The Environment Chronicle

The ESA-developed Sentinel satellite – Sentinel-2A- was launched on 22 June 2015 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 22:52 local time. Sentinel-2A will complement the all-weather, day-and-night radar imagery provided by the first in the fleet, Sentinel-1A, launched on 3 April 2014. “Sentinel-2A, with its optical camera, is a complement to the radar images from Sentinel-1A,” said Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes. “It will support important areas of benefit to society such as food security and forest monitoring. “Its combination of wide swaths and short revisit time will allow users to view land change and vegetation growth with unprecedented accuracy. “By frequently revisiting areas, it will allow a new generation of operational products, from land cover and change detection maps, disaster maps and leaf area index to chlorophyll content and other bio-geophysical variables.” Data will be provided on a free and open basis. Raw data will be analysed, processed and harmonised by public and private sector service providers.

In a long-term study of more than 300,000 workers in France, the U.S. and the U.K., those with many years of exposure to low doses of radiation had an increased risk of dying from leukemia. Leukemia is known to be caused by exposure to high doses of radiation, like that released by the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. In the years following those bombings, leukemia cases increased among the survivors, the authors note in The Lancet Haematology, online 21 June 2015. But such high doses are rare today. For the new study, researchers considered 308,297 nuclear energy workers whose radiation exposures were monitored. All had worked for at least a year for the French Atomic Energy Commission or similar employers or for the Departments of Energy and Defense in the U.S., or were members of the National Registry for Radiation Workers in the U.K.The workers were followed for an average of 27 years, with data on exposure and health status through the early- to mid-2000s, depending on their country. Researchers looked for deaths from leukemia or lymphoma. About 22 percent of the workers had died by the end of follow-up. There were 531 deaths due to leukemia and 814 due to lymphoma. As cumulative dose of radiation exposure increased, so did the risk of dying from certain kinds of leukemia, the researchers found.

'Laudato si' the climatate encyclical of Pope Francis was officially published on 18 June 2015 in Rome.

15 June 2015 was the first World Meat Free Day. Supported by a host of organisations, it is encouraging people around the globe to quit meat for the day, and aims to raise awareness that the meat and livestock industry is unsustainable.

On 12 June 2015 US officials rejected Exxon Mobil’s request to reconsider a $1m penalty imposed against the oil company over a 63,000-gallon crude spill into Montana’s Yellowstone river. The US Department of Transportation on Friday ordered the Texas company to pay the penalty within 20 days at a hearing in Billings, Montana.

On 6 June 2015, the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Environment Ministry invited a group of citizens selected at random to participate in the climate dialogue at the Jerusalem Church (Jerusalemkirche) in Berlin. The event was prepared and organised by the nexus Institute, which is in charge of coordinating consultations in Germany on a national level. Germany was not the only country to hold a public dialogue on this particular day: people came together in eighty countries across five continents to make their voices heard in the international discussion and negotiation process. The setup of the public dialogues entitled "World Wide Views on Climate and Energy" was the same in all participating countries, thus ensuring comparable results. The questions voted on were based on open and contentious issues in the international climate negotiations.

The decision to divest Government Pension Fund of Norway from coal assets was made on 27 May 2015, when an agreement between political parties was reached. It was formally passed by a parliamentary vote on 5 June 2015.

On 4 June 2015 a new study published online in the journal Science finds that the rate of global warming during the last 15 years has been as fast as or faster than that seen during the latter half of the 20th Century. The study refutes the notion that there has been a slowdown or "hiatus" in the rate of global warming in recent years. The study is the work of a team of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) using the latest global surface temperature data.

In 2010, Germany adopted a law on excise duty on nuclear fuel (Kernbrennstoffsteuergesetz). That law introduced, for the period from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2016, a duty on the use of nuclear fuel for the commercial production of electricity. Kernkraftwerke Lippe-Ems, has challenged the duty before the Finance Court, Hamburg,Germany. Kernkraftwerke Lippe-Ems takes the view that the German duty on nuclear fuel is incompatible with EU law. The Finanzgericht Hamburg decided to submit questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the compatibility of the duty with EU law. On 4 June 2015, the Court of Justice replies that EU law does not preclude a duty such as the German duty on nuclear fuel.

On 3 June 2015, a consortium led by BirdLife International and financed by the European Commission published the new European Red List of Birds. 18% of the 451 species assessed are threatened at EU27 level. This means 82 species, of which 11 are Critically Endangered, 16 Endangered and 55 Vulnerable. 13% of the 533 species assessed are threatened at European level. That makes a total of 67 species, of which 10 are Critically Endangered. The study also found that 18 species are Endangered and an additional 39 Vulnerable. Negative trends: a total of 29 species have been uplisted since 2004 (formerly considered to be of Least Concern but are now threatened or Near Threatened in Europe). Improvements: a total of 20 species were previously considered regionally threatened and are now classified as Least Concern in Europe (although some are still globally threatened). Another 25 species are still threatened in Europe, but now have a lower extinction risk than a decade ago, and have seen their threat level downlisted.

On 3 June 2015 the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and GIZ, India launched the “Indian Solar Radiation Atlas” in Chennai, the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The new Indian Solar Radiation Atlas is to be the basis for a broad expansion of solar energy in India. Within the framework of the solar mapping and monitoring project, the German Environment Ministry supported the development of the Atlas with almost two million euros. The Atlas will facilitate both the planning and the implementation of solar energy projects for which precise solar radiation data from the Indian regions are required. These are the data made available by the Solar Atlas. Investors will thus have a decision-making tool at hand which allows them to assess the concrete benefit of photovoltaic installations or solar thermal power plants, for instance. Over the past three years satellites and special measuring stations at more than 120 locations all over India measured solar radiation. The data compiled provide reliable information on the locations in India which are best suited for solar energy installations. The Solar Atlas is also part of the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) Global Atlas initiative and as such an important step to globally mapping the potential for renewable energy.

On 3 June 2015, BirdLife Europe presented its assessment of progress in the first five years of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. The report "Halfway there?”,finds that although important progress has been made in some areas, overall the EU is still failing to reverse the decline of biodiversity, many plants and animals are threatened with extinction in the EU. The report (1) finds that substantial progress has been made on Target 1 (implementation of EU nature legislation), Target 4 (fisheries) and Target 5 (Invasive Alien Species). Little has happened with Target 2 (restoration of ecosystems), only limited progress on Target 6 (international biodiversity loss), while Target 3 (agriculture) has failed completely. The report documents a substantial failure of the EU in addressing the ecological crisis in EU farmland. The report finds that when and where the EU Birds and Habitats Directives have been properly implemented the results are spectacular, but the Directives suffer from a lack of funding and lax enforcement.

A new book gives an overview of the current state of research and of research gaps concerning litter in our oceans: “Marine Anthropogenic Litter” will be released by Springer-Verlag as an Open Access publication in June 2015. The editors, Melanie Bergmann and Lars Gutow from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and Michael Klages from the University of Gothenburg’s Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences, brought together experts from around the globe to contribute to the book. Estimates of the amount of litter in the world’s oceans, its distribution, effects on humans and biota, and prevention strategies are just some of the complex topics addressed in the book’s 16 chapters.

June 2015 was warmest June on record for the globe. Global land areas and oceans each record warm for June. During June, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 0.88°C above the 20th century average. This was the highest for June in the 1880–2015 record, surpassing the previous record set last year in 2014 by 0.12°C. The June globally-averaged land surface temperature was 1.26°C above the 20th century average. This was the highest for June in the 1880–2015 record, surpassing the previous record set in 2012 0.06°C. The June globally-averaged sea surface temperature was 0.74°C above the 20th century average. This was the highest for June in the 1880–2015 record, surpassing the previous record set last year in 2014 by 0.06°C.

The 30 May 2015 was the first ever Global Day of Action (GDA) against climate change, fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

The Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition brings together leaders from across government, the private sector and civil society to share experience working with carbon pricing and to expand the evidence base for the most effective carbon pricing systems and policies. The coalition formed from a groundswell of support for carbon pricing at the 2014 UN Climate Summit, where 74 countries and more than 1,000 companies expressed support for carbon pricing. Its goal is to expand the use of effective carbon pricing policies that can maintain competitiveness, create jobs, encourage innovation, and deliver meaningful emissions reductions. The coalition was created in 2014 by the World Bank Group in conjunction with partners including the We Mean Business Coalition, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations Global Compact’s Caring for Climate Initiative.

Following the referrals of Slovenia and Poland to Court on similar grounds, the European Commission is now referring Germany to the EU Court of Justice over its failure to transpose EU legislation on the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (known also as WEEE Directive) and communicate the national transposition measures. The EU rules, which should have been enacted into national law by 14 February 2014, are intended to prevent or reduce the negative environmental impact from this fast-increasing waste stream. The rules are based on a revision of the previous WEEE Directive, and they incorporate a number of new or substantially modified provisions, none of which have yet been transposed by Germany. The Commission is therefore asking the Court, on the basis of the procedure set out in Article 260(3) TFEU, to impose a penalty payment on Germany in the amount of EUR 210 078 per day until the law is enacted."

On 27 May 2015 the German cabinet adopted a draft 14th act amending the Atomic Energy Act. his draft act is limited to regulations required for implementing the provisions of an EU directive into national law. It does not pre-empt further discussions in the Bundestag commission on the storage of highly radioactive waste.

On 23 March 2015, the Federal government of Germany published the first monitoring report on climate impacts and adaptation. On the basis of data collected in 15 different sectors of society, the report describes the shifts caused by the changing climate, which are already becoming apparent today, as well as the counter measures that address them successfully. The monitoring report was adopted by the interministerial working party on adaptation strategies which brings together the responsible Federal ministries. It is part of the progress report on the German adaptation strategy to climate change (DAS), which was commissioned by the Federal Government following a cabinet decision in December 2008.

On 20 May 2015 the European Commission adopted a new report providing the most comprehensive picture yet on the ‘State of Nature in the EU’. The report is the first assessment to cover both the Birds and Habitats Directives, and it results from the largest collaborative data-collection and assessment of nature ever undertaken across the Member States in the period 2007-2012. Looking at birds, the report concludes that 52 % of all wild bird species assessed have a secure status. However, around 17 % of the species are still threatened and another 15 % are near threatened, declining or depleted. Looking at other species protected under the Habitats Directive, almost 23 % have a favourable assessment. However, 60 % are still in an unfavourable status. Grasslands, wetlands and dune habitats are of particular concern. Habitat types, on the whole, show a worse conservation status and trend than species, as only 16 % of habitat-assessments are favourable. The overwhelming majority of habitats have an unfavourable status, with 47 % of the assessments being unfavourable-inadequate and 30 % being unfavourable-bad. The main threats to habitats identified are certain agricultural practices and human-induced “modifications of natural conditions”.

On 19 May 2015, a large release of crude oil was reported from a pipeline operated by Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., just north of Refugio State Beach, in Santa Barbara County. Oil was released from the pipeline rupture into a culvert that drains into the Pacific Ocean. While the location of the pipeline release is in the ‘inland zone,’ the impacts to the environment are both inland and costal. On May 20, 2015, Refugio State Beach and El Capitán State Beach were closed and Governor of California Jerry Brown, declared a state of emergency in response to the oil spill.

On 19 May 2015, EU regulators agreed new test procedures that will, for the first time, measure the ‘real world’ emissions of diesel cars under the Euro 6 air quality standard. It will require vehicles to be tested on roads rather than in laboratories, overcoming obsolete tests and ‘cycle beating’ techniques used by carmakers to achieve results in tests many times lower than actual air pollution emissions on the road.

On 22 May 2015 Kazakhstan’s agriculture ministry said around one-third of the endangered saiga antelope population in this Central Asian nation has mysteriously died off in the last few days. The number of saiga that have died may have reached 85,000.

On 30 April 2015, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel, Swedish Minister for Enterprise Mikael Damberg, Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz and Torsten Albig, Prime Minister of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, joined Magnus Hall, President and CEO of Vattenfall, and Dr Florian Bieberbach, CEO of SWM, in Hamburg today to celebrate the formal opening of the DanTysk offshore wind farm. Located 70 kilometres west of Sylt Island, the DanTysk offshore wind farm is the first infrastructure project jointly implemented by Vattenfall and SWM as part of the energy transition in Germany. Vattenfall holds a 51% stake in DanTysk Offshore GmbH, which is responsible for construction and operation, while SWM holds 49%. The site comprises a total of 80 Siemens wind turbines in the 3.6 megawatt (MW) class with a total installed capacity of 288 MW. The capital investment is more than EUR 1 billion. DanTysk will generate climate-neutral power equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 400,000 average households. Offshore construction started in February 2013.

On 29 April 2015, Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order to establish a California greenhouse gas reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

On 29 April 2015, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered that the UK government must submit new air quality plans to the European Commission no later than 31 December 2015.

During a meeting with Pope Francis on 28 April 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he very much look forward to the Pontiff's encyclical on climate change, which he said he believed would act as a moral voice on the issue. The U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki Moon spoke at the Vatican at an international gathering on the moral dimensions of climate change and sustainable development.

The new EU forest strategy must focus on managing forests sustainably, promoting efficient use of the raw materials that they produce, and boosting the competitiveness of forest-related industry so as to create jobs, says a non-legislative resolution voted by Parliament on 28 April 2015. The EU needs a new comprehensive strategy to tackle cross-border challenges such as forest fires, climate change, natural disasters or invasive alien species, but also to strengthen forest-based industries and improve efficient use of raw materials such as timber, cork or textile fibres. This would boost the competitiveness of the EU's forestry, improve its self-sufficiency in wood, cut its trade deficit and boost employment in the sector, says the resolution, which was passed by 566 votes to 66, with 45 abstentions. The new EU forest strategy should replace the one in force since 1998.

Eleven places in the world – 10 of which are in the tropics – will account for over 80 per cent of forest loss globally by 2030, according to research released on 28 April 2015 by WWF. Up to 170 million hectares of forest could be lost between 2010 and 2030 in these “deforestation fronts” if current trends continue, according to findings in the latest chapter of WWF’s Living Forests Report series. The fronts are located in the Amazon, the Atlantic Forest and Gran Chaco, Borneo, the Cerrado, Choco-Darien, the Congo Basin, East Africa, Eastern Australia, Greater Mekong, New Guinea and Sumatra.

EU countries will be required to reduce the use of the commonest and most polluting plastic bags drastically under new rules voted by Parliament on 28 April 2015. EU member states will be able to choose: either to take measures to reduce annual average consumption of non-biodegradable plastic bags to 90 lightweight bags per citizen by the end of 2019 and 40 by the end of 2025 or ensure that by the end of 2018, no more light plastic bags are handed over free of charge to shoppers. Furthermore, the European Commission is required to assess the impact on the environment of oxo-degradable plastic materials, which fragment into small particles, and propose suitable measures. By 2017, the European Commission will have to propose labelling and marking measures for an EU-wide recognition of biodegradable and compostable plastic bags.

April 25th is World Penguin Day, possibly because this marks the start of the return of Adelie Penguins to their breeding grounds. Of the 18 species of penguins alive today, 11 are listed as threatened with extinction by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature).

On 24 April 2015, the Commissionadopted 10 new authorisations for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for food/feed use, 7 renewals of existing authorisations and also the authorisation for the importation of 2 GMO cut flowers (not for food or feed). These GMOs had gone through a full authorisation procedure, including a favourable scientific assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The authorisation decisions do not cover cultivation. The authorisations are valid for 10 years, and any products produced from these GMOs will be subject to the EU's labelling and traceability rules.

The European Commission has found a Portuguese scheme aimed at promoting renewable energy technologies to be in line with EU state aid rules. The scheme will support demonstration projects producing renewable energy from the ocean (wave energy, tidal energy) and innovative offshore wind technologies. This project will test in real operating conditions floating offshore wind turbines. This concerns wind turbines mounted on a floating platform instead of columns fixed to the seabed as is the case with conventional offshore technology, which allows deploying the technology in deeper waters. For the remaining 25 MW capacity, project proposals can be submitted until the end of this year. The aid will be granted for 25 years in the form of a feed-in-tariff to compensate for the higher costs of the new technologies. The project will also benefit from investment aid and funding from NER300 – the EU support program for innovative low-carbon energy demonstration projects.

The Earth League, an international alliance of prominent climate scientists, outlined the elements of a global climate agreement in a stark statement published on 22 April 2015, coinciding with Earth Day. Written by 17 world-leading scientists, their statement clarifies in eight essential elements, what an international climate agreement in line with the 2 degree target should achieve in Paris in December. Bold action by decision-makers is required now to pave the way for a successful international agreement to reduce the risk of dangerous climate change, the Earth League members say. 2015 is a critical year for humanity: "It is a moral obligation, and in our self-interest, to achieve deep decarbonization of the global economy via equitable effort sharing. This requires reaching a zero-carbon society by mid-century or shortly thereafter, thereby limiting global warming to below 2°C as agreed by all nations in 2010. This trajectory is not one of economic pain, but of economic opportunity, progress and inclusiveness. It I a chance too good to be missed”. They outline eight essential elements of climate action in Paris, ranging from the implementation of commitments to limit global warming to below 2 degrees, to the remaining global carbon budget, a transformation of the economy, fair decarbonization pathways, climate innovations, building resilience, the safeguarding of carbon sinks and vital ecosystems and the realization of new scales and sources of climate finance for developing countries.

Thailand seized 3 tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya in the second-biggest bust in the country's history, one week after the biggest seizure, customs officials said on 27 April 2015. The 511 elephant tusks worth $6 million, bound for Laos, were seized upon arrival Saturday at a major port in Chonburi province in eastern Thailand. The bust came one week after Thai customs officials seized 4 tons of tusks that were smuggled from Congo and also destined for Laos in what they said was the nation's biggest seizure. Thailand is one of the top destinations for African ivory smuggling in Asia and could face international sanctions soon if it doesn't show progress in combatting the problem.

On 17 April 2015 Member States agreed to the Commission's proposal to postpone the phase-out of inefficient "D"-class halogen lamps by two years to 1 September 2018. By analysing the lighting market and technological developments, the Commission came to the conclusion that 1 September 2016 would be too early for LED technology to fully replace halogen lamps; a more appropriate phase-out would be 2018.

The Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, 2007, was adopted by an international conference held in Kenya in 2007. The Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks enters into force on 14 April 2015.

Regional studies have shown that climate change will affect climatic suitability for Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) within current regions of production. Increases in temperature and changes in precipitation patterns will decrease yield, reduce quality and increase pest and disease pressure. This is the first global study on the impact of climate change on suitability to grow Arabica coffee. Scientists modeled the global distribution of Arabica coffee under changes in climatic suitability by 2050s as projected by 21 global circulation models. The results suggest decreased areas suitable for Arabica coffee in Mesoamerica at lower altitudes. In South America close to the equator higher elevations could benefit, but higher latitudes lose suitability. Coffee regions in Ethiopia and Kenya are projected to become more suitable but those in India and Vietnam to become less suitable. Globally, they predict decreases in climatic suitability at lower altitudes and high latitudes, which may shift production among the major regions that produce Arabica coffee.

On 11 April 2015, the trawler Oleg Naydenov caught fire while berthed in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. Spainish Authorities decided to tow the Oleg Naydenov out of the port fearing the trawler could explode damaging other vessels in the port. On 14 April 2015, the Oleg Naydenov sank in 2700 meters of water some 25 kilometres off the coast of Maspalomas, Gran Canaria. The Oleg Naydenov had some 1400 tons of fuel on board at the time of the fire.

On 14 April 2015, the Fukui District Court in Japan decided to accept the petition for a provisional disposition order seeking an injunction against the operation of Units 3 and 4 of Takahama Nuclear Power Station.