The Environment Chronicle

Global warming is advancing, and as a result, Germany can expect a sharp increase in extreme precipitation year in around 2040. In three decades‘time there will be considerably more damage done by floods. Lawmakers, businesses and society must make timely preparations in anticipation of the looming hazards posed by weather extremes. These are the conclusions reached in a joint research project by the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), and Germany’s National Meteorological Service (DWD) on the effects of global warming on extreme weather events, which was introduced on 16 February 2011 in Berlin by the four public authorities.

On 13 February 2011 in canton Bern 51.2 per cent of voters said yes to building a new nuclear power plant in Mühleberg to replace the old one there.

On 13 February 2011 Greenpeace published a map of 408 potential German CCS storage sites. According to the published information, possible CCS storage sites are mainly located in East Frisia, below the East Frisian islands of Spiekeroog and Langeoog and the mudflats off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein. There are also possible sites in or near the cities of Hamburg, Berlin and Munich and in certain parts of North Rhine-Westphalia and Mecklenburg Western-Pommerania.

A constitutional complaint against the extension of the operating times of German nuclear power plants has been submitted to the Federal Constitutional Court. The complaint is supported by Greenpeace.

Recognizing the role that forests play in everything from mitigating climate change to providing wood, medicines and livelihoods for people worldwide, on 2 February 2011 the United Nations kicked off a year-long celebration to raise awareness of the value of this important resource. “Forests for People” is the main theme of the International Year of Forests, which was launched at a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York attended by world leaders, Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai and forest experts.

On 2 February 2011 the global community celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

On 2 February 2011 NOAA reopend 4,213 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to royal red shrimping. The area was closed to this type of deep water fishing on Nov. 24 as a precautionary measure after a commercial shrimper discovered tar balls in his net. The "fingerprint" analysis to determine whether the source of the tar balls was the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil was inconclusive. Further fish and shrimp sampling and testing from the area showed no oil or dispersant contamination. This reopening was announced after consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. All commercial and recreational fishing is allowed within this area.

On 28 January 2011 the Berne Declaration (BD) and Greenpeace Suisse denounced the particularly flagrant human rights abuses and environmental sins committed by corporations. With the 2011 Public Eye Awards, BD and Greenpeace “reward” two corporations that exemplify those WEF members and enterprises whose social and environmental offences expose the flip side of purely profit-oriented globalization. For the contamination of land and poisoning of people from gold mining in Ghana, the South African mining corporation AngloGold/Ashanti receives the jury-selected Public Eye Global Award. For the Web-based Public Eye People’s Award, mobilizing more than twice as many voters this year as in 2010, Neste Oil cleaned up with 17'385 votes, thus relegating BP (13'000) and Philip Morris (8'052) to runners-up. The Finnish biofuel producer – and soon the world’s largest palm oil purchaser – sells bio-diesel Europe-wide under the shameless name “Green Diesel.” The huge jump in demand for palm oil fuels rain forest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia, threatening the remaining refuges of the already endangered orangutan.

ON 26 January 2011 the Chair of the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU), Prof. Dr Faulstich, presented Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen with the special report "Pathways towards a 100% renewable electricity system (Wege zur 100% erneuerbaren Stromversorgung)." The study comes to the conclusion that a 100% renewable electricity supply is possible in Germany by 2050. The report shows various scenarios illustrating how a 100% renewable electricity supply in Germany can be achieved. The main scenarios analysed are a purely national expansion strategy, collaboration with Denmark and Norway and a European solution incorporating North Africa. In addition to the significant expansion of renewable energies, increased energy efficiency and the expansion of grid and storage capacities are crucial to the successful implementation of the development illustrated in the scenarios.

A 28 month long pilot scheme initiated by WWF Germany/TRAFFIC using sniffer dogs to detect wildlife products smuggled through Frankfurt airport has proved so successful, it is to be extended Europe-wide. WWF Germany presented information on the project, which is funded by the European Commission Directorate-General for Home Affairs (DG Home Affairs), at a three day global forum on the use of detector dogs and handler teams in enforcement operations taking place this week in celebration of World Customs Organization Day on 26th January 2011.

On 26 January the European Commission set out its views on a strategic framework that should deliver a more sustainable use of natural resources and the shift towards resource-efficient, low-carbon growth in Europe. This strategy is the seventh and last of the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives which aim at building smart, sustainable and inclusive growth for Europe. It establishes resource efficiency as the guiding principle for EU policies on energy, transport, climate change, industry, commodities, agriculture, fisheries, biodiversity and regional development. By using synergies across these policy-areas, the strategy will be instrumental in reaching a variety of EU objectives, from reducing European greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050 to reforming the agricultural and fisheries sectors, from reducing food insecurity in developing countries to making the Union more resilient to future rises in global energy and commodity prices.

The French government has announced plans to seek investors for a €10 billion project to build the country’s first offshore wind-power facilities. The project calls for the installation of 600 wind turbines at a number of sites along France’s lengthy Atlantic coastline. The turbines will have a total capacity of 3 GW.

On 21 January 2011, EU Member State representatives adopted the European Commission’s draft Regulation banning the use of credits from industrial gas projects in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) post-2012.

The competition “German Capital of Biodiversity” was organised by Deutsche Umwelthilfe and started in July 2010. All municipalities were invited to participate. To ensure a fair competition, all towns and cities were grouped according to their size: Towns below 10,000 inhabitants, between 10,000 and 30,000, 30,000 to 100,000 as well as cities above 100,000 inhabitants. 124 municipalities, over one third of which were large cities of over 100,000 inhabitants, filled out the comprehensive questionnaire and submitted altogether nearly 900 biodiversity projects. The award ceremony took place on 6 April 2011 in Cologne. The city of Hannover, capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony, was the clear winner of the competition „German Capital of Biodiversity 2010/2011“ and received a prize money of 25.000 Euros donated by the Vibrant Cities Foundation.

The European Commission awarded Hamburg the title of European Green Capital 2011 in Brussels, February 23, 2009. Hamburg, a city of 1.8 million people, is a city that matches environmental policy commitment with appropriate funding. Air quality is very good, numerous awareness raising programmes are in place, and the city has introduced extremely ambitious climate protection goals such as reducing its CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020 and by 80% by the year 2050. Measures introduced include a cost-efficiency benchmark for energy-saving measures in public buildings, with programmes for lighting, boilers and refrigerator replacement. Over 200,000 conventional lamps in more than 400 public buildings have been replaced, and in recent years €18 million has been spent replacing more than 600 boiler systems with modern condensing boilers. CO2 emissions per person have been reduced by about 15% compared to 1990, with annual energy savings of some 46,000 MWh. Almost 100% of Hamburg's citizens have public transport within 300 meters. There is also a systematic structure of green spaces which are easily accessible to citizens. Hamburg was also commended for its communication strategy, and its proposal to launch a 'train of ideas' where other cities ‘own’ a wagon and promote their green ideas, achievements and future plans.

The Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) has announced their 2011 Dinosaur of the Year award. 2011’s dinosaurs are the cruise ship industry. The German-based NABU singled out cruise lines AIDA and TUI, based in Germany, as the representatives of their branch. NABU President Olaf Tschimpke states that cruise ships emit particle pollution equivalent to 5 million cars driving the same distance as a cruise ship travels.

Greenhouse gas emissions are dropping further despite the decommissioning of eight nuclear power plants in 2011. When compared with emissions from 2010, emissions in 2011 fell by 2.9 percent, mainly due to weather conditions. This amounts to 27 million tonnes less carbon dioxide equivalent. The greatest reductions were recorded in combustion plants for the generation of space heating and as a result private household emissions fell. Over the past few years most sectors have recorded a weaker rate of reduction. However, by contrast, emissions were reduced by almost 27 percent in 1990.

The 2011 German Environmental Award of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) has been given to two prize-winners who have demonstrated the potential for environmental relief in the German small-firm sector: the prize, worth altogether 500,000 euros, is shared by the associate, co-founder and board spokesman of memo AG (Greussenheim), Jürgen Schmidt (48), and the managing directors of the company WS Wärmeprozesstechnik (Renningen), Dr Joachim Alfred Wünning (81) and Dr Joachim Georg Wünning (48). Schmidt is receiving the award for the way his climate-neutral mail order company contributes to sustainable consumption in the office, school, home and leisure time with its ecological products. The Wünning father-and-son team is being presented with the prize for their efforts in making possible a more efficient use of energy and considerable reductions of emissions in energy-intensive key technologies, and for setting international standards in innovative environmental technology. Christian Wulff presented the prizes in Stuttgart on 30 October 2012.

At 450 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, 1,640 power generation and industrial facilities required to participate in emissions trading in Germany emitted approximately one percent less climate-damaging CO2 in 2011 than in 2010. Despite a very strong economy and nuclear phase-out, the reduction of CO2 emissions has continued since 2008. According to preliminary calculations, CO2 emissions were especially reduced in the energy sector compared to 2010. In this sector, emission reductions are between two percent in large combustion facilities and six percent in smaller combustion facilities.

The third National Forest Inventory will be conducted in the years 2011 and 2012. The National Forest Inventory is a large-scale survey of forest status and forest production potential conducted on a random basis and using a uniform procedure for the entire territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Up to 900 elephants died in northern Mozambique over a three year period according to the latest results from an aerial survey. The survey, commissioned by WWF-Mozambique shows that between 480 and 900 elephants died in the area between 2011 and 2013.

Stephen R. Carpenter, Professor of Zoology and Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, will receive the 2011 Stockholm Water Prize. This announcement was made on 22 March 2011 in connection with the UN World Water Day. Professor Carpenter's groundbreaking research has shown how lake ecosystems are affected by the surrounding landscape and by human activities. His findings have formed the basis for concrete solutions on how to manage lakes.

On 21 December 2010 the United Nations General Assembly declared 2011-2020 as the UN Decade on Biodiversity.

The German environment associations NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union) has named Jürgen Großmann, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) RWE AG, as its “Dinosaur of the Year” in 2010. NABU has presented the award every year to personalities who distinguish themselves with “antiquated ideas about environmental protection” since 1993.

Beginning in the year 2011, Ukraine plans to open up the sealed zone around the Chernobyl reactor to visitors who wish to learn more about the tragedy that occurred nearly a quarter of a century ago, the Emergency Situations Ministry said on 20 December 2010. Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Yershova said experts are developing travel routes that will be both medically safe and informative for Ukrainians as well as foreign visitors. She did not give an exact date when the tours were expected to begin.

A new international body aimed at catalyzing a global response to the loss of biodiversity and world's economically-important forests, coral reefs and other ecosystems was born on 21 December 2010 by governments at the United Nations 65th General Assembly (UNGA). The adoption, by the UNGA plenary, was the last approval needed for setting up an Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Governments gave a green light to its establishment in June at a meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea, coordinated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), but this required a resolution to be passed at the UNGA.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on 15 December 2010 that the Justice Department has filed a civil lawsuit against nine defendants in the matter of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The lawsuit asks the court for civil penalties under the Clean Water Act and to declare eight of the defendants liable without limitation under the Oil Pollution Act for all removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill, including damages to natural resources.

On 11 December 2010 the Climate Change Conference in Cancún agreed on a comprehensive package of measures. The Cancún package includes mitigation action by developed and developing countries, the establishment of a Green Climate Fund and arrangements on adaptation to the consequences of climate change, forest conservation, technological cooperation and capacity building in developing countries. A procedure was agreed to review which additional measures will be needed to meet the two-degree target. Moreover, basic agreements were made regarding the transparency of countries’ climate protection activities. The developed countries have pledged to mobilise 100 billion US dollars annually from 2020 for climate protection measures in developing countries.

With the slogan “Biodiversity is Life. Biodiversity is our Life”, the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) won the coveted 2010 Green Award for best Global Campaign in recognition of the strength of a campaign that inspired activities throughout the world that showcase the value and beauty of biodiversity. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has served as the United Nations’ focal point for the Year. The award ceremony took place at London’s Natural History Museum on 2 December 2010 with more than 400 guests. The ceremony was attended by Sir David Attenborough, Britain’s best loved naturalist with more than 50 years of broadcast experience including the BBC Life series. Sir David Attenborough received the lifetime achievement award.

On 2 December 2010 the Worst EU Lobbying Awards 2010 were revealed during an outdoor celebration that took place in front of financial winner's office ISDA in Brussels. In the climate category, German energy giant RWE’s subsidiary npower, nominated for claiming to be green while lobbying to keep its dirty coal- and oil-fired power plants open, won with 58% of the total vote. BusinessEurope took second place with 24% of the total votes and Arcelor-Mittal came in third with 18% of the total votes. The Worst EU Lobbying Awards were born in 2005 out of the willingness of four organisations – Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, Lobby Control and Spinwatch – to publicise their campaigning on transparency and lobbying through a publicly appealing event.

Research on biodiversity conservation is the key to fight the problems which are addressed by the UN Development Goals for 2015. This is the main message conveyed by the “Frankfurt Declaration” which has recently been adopted at the conference “Biodiversity and the UN Millennium Development Goals”. About 200 leading experts on biodiversity from 30 countries agree that environmental targets and developmental targets have to be pursued in a coordinated approach. The “Frankfurt Declaration” is the concluding statement to a conference that had been organized by the German Leibniz Association, the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) in cooperation with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). It was one of the first events which focused on the interrelated subjects of biodiversity research and sustainable development.

Marine species of Decmber 2010 in the International Year of Biodiversity is the Ceratoserolis trilobitoides. Ceratoserolis trilobitoides numbers among the largest and most charismatic crustaceans in the Antarctic. The species grows to a length of eight to nine centimetres and is a typical example of the Serolidae. It has a relative that very few would recognise as such at all, though even laypersons are familiar with it: the common woodlouse.

WWF has introduced a new file format to discourage unnecessary printing and help preserve the world’s forests. “Save as WWF, save a tree” is a plug-in enables documents to be disseminated as pdf files that cannot be printed. It joins the existing global WWF "Think before you print" initiative as one of a number of practical and educational consumer oriented measures to reduce market pressure on the world's forests. The WWF format, launched on 30 November 2010 by WWF Germany, advertising agency Jung von Matt and Dederichs Reinecke &Partner, is currently available from www.saveaswwf.com for recent Mac operating systems, with a Windows version following soon.

By the REACH deadline of 30 November 2010, 24,675 registration dossiers have been successfully submitted for 4,300 substances including nearly 3,400 phase-in substances. The first registration deadline is an important milestone for the new EU chemicals policy. This deadline applied to the most hazardous substances (e.g. those that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction) manufactured or imported in quantities of 1 tonne or more per year per company, substances very toxic to the aquatic environment manufactured or imported in quantities of 100 tonnes or more per year per company and substances manufactured or imported above 1 000 tonnes per year.

On 30 November 2010 the Federal Cabinet adopted the Environmental Report 2010.

The EU would be acting in its own economic interest if it raised its 2020 CO2 reduction target to 30%, says a European Parliament resolution approved on 25 November 2010. The resolution - narrowly adopted with 292 votes in favour, 274 against and 38 abstentions - sets out the European Parliament’s position ahead of UN climate talks in Cancún (29 November - 10 December).

On 22 November 2010 mayors from around the world signed an agreement to address climate change at the World Mayors Summit on Climate, hosted by the Government of Mexico City and Marcelo Ebrard, mayor of Mexico City and chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate. A total of 135 cities signed the Mexico City Pact to establish a monitoring and verification mechanism for cities to address climate change. The Mexico City Pact calls for cities to develop and implement climate action plans that promote local laws and initiatives to reduce GHG reductions. To establish and follow up on cities' commitments, the signers will establish their climate actions in the Carbon Cities Climate Registry (CCCR) at the Bonn Centre for Local Climate Action and Reporting (carbonn).

The European Week for Waste Reduction will take place from the 20th to the 28th November 2010. The European Week for Waste Reduction is a 3 year project supported by the LIFE+ Programme of the European Commission until 2011.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas held its 17th Special Meeting from the 17th to the 27th of November 2010 in Paris, hosted by the French Government. This year several proposals to protect endangered shark species were considered and important new conservation measures were adopted by consensus for the conservation of whitetip, shortfin mako and hammerhead sharks. These measures forbid the retention and trade of white tip and hammerhead shark species (except for the Sphyrna tiburo and for the developing coastal CPCs local consumption) in order to increase their survival. While for sea turtles strict measures to minimise catch rates and to maximise the chance of survival of released individual were agreed.