The Environment Chronicle

On 9 May 2011, the Aysén Environmental Review Commission in Chile approved a controversial project to construct five hydropower dams in Patagonia. The HidroAysen project would see the construction of five hydroelectric power stations, two along the Baker River and three on the Pascua River, in an area some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles south of Santiago). A coalition called "Chilean Patagonia Without Dams" contends the project is unnecessary and would endanger pristine forests in a region that includes widely admired glaciers and lakes. The opponents claim that the project would disfigure wilderness areas of Patagonia, with the flooding of some 5,900 hectares.

On 8 May 2011 the Greenland Government approved an application by Scottish oil company Cairn Energy Plc to drill up to seven oil exploration wells off West Greenland in 2011, of which Cairn will drill four wells. The drilling season for the area off Disko-Nuussuaq will end on the 1st of October 2011, while the southern region west of Nuuk the drilling season will last until the 1st of December 2011. Greenpeace International Oil campaigner Ben Ayliffe said:“By approving these permits, Greenland’s government has allowed Cairn Energy to drill for oil further north, at greater depths and deeper into the harsh winter months than ever before. "

On 7 May 2011, the Niedersachsen Wadden Sea National Park celebrated its 25 anniversary in Cuxhaven. In order to protect the natural landscape on Niedersachsen's North Sea coast, the area was made a conservation area in 1986. Since 2009, the Niedersachsen Wadden Sea National Park is part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Wadden Sea.

On 5 May 2011, the Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) launched, in co-operation with national partners, the first "Fishing for Litter" project in Germany. The aim of the project is to clear the sea from litter, by bringing ashore the litter that is gathered in the fishermen's nets as part of fishing activities. Subsequently the litter was disposed of on land.

On 4 May 2011, the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ has for the first time stored carbon dioxide (CO2) from a power plant underground. In a trial experiment at the test facility in Ketzin in Brandenburg, the pilot site for the scientific study of geological storage of the greenhouse gas CO2, 2,000 tons of industrially separated CO2 from the pilot plant Schwarze Pumpe will be injected over the course of about one month. The pilot site Ketzin managed by GFZ is the first European research centre that studies the geological storage of CO2 in an onshore saline aquifer.

On 3 May 2011 the European Commission presented a new strategy to protect and improve the state of Europe's biodiversity over the next decade. The strategy includes six priority targets and accompanying actions which address the main drivers of biodiversity loss. The six targets cover: Full implementation of EU nature legislation to protect biodiversity; better protection for ecosystems, and more use of green infrastructure; more sustainable agriculture and forestry; better management of fish stocks; tighter controls on invasive alien species and a bigger EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss.

On 2 May 2011 Germany's first commercial offshore wind power park, in the Baltic Sea, officially opened. Baltic 1 is located some 16 kilometers off the Darss-Zingst peninsula. The 21 wind power turbines will produce 48,3 megawatts of electricity - about enough to power 50.000 homes.

WWF was founded in 1961 by a group of concerned naturalists and conservationists. WWF's 50th anniversary on 29th April 2011 marks the signing of the "Morges Manifesto", a document which led to the founding of the organisation and the first campaign to save endangered species. Since then WWF has grown into one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organisations, with more than 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries.

The new economics foundation (nef) has estimated the degree of self-sufficiency in fish consumption achieved by the EU as a whole and for each of its member states; self-sufficiency is defined as the capacity of European countries to meet demand for fish from their own waters. They have expressed the degree of self-sufficiency in the form of a ‘fish dependence day’. Based on a nation or region’s total annual fish consumption, the fish dependency day is the date on the calendar when it would start to depend on fish from elsewhere because its own supplies were depleted. For the EU as a whole this is 9 July, indicating that almost one-half of EU fish consumption depends on fish from non-EU waters. Since 2000 the EU’s fish dependence day has occurred earlier and earlier in the year and is now nearly a month sooner, revealing an increasing level of fish dependence. Germany's fish dependence day for 2011 was 27 April.

The fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP5) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) was held from 25-29 April 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland. Over 700 participants, representing more than 125 governments, as well as intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, attended the meeting. The Parties agreed to list endosulfan in Annex A to the Convention, with specific exemptions. When the amendment to the Annex A enters into force in one year, endosulfan will become the 22nd POP to be listed under the Convention.

On 22 April 2011, Greenpeace activists occupied the rig Leiv Eriksson, which is on its way from Turkey to Greenland to explore for oil.

On 21 April 2011 Japan declared no-go zone around Fukushima Daiichii nuclear power plant. The government banned residents from entering the 20-kilometer evacuation zone due to concerns about high levels of accumulated radiation.

On 19 April 2011 the intergovernmental panel of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) deferred the final decision on the construction of the Xayaburi dam in Laos to the ministerial level, following concerns raised by Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The decision comes amidst the submission of a growing body of evidence to the Commission highlighting risks to biodiversity, fisheries and livelihoods of millions of people in the Mekong River Basin. Particularly vulnerable areas include fisheries and the Mekong Delta. A WWF-commissioned review of the Xayaburi project found that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Feasibility Study (FS) for the proposed dam were woefully inadequate and fell well below international standards for such studies. Changes in flows, sediment and nutrients are some of the areas that require further analysis, says WWF.

On 12 April 2011 the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) submitted a provisional International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) Level 7 rating for the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

On 11 April 2011 the Goldman Environmental Foundation announced the six recipients of the 2011 Goldman Environmental Prize in San Franscico. Ursula Sladek is one of the winners. In response to Germany’s expanded reliance on nuclear energy, she created Germany's first cooperatively-owned renewable power company. The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman. Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals.

Honeybee populations are mysteriously dying off in Europe and elsewhere. On 24 January 2011, EU agriculture ministers discussed this alarming phenomenon on the basis of the Commission's communication on honeybee health. Europe has over 2,500 species of wild bees and one commonly domesticated species, the honeybee. In recent years, vast numbers of both wild and managed pollinators have disappeared. In a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, bees become disoriented and die far away from their hives. Many factors have been blamed, including parasites, viruses, fungi and pesticides. So far, however, scientists have not been able to pinpoint the exact causes. The EU aims to start a pilot surveillance programme by the end of 2011 to tackle the current shortage of comparable bee data. An EU Reference Laboratory for bee health will be set up in Sophia Antipolis, France, by April 2011. Member states' officials are receiving bee health training under the Better Training for Safer Food initiative.

Hamburg, Stockholm, 29 March 2011: In a joint statement 50 Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award and members of the World Future Council demand a global nuclear phase out. "The conclusion we draw from the nuclear power plant accident in Japan is that the human community, acting for itself and as trustees for future generations, must exercise a far higher level of care globally in dealing with technologies capable of causing mass annihilation, and should phase out, abolish and replace such technologies with alternatives that do not threaten present and future generations. This applies to nuclear weapons as well as to nuclear power reactors."

On 28 March 2011 the European Commission adopted a comprehensive strategy (Transport 2050) for a competitive transport system that will increase mobility, remove major barriers in key areas and fuel growth and employment. At the same time, the proposals will dramatically reduce Europe's dependence on imported oil and cut carbon emissions in transport by 60% by 2050.

On 27 March 2011 Japanese chief government spokesman Yukio Edana confirmed a partial meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. "According to reports that I have received, the radiation seems to have come from fuel rods that temporarily melted down and came in contact with the water, used to cool the reactor. The meltdown was not continuous."

On 26 March 2011 a group of Greenpeace radiation experts started monitoring locations around the evacuation area that surrounds the crisis-stricken Fukushima/Daiichi nuclear plant, in order to assess the true extent of radiation risks to the local population. On 27 March 2011 Greenpeace confirmed radiation levels of up to ten micro Sieverts per hour in Litate village, 40km northwest of the crisis-stricken Fukushima/Daiichi nuclear plant, and 20km beyond the official evacuation zone. These levels are high enough to require evacuation.

On 26 March 2011 more than 200,000 protesters took to the streets around Germany to protest against nuclear power. Organizers said 250,000 people took part in demonstrations in four major cities marching under the banner "Fukushima Means: No More Nuclear Power Stations."

The Canadian government on Friday announced an increase in the number of seals to be killed in a controversial commercial hunt off its Atlantic coast. The quota was hiked 20 percent from last year's 388,200 seals to a total of 468,200, including 400,000 harp seals and 60,000 grey seals. The hooded seals quota stayed at 8,200.

On 25 March 2011 European Union leaders at a summit in Brüssel agreed to carry out continent-wide stress-tests for nuclear plants until the end of the year. The European Commission will develop the tests, which will be carried out by national safety authorities. The results will be made public by the end of 2011.

On 22 March 2011, the Global Nature Fund (GNF) announced, for the first time, the choice of Lake Plau in Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania as "Living Lake of the Year". The lake has been selected by the members of the network Living Lakes Germany, which was founded in 2009 by the GNF. Lake Plau, the seventh largest lake of Germany, is the first "Living Lake of the Year".

E.ON’s nuclear power plant Unterweser stopped at 3:33 a.m. Berlin time on 18 March 2011, according to data the company published on its website.

RWE Power took the Biblis A power plant off grid yesterday at 22.21 p.m. after instruction from the Hessian Ministry for Environment, Energy, Agriculture and Consumer Protection to decommission the plant for three months. Against the backdrop of events in Japan, the German Federal Government has agreed with the Federal States to temporarily decommission the seven nuclear power plants commissioned before 1980. While decommissioned, the German nuclear power plants are to undergo an additional safety inspection.

On 17 March 2011 E.ON suspended the operation of its oldest nuclear power station Isar-1 for the duration of the German government’s moratorium.

On 16 March 2011 the shutdown procedure for unit I of Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant (GKN I) and unit 1 of Philippsburg nuclear power plant (KKP 1) started evening and they were taken offline overnight. EnBW Kernkraft GmbH (EnKK), the operator, had previously received the respective directives from the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport in Baden-Württemberg. These directives provide for a temporary discontinuation of operation of the plants for a period of three months. The directives were issued with reference to the current events in Japanese nuclear power plants.

The nuclear aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake that hit Japan marks a defining moment - for Japan and for the entire world. The Federal Government and the Minister-Presidents of the Federal Länder where nuclear power plants are located therefore decided to subject all of Germany’s nuclear power plants to a safety review. Furthermore, the seven oldest German nuclear power plants are to be taken off the grid for three months.

On 14 March 2011 Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged a three-month pause in her government's plan to extend the running times of Germany's nuclear power plants.

The introduction of the new E 10 fuel has run into major problems. On 3 March 2011 Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Rainer Brüderle announced to arrange an “E 10 fuel summit”.

On 4 March 2011, 214 members of the parliamentary groups of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Alliance ’90/The Greens (Greens) submitted a request to the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) to review the constitutionality of the 11th and 12th amendment of the Atomic Energy Act (AtG), which lead to an extension of the operating times of the 17 German nuclear power plants.

Germany has been an active participant in conservation efforts in the Antarctic since 3 March 1981, the date it was granted full voting rights in the Antarctic Treaty. This international treaty has regulated the use of the Antarctic environment for strictly peaceful purposes and for scientific research of its perpetual ice since 1961. The Antarctic requires special protection since it is a natural ecosystem as yet largely untouched by man, but of great scientific and aesthetic value. To date, 48 countries have committed to the preservation of the Antarctic.

On 2 March 2011 a court in Brazil approved a controversial hydro-electric project in the Amazon rainforest, overturning an earlier ruling. In 25 February 2011 a judge blocked construction of the Belo Monte dam, saying it did not meet environmental standards. But a higher court on Thursday said there was no need for all conditions to be met in order for work to begin.

In March 2011, under the responsibility of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, the research project "Low Carbon Future Cities" aiming to develop and implement a comprehensive communal climate protection strategy for the Chinese city of Wuxi and for the Düsseldorf region is being launched. For this purpose, Stiftung Mercator is providing 1.65 million Euros. The new project aims to develop building blocks for urban development concepts that not only include mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, but also describe ways to reduce resource consumption and to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. This integrated approach, to be developed on this scale for the first time, should take effect far beyond the participating conurbations and stimulate the sustainable development of cities of the future.

On 28 February 2011 the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) approved the first deepwater drilling permit since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill. Noble Energy’s application for a permit to bypass is for Well 2 in Mississippi Canyon Block 519, approximately 70 miles south east of Venice, La.

The assessment of climate change mitigation cost is going to be improved. Teams of researchers from twelve countries will run their energy-economy-climate computer models against each other. The aim is to make the prognoses more informative for policy-makers who want to bring about long-term emission reductions or promote low carbon technology. On 28 February 2011, the 21 partners from China, India, Japan and nine European countries are meeting in Potsdam for the first time. The project led by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) will last three years. It is sponsored under the European Union’s seventh framework programme to a tune of three million euros.

On 28 February 2011 the state governments of Berlin, Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Rhineland Palatinate, led by opposition parties, filed a lawsuit in the country's highest court, arguing that the government's extension of the lifespan of nuclear power plants should have needed their approval.

On 25 February 2011 a federal court in Para state, under judge Ronaldo Desterro, halted plans for the construction of the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the Amazon rainforest because environmental requirements for the project had not been met.

On 18 February 2011 Japanese Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano announced the decision to cancel the rest of the whale hunting season in Antarctic citing repeated harassment by Sea Shepherd activists at sea.