The Environment Chronicle

On 10 September 2015, the European Court of Justice confirmed that the presence of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) in products needs to be calculated at component level. This important decision concerns complex products composed of many different ‘articles’. Under the 2006 Regulation on the Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the use of any substance classed as ‘of very high concern’ for health or the environment must be notified to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) by the producer or importer, whenever the concentration of the substance exceeds “0.1% weight by weight” of the article in question.

Despite its claim of being a leader in the fight against climate change, the European Union still has around 280 coal power plants, operating in 22 different EU member states. The majority of these plants are more than 30 years old. Burning coal caused 17% of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union in 2014. Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe exposes these facts on the coal business in the online Coal Map of Europe (www.coalmap.eu) which was launched on 10 September 2015. Based on extensive research and using a range of public data sources, CAN Europe has calculated key figures on the coal industry. The NGO has visualised the most aspects of the story of coal power in eight different maps. For the first time, now there is a full and comprehensive overview of the fleet of existing and planned coal power plants, that also displays key information on pollution and health impacts from burning coal. The Coal Map also highlights how governments are still heavily involved in this industry through state-owned companies as well as by providing enormous subsidies.

On 8 September 2015, the planning company and wind farm operators from Bremen, wpd, celebrated the official opening of the Butendiek offshore wind farm in the NordseeCongressCentrum in Husum with around 300 guests, after commissioning the last of 80 turbines in total making up the 288 megawatt project at the beginning of August. The wind farm can supply around 370,000 households with renewable energy. Butendiek was completed within the specified timeframe and cost budget, and is seen as the most speedily constructed offshore project: offshore work began in March 2014 and only eleven months later, the first turbines were already feeding power into the public grid.

Fewer seals could be hunted for their fur thanks to a stronger EU ban on the trade in seal product, approved in plenary on 8 September 2015 (631 MEPs in favour, 31 against, 33 abstentions). The new rules will extend the ban to products resulting from hunts to protect fishing stocks, although Inuit and other indigenous communities will continue to be exempt from the ban. These changes, already agreed with EU governments, are needed to bring EU regulation in line with World Trade Organization rules. In response to animal welfare concerns, the EU banned in 2009 the trade in seal products, such as sealskin coats, mitts, bags or seal meat. This ban entered into force in 2010. However, it allowed two exceptions, one for products resulting from indigenous hunts and the other for small-scale hunts to ensure sustainable “marine resource management”. The ban was challenged by Canada and Norway in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In June 2014, it delivered a ruling which noted that the ban could be justified on moral grounds regarding the welfare of seals but required more clarification of the exceptions applied. To address the WTO concerns, the European Commission proposed an amendment to the current EU rules in February 2015. Under the changes, which have already been agreed with EU governments, Inuits will be allowed to sell seal products in the EU only if their hunting methods have due regard to animal welfare, are a part of their tradition and contribute to its subsistence. Meanwhile, an exception regarding seal products originating from hunts to protect fish stocks has been removed.

On the 5 September 2015 the international non-governmental organization WWF celebrated Brazil’s Amazon Day in Germany and Brazil. On Amazon Day, amazing images of the rainforest were projected onto Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, and in Cologne, in Germany, the internationally regarded Brazilian photographer Sebastian Salgado, will be showcased a selection of striking black and white images of the Amazon on an immense public screen.

On 6 August 2015 Pope Francis declared September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, as the Orthodox Church has done since 1989.

Seas around the world have risen an average of nearly 8 centimeters since 1992, with some locations rising more than 25 centimeters due to natural variation, according to the latest satellite measurements from NASA and its partners.

The first in-depth review of JI’s environmental integrity shows about three-quarters of credits may not represent actual emission reductions, and their use to meet mitigation targets may have increased emissions by about 600 million tonnes. As of March 2015, almost 872 million ERUs had been issued under JI. But while JI is meant to support climate change mitigation by making it more cost-effective, a new SEI study shows that it seriously undermined global climate action. In a random sample of 60 JI projects, 73% of the offsets came from projects for which additionality was not plausible – that is, the projects would likely have proceeded even without carbon revenues. The study also examined the six largest project types across JI, and found only one, N2O abatement from nitric acid production, had overall high environmental integrity – meaning the projects were likely to be truly additional and not overcredited. Altogether, the study found that about 80% of ERUs issued came from project types of low or questionable environmental integrity. The design of JI is meant to safeguard against non-additional projects: Host countries must cancel one of their emission allowances for every ERU issued. But the study found more than 95% of ERUs were issued by countries with significant surpluses of allowances. If those countries issued non-additional ERUs, they would not have to make up the difference by further reducing emissions at home. Thus, ERUs worth about 600 Mt CO2e issued as of March 2015 may not represent actual emission reductions. The study was published on 24 August in "Nature Climate Change".

On 24 August 2015, an international tribunal in Den Haag ruled that the Russian government broke international law by boarding a Greenpeace ship and detaining its crew following a peaceful protest against Arctic oil drilling in 2013. The permanent court of arbitration has found “the Netherlands is entitled to compensation with interest for material damage to the Arctic Sunrise”, the Hague-based body said in a statement.

NOAA is declaring the recent deaths of 30 large whales in the western Gulf of Alaska an "unusual mortality event," triggering a focused, expert investigation into the cause. An unusual mortality event is a stranding event that is unexpected, involves a significant die-off of a marine mammal population, and demands immediate response. Since May 2015, 11 fin whales, 14 humpback whales, one gray whale, and four unidentified cetaceans have stranded around the islands of the western Gulf of Alaska and the southern shoreline of the Alaska Peninsula. To date, this brings the large whale strandings for this region to almost three times the historical average. The declaration of an unusual mortality event will allow NOAA and federal, state, and tribal partners to develop a response plan and conduct a rigorous scientific investigation into the cause of death for the stranded whales.

Germany and Brazil want to intensify their cooperation in many policy areas, notably in the fields of climate protection and sustainable development. This was agreed upon by the participants of the first German-Brazilian intergovernmental consultations in Brasília. On 20 August 2015 the Brazil´s President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel published a Joint Statement on Climate Change.

On 18 August 2015, Islamic scientiest from 20 countries launched a climate change declaration at an International Islamic Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul, Turkey.

On 18 August 2015, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Brian Salerno announced that Royal Dutch Shell plc has received approval of one Application for Permit to Modify (APM) to conduct exploratory drilling activities into potential oil-bearing zones offshore Alaska at one of the wells at the Burger Prospect, Burger J. The company remains limited to the top section of the Burger V well. Shell submitted an APM on August 6 to modify the Burger J Application for Permit to Drill (APD), which previously restricted Shell from drilling into oil-bearing zones since a capping stack was not on hand and deployable within 24 hours, as required by BSEE. A capping stack is a critical piece of emergency response equipment designed to shut in a well in the unlikely event of a loss of well control. The capping stack, staged on the vessel M/V Fennica, is now in the region and capable of being deployed within 24 hours.

Glaciers in Central Asia experience substantial losses in glacier mass and area. Along the Tien Shan, Central Asia’s largest mountain range, glaciers have lost 27% of their mass and 18% of their area during the last 50 years. An international research team led by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and including the institute of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at Rennes University in particular, estimated that almost 3000 square kilometres of glaciers and an average of 5.4 gigatons of ice per year have been lost since the 1960s. In the online issue of Nature Geoscience published online 17 August 2015 , the authors estimate that about half of Tien Shan’s glacier volume could be depleted by the 2050s.

In 2015, Earth Overshoot Day falled on 13 August. In less than eight months, humanity has used up nature’s budget for the entire year, with carbon sequestration making up more than half of the demand on nature, according to data from Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Earth Overshoot Day has moved from early October in 2000 to August 13th this year.

On 12 August 2015, massive chemical explosions occured at the Port of Tianjin, China. Two explosions ripped through Tianjin Ruihai International Logistics Co. Ltd warehouse in Tianjin Port, killing 165 people. Another eight people are still unaccounted for. The explosions damaged 304 buildings, 12,428 cars and 7,533 containers, with verified direct economic losses of 6.87 billion yuan. On 5 February 2016, China released its official report of investigation, which reveals that the disaster, "an extraordinarily serious production safety accident," was caused by ignition of hazardous materials, improperly or illegally stored at the site. Ruihai Logistics had "illegally built a freight yard of hazardous materials, conducted illegal operations, illegally stored hazardous material and had been running inept safety management," the report said.

The UNFCCC Secretariat has reported that Australia is the 54th Party to formally submit its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC), which sets out a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target of 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2030. The Party intends to implement the higher range of the target if circumstances allow, considering such factors as the costs of technology.

Scientists from the University of Sydney’s School of Geosciences have led the creation of the world’s first digital map of the seafloor’s geology. It is the first time the composition of the seafloor, covering 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, has been mapped in 40 years; the most recent map was hand drawn in the 1970s. Published online in the journal Geology on 5 August 2015, the map will help scientists better understand how our oceans have responded, and will respond, to environmental change. It also reveals the deep ocean basins to be much more complex than previously thought. Dr Dutkiewicz and colleagues analysed and categorised around 15,000 seafloor samples – taken over half a century on research cruise ships to generate the data for the map. She teamed with the National ICT Australia (NICTA) big data experts to find the best way to use algorithms to turn this multitude of point observations into a continuous digital map.

On 8 August 2015 the federal court overturned the Abbott government’s approval of Australia’s largest proposed coal project, Adani’s Carmichael mine in north Queensland. The court has ruled the environment minister, Greg Hunt, ignored his own department’s advice about the mine’s impact on two vulnerable species, the yakka skink and the ornamental snake.

On 3 August 2015, US President Obama and Environmental Protecting Agency (EPA) announced the finalization of America's Clean Power Plan. The Clean Power Plan sets achievable standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.

On 2 August 2015, the Member States of the United Nations agreed to a final version of the post-2015 Development Agenda – now known as 2030 Agenda. The agenda entitled "Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" is the first globally applicable implementation plan. All members of the United Nations agreed on its 17 concrete goals for sustainable development, poverty reduction, social issues and environmental protection. The agenda was drafted over the past three years by several UN bodies, especially the open working groups on the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which make up the agenda’s core elements. They replace the previous Millennium Development Goals and are to be implemented by 2030. Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks: "The decision on the UN sustainability agenda is historic. For the first time the international community has systematically linked tackling poverty with the preservation of our planet."

In an analysis of satellite data released on 29 November 2016, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in São José dos Campos estimates that 7,989 square kilometres of land — nearly the size of Puerto Rico — was cleared between August 2015 and July 2016. The total was 29% above the previous year and 75% above the 2012 level, when deforestation hit a historic low of 4,571 square kilometres

EFSA is to assess the findings of a report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) which concludes that the herbicide glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans. The report will be considered as part of EFSA’s on-going peer review of the re-evaluation of glyphosate. The re-evaluation was carried out by the BfR, the German risk assessment body.

On 29 July 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that the IARC Monograph on the herbicide glyphosate is now available online. After a systematic review and evaluation of the scientific evidence, the Monograph Working Group classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A). This classification is the result of a year-long evaluation by leading independent experts without conflicts of interest, who reviewed all pertinent, publicly available scientific literature on the carcinogenicity of glyphosate. The established procedures and criteria for the selection, evaluation, and integration of evidence used in developing a Monograph are provided in the Preamble to the IARC Monographs.

A new Yale-led research revealed for the first time what the world thinks about climate change and why. Using data from the 2007-2008 Gallup World Poll, conducted in 119 countries, an international team of researchers identified the factors that most influence climate change awareness and risk perception for 90% of the world’s population. The contrast between developed and developing countries was striking, note the researchers: In North America, Europe, and Japan, more than 90% of the public is aware of climate change. But in many developing countries, relatively few are aware of the issue, although many do report having observed changes in local weather patterns. The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change on 27 July 2015. “Overall, we find that about 40% of adults worldwide have never heard of climate change,” said co-author Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and study lead. “This rises to more than 65% in some developing countries, like Egypt, Bangladesh, and India.” The research team also found that education level tends to be the single strongest predictor of a person’s awareness of climate change.

On 27 July 2015 at the White House, Secretary of State John Kerry and senior White House officials hosted 13 of the largest companies from across the American economy who are standing with the Obama Administration to launch the American Business Act on Climate Pledge: Alcoa, Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Cargill, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo, UPS, and Walmart.

520.325 people called on the European Commission to save Europe's nature laws in a public consultation – by far the highest number of responses ever reached in the history of the EU. The public consultation formally closed at midnight on 26 July 2015. In May, major environmental organisations launched the 'Nature Alert' campaign in response to the EU Commission's proposal evaluate whether the existing EU nature laws should be changed. The campaign makes the case for improved implementation and enforcement of existing rules set out by the laws – known as the Birds and Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directives.

On 25 July 2015, renewables accounted for 78 percent of Germany's power consumption surpassing the old record of 73 percent. The new generation record was enabled by a combination of strong winds in the north, where most of Germany's wind turbines are installed, and sunny conditions in the south, where Germany has installed most of its solar.

The Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry gives the go-ahead for a Conservation Concession for the protection of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutans. For more than five years the Frankfurt Zoological Society, The Orangutan Project and the WWF have been campaigning to obtain the management rights for two forestry concession blocks. Finally, on 24 July 2015, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry granted the licence for an Ecosystem Restoration Concession, an innovative way to preserve native forest areas from logging. The area (roughly one and a half times the size of the Bavarian Forest National Park) directly adjoins the 145,000 hectare Bukit Tigapuluh National Park. On behalf of the Indonesian Nature Conservation Agency the Frankfurt Zoological Society has been reintroducing seized illegal pet orangutans into Bukit Tigapuluh since 2002. Apart from being a new home for orangutans the concession area also serves as an important habitat for the critically endangered Sumatran tigers and Sumatran elephants. The implementation of the concession is funded via the KfW Development Bank with almost 3.6 million Euro by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in the framework of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The granting of the licence was concluded after many years of struggle with the paper industry, which intended to claim the rainforest area for conversion into acacia plantations.

On 22 July 2015, the French parliament passed an energy law that will halve the country’s energy consumption by 2050, cut nuclear power production by a third by 2025 (from 75 percent of electricity mix to 50 percent), and increase renewable energy to 32 percent of total energy consumption by 2030. It also requires France to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, in part by reducing fossil fuel consumption by 30 percent in 2030 compared with 2012. The emissions reduction requirement is in line with the E.U.’s 28-country commitment to cut emissions at least 40 percent by 2030.

The Australian Government has set major new targets to tackle feral cats, protect and recover threatened mammals, birds and plants, and improve recovery practices under the nation's first Threatened Species Strategy. On 16 July 2015, Federal environment minister, Greg Hunt launched the Strategy at the Natonal Threatened Species Summit in Melbourne. Australia plans to kill two million feral cats over the next five years following concerns that the predators have been preying on wildlife and have left more than 120 native species at risk of extinction. “By 2020, I want to see two million feral cats culled, five new islands and 10 new mainland 'safe havens' free of feral cats, and control measures applied across 10 million hectares,” Mr Hunt said. It is believed there are about 20 million cats across the nation – and they kill about 75 million native animals a day. The cats arrived with the European settlers in the late 1700s and are the same species as domestic or alley cats, but have since gone wild and spread across the continent.

The five states that surround the central Arctic Ocean – Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark in respect of Greenland, the Kingdom of Norway, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America – met in Oslo on 16 July 2015 to sign a declaration to prevent unregulated commercial fishing in high seas portion of the central Arctic Ocean.

As part of the Energy Union strategy, launched by the European Commission in February 2015, on 15 July 2015 the Commission proposed a revision of the energy efficiency labelling laws. In order to make it easier for consumers to understand and compare products, the European Commission is suggesting to have one single 'A to G' energy label. The Commission proposes a return to the well-known and effective 'A to G' label scale for energy efficient products, including a process for rescaling the existing labels. The Commission proposes that all new products placed on the EU market are registered on an online database, allowing greater transparency and easier market surveillance by national authorities.

A pipeline failure has spilled about 5 million litres of bitumen, sand and wastewater from a Nexen Energy pipeline near its Long Lake oil sands facility south of Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta, Canada. The leak from the pipeline was discovered in the afternoon of 15 July 15, 2015.

Enel Green Power and Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP), the Chilean state-owned company active in the hydrocarbons sector, have begun construction in Chile on Cerro Pabellón, the first geothermal plant in South America. Cerro Pabellón, located in the municipality of Ollagüe, in the region of Antofagasta, in the Andean Plateau, will also be the first geothermal plant in the world built at 4,500 metres above sea level.

In the most comprehensive analysis of climate change impacts on critical pollinators, researchers have found that rapid declines in bumblebee species across North America and Europe have a strong link to climate change. The study was published in Science on 10 July 2015. It was conducted by scientists from University of Ottawa and other North American institutions. Scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), as one of the major partners from Europe, were responsible for coordinating basic data collection.

On 8 July 2015, the EU became the 181st party to join the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The Convention covers more than 35 000 animal species and plants, ensuring that trade remains legal and sustainable. Further to a public consultation launched in 2014, the European Commission services have started the preparatory work for an EU Action Plan against wildlife trafficking, for which the EU accession to CITES constitutes an important milestone.

A reform of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), informally agreed with the Latvian Presidency of the Council, was endorsed by Parliament on 8 July 2015. The new law creates a system that will automatically take a portion of ETS allowances off the market and place it in a reserve if the surplus exceeds a certain threshold. In the opposite scenario, allowances could be returned to the market. Under the deal, "backloaded" allowances (900 million allowances withdrawn from the market at least until 2019), will be placed in the reserve. Any remaining allowances not allocated by the end of the current trading phase (2020) should also be placed in the reserve, subject to an overall review of the ETS directive, to be tabled by the Commission this year. The Market Stability Reserve will start operating earlier than initially foreseen, on 1 January 2019, instead of 2021 as proposed by the Commission.