The Environment Chronicle

IWC65 took place in Portoroz, Slovenia, from 15-18 September 2014.

New analysis and maps released on 4 September 2014, revealed the alarming speed at which the world’s largest expanses of forest wilderness are being degraded. More than 104 million hectares—an area three times the size of Germany—of the world’s remaining Intact Forest Landscapes were degraded from 2000 to 2013. The Greenpeace GIS Laboratory, University of Maryland and Transparent World, in collaboration with the World Resources Institute and WWF-Russia, used satellite technology and advanced techniques to conduct a global analysis to determine the location and extent of the world’s last remaining large undisturbed forests, called Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs).

The area of sea ice in the Arctic fell to a summer minimum of around 5.0 million square kilometres in the first half of September 2014, which is about 1.6 million square kilometres more than the record low in 2012. However, according to sea ice physicist Marcel Nicolaus from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and Lars Kaleschke from the Hamburg Cluster of Excellence for Climate Research (CliSAP) this confirms the long-term downward trend in the Arctic. On the other hand, the winter ice sheet in the South Polar Ocean has expanded to an area of 20.0 million square kilometres, as the researchers report, which exceeds the 30-year-maximum from the previous year.

The Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States was held from 1 to 4 September 2014 in Apia, Samoa. The overarching theme of the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States was "The sustainable development of small island developing States through genuine and durable partnerships". Germany wants to work together with the small island states to better protect the climate. At the UN Conference the Federal Environment Ministry announced a further expansion of cooperation. The central theme of the cooperation is climate action - both on the islands concerned and in the context of the forthcoming negotiations for an ambitious international climate agreement.

COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 666/2013 of 8th July, 2013 implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to ecodesign requirements for vacuum cleaners came into effect from 1st September, 2014. As of 1 September only vacuum cleaners with a wattage of less than 1600 may be made available for sale. The aim is to further reduce households' power consumption and to prevent consumer fraud. After 1 September 2017 the maximum allowable power consumption for vacuum cleaners is 900 watts. The requirements apply to new products on the market. Devices which are already on the market may continue to be sold. There are already devices available on the market which comply with the standards for 2017. When compared to the current trend, the EU guidelines will result in a savings of about 18 billion kilowatt hours by 2020, which is the equivalent output of roughly five power stations. The new regulation requires producers to provide proof that their vacuum cleaners are fully functional. The EU Ecodesign Directive therefore not only stipulates minimum requirements for energy consumption, it also addresses dust pick up on carpets and hard floors and imposes limits on noise emissions. To extend the device's service life, the operational motor lifetime must be greater than or equal to 500 hours, and its hose must meet specific requirements as concerns durability.

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for September 2014 was the highest on record for September, at 0.72°C above the 20th century average of 15.0°C. The global land surface temperature was 0.89°C above the 20th century average of 12.0°C, the sixth highest for September on record. For the ocean, the September global sea surface temperature was 0.66°C above the 20th century average of 16.2°C, the highest on record for September and also the highest on record for any month.

One of the rarest birds in the world, the Madagascar Pochard Aythya innotata was thought to be extinct until a small population was found in 2006. The first ever study of the Madagascar pochard has revealed that 96% of its chicks die before fledging. The conclusion is that the last remaining population will never expand without outside help. Just 25 pochards remain in the wild, restricted to one wetland in northeast Madagascar – a complex of lakes near Bemanevika. The study, published online on 26 August 2014, in Bird Conservation International, found that the level of mortality actually increases as the chicks get older, peaking when they are between two and three weeks old. The researchers conclude that most chicks slowly starve to death once they’re old enough to dive for food, because the water is too deep for them.

During an expedition with the German research vessel Polarstern off the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, an international team of scientists discovered more than 130 active methane seeps at the seafloor. This is the first report of greenhouse gases seeping out of the seabed in the Southern Ocean. Continental and marine seepage of methane is a research issue of global importance. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change methane is about 21 times more powerful in warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. However, it is uncertain how much methane is emitted at the seafloor and whether it could eventually reach the atmosphere. To answer these and other questions, German, British, and US-American scientists embarked with the German RV Polarstern in the spring of 2013 in search of the Antarctic pieces of the global methane puzzle.

On 25 August 2014, a new atlas, providing the most thorough audit of marine life in the Southern Ocean, was published at the Open Science Conference in Auckland, New Zealand by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Leading marine biologists and oceanographers from all over the world spent the last four years compiling everything they know about ocean species from microbes to whales. 147 scientists from 91 institutions across 22 countries combined their expertise and knowledge to produce the new Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean. More than 9000 species are recorded, ranging from microbes to whales. Hundreds of thousands of records show the extent of scientific knowledge on the distribution of life in the Southern Ocean. In 66 chapters, the scientists examine the evolution, physical environment, genetics and possible impact of climate change on marine organisms in the region. It’s the first time that such an effort has been undertaken since 1969 when the American Society of Geography published its Antarctic Map Folio Series.

Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), have for the first time extensively mapped Greenland’s and Antarctica’s ice sheets with the help of the ESA satellite CryoSat-2 and have thus been able to prove that the ice crusts of both regions momentarily decline at an unprecedented rate. In total the ice sheets are losing around 500 cubic kilometres of ice per year. This ice mass corresponds to a layer that is about 600 metres thick and would stretch out over the entire metropolitan area of Hamburg, Germany's second largest city. The maps and results of this study were published on 20 August 2014 in The Cryosphere, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

August 19 is Earth Overshoot Day 2014, marking the date when humanity exhausted nature’s budget for the year.

Summer 2014 marked another milestone for the Aral Sea, the once-extensive lake in Central Asia that has been shrinking markedly since the 1960s. For the first time in modern history, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea has completely dried. An image pair from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite shows the sea without its eastern lobe on August 19, 2014 (top). "This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times," said Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert. "And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since Medieval desiccation associated with diversion of Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea."

New research led by Colorado State University has revealed that an estimated 100,000 elephants in Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012. The study shows these losses are driving population declines of the world's wild African elephants on the order of 2 percent to 3 percent a year. This study provides the first verifiable estimation of the impacts of the ongoing ivory crisis on Africa’s elephant populations to date, solidifying speculation about the scale of the ivory crisis. An average of 33,630 elephants per annum are calculated to have been lost over those three years, with preliminary data indicating unsustainable levels continued in 2013. To quantify the poaching death toll, researchers drew on data and experience from a continent-wide intensive monitoring program. The most thoroughly studied site was Samburu in northern Kenya where every elephant birth and death over the past 16 years has been recorded. The intensive population study was conducted in a project founded by George Wittemyer of Colorado State University with Save the Elephants, and in association with the Kenya Wildlife Service. The research paper, "Illegal killing for ivory drives global decline in African elephants," was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States on 18 August, 2014.

On 17 August 2014, the United Nations Watercourses Convention, the first global framework on fresh water and the world’s only global framework for transboundary cooperation endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations, officially entered into force.

On 15 August 2014, the starting gun was fired in Brazil for the construction of the climate measurement tower ATTO. Representatives of the Max Planck Society, the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), the Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), and the Brazilian Ministry for Research poured the foundations for a 325 meter high measuring tower, in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. The Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory, ATTO for short, should provide groundbreaking knowledge and the principles for improved climate models, and will be outfitted with measurement equipment for measuring greenhouse gases, aerosol particles, and collecting weather data. The tower will stand in the largest continuous rain forest in the world, and is therefore of great significance to climate researchers. With its height of 325 meters, the ATTO measurement tower makes it possible to investigate the transport and alteration of air masses through the forest over a distance of several hundred kilometers. In addition, measurement instruments mounted high on the tower will reach into stable air layers, in which for example the carbon dioxide concentration is not exposed to the day - night changes due to plants.

On 7 August 2014, a major ecological disaster took place at the Buenavista-mine when 40,000 cubic meters of wastewater spilled into the Bacanuchi river and Sonora river. The chemical, which is used to dissolve copper from ore, turned a 60km stretch of the Sonora River orange, causing the authorities to shut down the municipal water supply to 20,000 people in seven towns.

On 6 August 2014, a new paper appeared in the journal Nature and provides the first direct calculation of mercury in the global ocean from pollution based on data obtained from 12 sampling cruises over the past 8 years. The work, which was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the European Research Council and led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine chemist Carl Lamborg, also provides a look at the global distribution of mercury in the marine environment. Analysis of their results showed rough agreement with the models used previously—that the ocean contains about 60,000 to 80,000 tons of pollution mercury. In addition, they found that ocean waters shallower than about 100 m (300 feet) have tripled in mercury concentration since the Industrial Revolution and that the ocean as a whole has shown an increase of roughly 10 percent over pre-industrial mercury levels.

August 2014 was the warmest on record for the Earth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The combined average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces for August 2014 was record high for the month, at 0.75°C (1.35°F) above the 20th century average of 15.6°C (60.1°F), topping the previous record set in 1998. Records date back to 1880.

On 30 July 2014, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) pressed for speedy regulation of fracking technology, on the occasion of the presentation of UBA's new, 600-page export Fracking II report in Berlin. The Federal Environment Agency recommends a comprehensive risk assessment of all fracking projects for the purpose of gas and oil extraction and for all testing measures. These assessments must become an integral part of an environmental impact assessment which is standardised according to the core principles put forward by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). The UBA – like the BMWi and BMUB – continue to adhere to placing a ban without exception on every form of fracking in water protection areas and medicinal spring protection zones as well as other sensitive areas such as the drainage areas of lakes and river dams, nature conservation areas and Habitats Directive sites.

Australia's biggest coal mine, the $16.5 billion Carmichael Coal and Rail Project in Queensland's Galilee Basin, has been given federal approval. Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the project proposed by Indian company Adani could go ahead, subject to 36 "strict" conditions focused on conserving groundwater. The mine project west of Rockhampton would be one of the biggest in the world, covering 200 square kilometres and producing about 60 million tonnes of coal a year.

More than 350 newly recognised bird species have been assessed by BirdLife International for the first time on behalf of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Worryingly, more than 25% of these newly recognised birds have been listed as threatened on The IUCN Red List - compared with 13% of all birds - making them urgent priorities for conservation action. The first of a two-part comprehensive taxonomic review has focussed on non-passerine birds – such as birds of prey, seabirds, waterbirds and owls – and has led to the recognition of 361 new species, that were previously treated as ‘races’ of other forms. The new total of 4,472 non-passerines implies that previous classifications have undersold avian diversity at the species level by more than 10%.

On 22 July 2014, European Commission proposed a higher energy savings target for 2030. The proposed target goes beyond the 25% energy savings target which would be required to achieve a 40% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030. At the same time the framework on energy efficiency put forward today aims to strike the right balance between benefits and costs.

The Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), one of eight extant pangolins or scaly anteaters as they are also known, was once abundant in China. However, as a result of overexploitation for consumption of its meat and scales, this species is now moving closer to extinction, which is having a devastating impact on the world’s remaining pangolins. This was one of the findings from the first-ever global conference on the conservation of pangolins held by the International Union for Conservation of Nature - Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) Pangolin Specialist Group and co-organized and hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

CO2 emissions from coal power plants in the EU are undermining climate efforts, reveals the “Europe’s Dirty 30” report, released on 22 July 2014, by CAN Europe, WWF, the European Environmental Bureau, the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and Climate Alliance Germany. The “Europe’s Dirty 30” report exposes the top 30 CO2-polluting power plants in the EU, with Germany and the UK ranking joint first, with nine of the dirtiest coal plants each.

On 16 July 2014, an oil spill was spotted within a kilometer of the coastline near the beach playa de El Cabrón, in the town of Agüimes/ Gran Canaria, an area well known for being considered a sanctuary for divers.

As part of the Antarctic Ocean Alliance’s (AOA) proposal to designate marine protected areas (MPA) and marine reserves across 19 regions around Antarctica, the AOA launched on 17 July 2014, its new report titled Antarctic Ocean Legacy: Towards Protection of the Weddell Sea Region. The findings of the report aim to contribute towards ongoing scientific and policy work – currently led by Germany and Russia – on the region, which is located south of the Atlantic Ocean. The Weddell Sea region is renowned for having one of the most intact ecosystems left on earth and for being a major engine of global ocean circulation.

The carbon tax was repealed by the Australian senate on 17 July 2014.

Since the last glacial period so-called thermokarst lakes in Arctic permafrost areas have sequestered more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than they ever previously emitted during their formation. On 16 July 2014, an international team of scientists presents this surprising research result today in an online publication by the journal Nature. The researchers had examined up to 10,000-year-old soil deposits from northern Siberian lakes and calculated for the first time the total carbon balance for several hundred thousand bodies of water. Their conclusion was that the melt water lakes that came into being due to climate warming after the last glacial period emitted large amounts of methane for a short period. In the long run, however, they cooled the climate in the Arctic by absorbing and storing 1.6 times more carbon than they ever released. An increasingly warmer Arctic could reverse this process within a short time, however.

The fifth Petersberg Climate Dialogue took place in Berlin from 14 to 15 July 2014. Federal Environment Minister Hendricks and her Peruvian counterpart Manuel Pulgar Vidal, who will chair the next United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is to be held in Lima, invited some 35 ministers from all regions of the world to the fifth Petersberg Climate Dialogue. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Peruvian President Ollanta Humala also gave keynote speeches. The aim of this year's Petersberg Climate Dialogue was to introduce new ideas into the negotations and discuss new strategies in preparation for the World Climate Conference in Peru in 2014 (COP 20 | CMP 10).

On 11 July 2014, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Belgium jointly published the ‘Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes 1970-2012,' which describes the distribution and impacts of weather, climate and water-related disasters, and highlights measures to increase resilience. The Atlas indicates that from 1970 to 2012, 8,835 disasters, 1.94 million deaths and US$ 2.4 trillion in economic losses were reported as a result of hazards, such as droughts, extreme temperatures, floods, tropical cyclones and related health epidemics. The ten worst reported disasters in terms of lives lost occurred primarily in least developed and developing countries, while economic losses mainly took place in developed countries. The Altas highlights the importance of historical, geo-referenced information about deaths and damages to estimate risks prior to the next disaster so that decisions on reducing potential impacts can be taken. The Atlas was published ahead of the First Session of the Preparatory Committee Meeting for the Third UN World Conference on DRR, and aims to inform the debate on the post-2015 framework for DRR and sustainable development.

The European Commission is urging Germany to take stronger measures to combat water pollution caused by nitrates. The latest figures submitted by Germany in 2012 showed worsening nitrates pollution problems in groundwater and surface waters, including eutrophication of coastal and marine waters, especially in the Baltic Sea. Despite the worsening trends, Germany has not taken sufficient additional measures to reduce and prevent nitrate pollution as required under EU law. On the recommendation of Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik, the Commission is sending a reasoned opinion to ask Germany to comply with EU law in this area. If they fail to do so within two months, the Commission may refer the case to the EU Court of Justice.

Germany’s first UNESCO Water Institute is about to start operating. The new UNESCO Water Institute aims to strengthen global cooperation in policy, research and education about water resources and global change. The treaty was signed in Berlin on 9 July 2014 by the representatives of the German Federal Government and the UNESCO. The Institute has its headquarters at the Federal Institute of Hydrology in Koblenz. It cooperates with the German National Committee for the Water Research programs of UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization. Worldwide, there are now 27 UNESCO Water Institutes and Germany now operates one of them.

On 8 July 2014, the World Biodiversity Council IPBES officially opened its Secretariat in the Federal City of Bonn on the Rhine river. The Federal Government has provided office space in the UN Tower (Langer Eugen). On behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety Parliamentary State Secretary Florian Pronold attended the opening ceremony.

On 2 July 2014, NASA successfully launched its first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) raced skyward from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. Approximately 56 minutes after the launch, the observatory separated from the rocket's second stage into an initial 429-mile (690-kilometer) orbit. OCO-2 will take NASA's studies of carbon dioxide and the global carbon cycle to new heights.

In accordance with last year’s EU Ecodesign Directive, new minimum energy efficiency requirements have been applying to PCs, laptops and servers since 1 July.

On 11 April 2014, the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council of the European Union (COREPER) acknowledged the agreement reached by Member States on the Commission's proposal to amend the 2009 Nuclear Safety Directive. This agreement follows the supportive opinion adopted by the European Parliament in April 2014. The Council still needs to formally adopt the new Directive. The new Directive builds on the lessons learned from Fukushima and the nuclear stress tests and is based on the latest international standards.

Long-term studies conducted by scientists at the institute “Senckenberg am Meer” and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt have revealed obvious changes in the North Sea’s biota. Studies during the past twenty years indicate that southern species increasingly expand northward. Surrounded by a team of scientists, the marine biologist from Frankfurt has studied the fauna at the bottom of the central North Sea for more than 20 years. Using Senckenberg’s own research cutter, samples are taken at approximately 40 stations at the same time each year and analyzed in detail. Long-term studies in the Helgoland Trench (“Tiefe Rinne”) south of the North Sea island in the German Bight confirm this trend. Since 2000, the ratio of warm-water species there has steadily increased and is becoming more stable. Overall, 41 species were collected in the Helgoland Trench in the course of Senckenberg’s long-term study.

On 27 June 2014, in Cascais (Portugal), the OSPAR Commission adopted a landmark Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter along with measures to protect 16 vulnerable species and habitats. The Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter will enable OSPAR countries to substantially reduce marine litter in North-East Atlantic. The Plan will address litter from both land and sea based sources and will result in a reduction in marine litter on coasts and beaches. The Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter will enable OSPAR countries to substantially reduce marine litter in North-East Atlantic. The Plan will address litter from both land and sea based sources and will result in a reduction in marine litter on coasts and beaches.

El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, became the world’s first 100 percent renewable island on 27 June 2014, when it inaugurated a hydro-wind power plant that will be the island's new energy production system.

The European Wilderness Society have published a new European Wilderness Quality Standard and Audit System. This is a standardized and applicable wilderness standard that serves as a basis for effective wilderness protection, designation, restoration, and promotion initiatives across a range of geographic and cultural circumstances in all European Countries.