countries filed an opposition to a pepper-patent from Syngenta. The company patented an insect resistance, which they copied from a wild pepper. Such patents are ethically questionable, increase the seed market concentration, hinder innovation, and consequently pose a threat to global food security. On May 8, 2013, the European Patent Organisation (EPO) granted a patent (EP 2140023 B1) to Syngenta for insect resistant pepper plants. A wild pepper plant from Jamaica was crossed with commercial pepper plants. Since the wild plant is resistant to various pests, the patented resistance already existed in nature. However, Syngenta claims the ownership to insect-resistant pepper plants, their seeds, and their fruits, although the patented plants are products of conventional breeding. Such plants should definitely not be patentable under European patent law.

On 30 January 2014 the EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety agreed on adopt the results from the trilogue negotiations on Fluorinated greenhouse gases. Result of the vote: 46 votes in favour, 3 against and 1 abstention.

On 30 January 2014, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee voted overwhelmingly to support and strengthen some elements of the Commission’s proposal for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of shipping emissions.

On 22 January 2014, Network Rail, First Capital Connect and Solarcentury surprised passengers arriving at Blackfriars station with a free cuppa drawn from Britain’s biggest tea cup to celebrate the launch of the world’s largest solar bridge. The 4,400 photovoltaic panels cover the roof of the station and produce enough energy to make almost 80,000 cups of tea a day. In fact, London’s longest array provides up to half of the station’s energy, reducing its CO2 emissions by an estimated 511 tonnes per year – equivalent approximately to 89,000 (average) car journeys.

On 22 January 2014, the European Commission launched On 22 January 2014, the European Commission launched the 2030 framework for EU climate change and energy policies. Key elements of the framework are: a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40% below the 1990 level, an EU-wide binding target for renewable energy of at least 27%, renewed ambitions for energy efficiency policies, a new governance system and a set of new indicators to ensure a competitive and secure energy system.

On 22 Janaury 2014, the European Commission adopted a Recommendation aiming to ensure that proper environmental and climate safeguards are in place for fracking. The Recommendation should help all Member States wishing to use this practice address health and environmental risks and improve transparency for citizens. The Recommendation is accompanied by a Communication that considers the opportunities and challenges of using "fracking", to extract hydrocarbons. Both documents are part of a wider initiative by the Commission to put in place an integrated climate and energy policy framework for the period up to 2030. The Commission will continue facilitating the exchange of information with Member States, industry and civil society organisations on the environmental performance of shale gas projects. EU Member States are invited to apply the principles within six months and, from December 2014 onwards, inform the Commission each year about measures that they have put in place.

Tougher penalties, mandatory destruction of illegal ivory and better training of police and prosecutors are needed to combat trophy hunting and the organised criminal killing of rhinos, elephants and other wildlife for profit, say MEPs in a resolution voted on 15 January 2014. The resolution was passed by 647 votes to 14, with no abstentions.