The Environment Chronicle

Gazprom sent its first shipment of oil from its controversial Russian Arctic offshore platform on 18 April 2014, a landmark event that Russian President Vladimir Putin said would contribute to economic growth.

Measures to stop invasive alien species of plants animals or insects getting into the EU, or limit the ecological and economic damage caused by those that do, were backed by European Parliament on 16 april 2014. The legislation bans species declared to be of “Union concern” and requires more and better-coordinated action by member states to tackle the threat. The legislation would require EU member states to ascertain the routes of introduction and spread of invasive alien species (IAS) and set up surveillance systems and action plans. Official checks at EU borders would also be stepped up. For widespread IAS, member states would have to draw up management plans.

EU countries would have to reduce the use of the most common and most polluting plastic bags by at at least 80% by 2019, under draft rules backed by Parliament on 16 April 2014. MEPs say that lightweight plastic bags thinner than 50 microns – the vast majority of plastic carrier bags used in the EU – are less reusable than thicker models and become waste more quickly. They are also more prone to littering the environment. Member states would have to at least halve their consumption by 2017 and reduce it by 80% two years later - compared to 2010 figures. They should use measures such as taxes, levies, marketing restrictions or bans to stop shops from giving out plastic bags for free, except for very light ones, used to wrap loose foods such as raw meat, fish and dairy products. Plastic bags used to wrap foods such as fruit, vegetables and confectionery should be replaced by 2019 by carrier bags made of recycled paper or biodegradable and compostable bags. Requirements for compostable and biodegradable packaging should be amended, MEPs say.

The chief warden of Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park, Emmanuel de Merode, has been shot in an ambush, according to a statement on the park’s official website. De Merode was attacked while travelling from the provincial capital of Goma to the park’s headquarters on 15 April 2014.

On 17 April 2014, the European Parliament endorsed a Directive for Maritime Spatial Planning which should help Member States develop plans to better coordinate the various activities that take place at sea, ensuring they are as efficient and sustainable as possible. With rapidly increasing demand for maritime space for new activities, from renewable energy to aquaculture installations, better and coherent planning of maritime activities at sea is indeed needed. The Directive sets minimum requirements for the drawing up of national maritime spatial plans. These plans will identify all existing human activities, taking into account land-sea interactions, and the most effective way of managing them.

On 13 April 2014 the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented the third part of its report in Berlin. The report makes it clear that the internationally agreed target of limiting temperature change to a maximum of 2°C can still be met through ambitious climate policy. The scientists have illustrated a range of options on how this can be achieved. According to the report, further delays in implementing ambitious mitigation measures would drastically reduce the number of technological options available and significantly increase mitigation costs.

On 11 April 2014, 2.4 million residents in the capital of Gansu province were warned by the government not to use tap water after tests showed excessive levels of carcinogenic benzene in the city's water supply. Tests on Friday showed benzene levels had reached 200 micrograms per litre - 20 times the national safety standard.

On 3 April 2014, BirdLife Partners DOPPS (Slovenia) and NABU (Germany) submitted three formal complaints to the European Commission, asking for legal action against their respective governments. In both countries, evidence shows widespread loss of farmland birds, even in protected areas such as Natura 2000 sites. This is part of an EU wide crisis involving the massive conversion of biodiversity rich grasslands to maize fields and the ever more intensive use of grasslands for fodder. Heavy subsidies for biogas production drive this crisis and subsequently increase the further intensification of livestock production.

On 3 April 2014, the United States Justice Department announced the biggest environmental cash settlement in history, securing a $5.15 billion deal with Anadarko Petroleum to clean up dozens of sites across the country and compensate more than 7,000 people living with the effects of the contamination. The agreement resolves claims stemming from the toxic legacy of one of the oil firm’s subsidiaries, Kerr-McGee, which operated a range of U.S. chemical, energy and manufacturing businesses over 85 years.

On 3 April 2014 the roughly 2.3-ton, four-metre-high, two-and-a-half-metre-wide satellite Sentinel-1A was launched from the European Spaceport in French Guiana at 23:02 CEST (18:02 local time). The launch of Sentinel-1A also marks the start of the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA) Earth observation programme called Copernicus. The mission is the first of six families of dedicated missions that will make up the core of Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring network. Copernicus will provide operational information on the world’s land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere to support environmental and security policymaking and the needs of individual citizens and service providers. “The launch of the first Sentinel-1 satellite marks a change in philosophy for our Earth observation programmes,” said Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes. “In meteorology, satellites have been providing reliable data for weather forecasts for over 35 years. satellites have been providing reliable data for weather forecasts for over 35 years. With the Copernicus programme, we will now have a similar information source for environmental services as well as for applications in the security and disaster management domain.”

An international team of researchers headed by Potsdam scientist Dr. Markus Rex from the Alfred Wegener Institute has discovered a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon over the South Seas. Over the tropical West Pacific there is a natural, invisible hole extending over several thousand kilometres in a layer that prevents transport of most of the natural and manmade substances into the stratosphere by virtue of its chemical composition. Like in a giant elevator, many chemical compounds emitted at the ground pass thus unfiltered through this so-called “detergent layer” of the atmosphere. Scientists call it the “OH shield”. The newly discovered phenomenon over the South Seas boosts ozone depletion in the polar regions and could have a significant influence on the future climate of the Earth – also because of rising air pollution in South East Asia.

Climbers scaling Mount Everest will have to bring back 8kg (17.6lb) of rubbish under rules designed to clean up the world's highest peak. The rule, one of several new measures for mountaineering in Nepal, will apply to climbers ascending beyond Everest's base camp from April 2014 , said tourism ministry official Madhusudan Burlakoti on 3 March 2014. Authorities would take legal action against climbers who failed to comply, Burlakoti said.

For the first time, monthly concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million (ppm) in April 2014 throughout the northern hemisphere. This threshold is of symbolic and scientific significance and reinforces evidence that the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities are responsible for the continuing increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gases warming our planet. All the northern hemisphere monitoring stations forming the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch network reported record atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the seasonal maximum. This occurs early in the northern hemisphere spring before vegetation growth absorbs CO2.

On 31 March 2014, the International Court of Justice in The Hague announced their binding decision today in the landmark case of Australia v. Japan, ruling that Japan’s JARPA II whaling program in the Antarctic is not for scientific purposes and ordering that all permits given under JARPA II be revoked.

On 31 March 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the second part of their fifth assessment report „Climate change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability“ in Yokohama. The focus of this second part lies on the effects that climate change has on the ecosystems of our planet, as well as on how humans, animals and plants can adapt.

On 24 March the Council triggered a series of measures affecting the trade in fisheries products and other fisheries- related activities with Belize, Cambodia and Guinea in or der to put a stop to commercial benefits stemming from illegal fishing activities. Ultimately, fisheries products caught by vessels from these countries will be banned from being imported into the EU(6262/14).

The Sixth Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety was held from 24 March to 4 April 2014 at the IAEA Headquarters, in Vienna, Austria.

On 23 March 2014, the gates of Morelos Dam on the Arizona-Mexico border were lifted to allow a "pulse flow" of water into the final stretch of the Colorado River. Officials and scientists hope the water will help restore a landscape that has long been arid but that once supported a rich diversity of life. As agreed upon by the U.S. and Mexico, the total amount of flow over the period will be 105,392 acre-feet of water (130 million cubic meters). This is the first time that water has ever been released into Mexico for environmental purposes.

On 19 March 2014 , the Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) project launched its Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, a visually attractive and interactive online mapping platform detailing around 1000 environmental conflicts (and growing). It allows users to search and filter across 100 fields and to browse by commodity, company, country and type of conflict.

On 18 March 2014, around 60 activists from environmental group Greenpeace occupied France’s oldest nuclear power station Fessenheim. The activists who include nationals from several European countries broke into the Fessenheim plant in the early hours of the morning. Some of them climbed up to the roof of part of the plant next to one of the nuclear reactors to unfurl a banner reading “Stop risking Europe”. French police arrested 57 Greenpeace activists.

17 March 2014 marked the start of regular reduced carbon permit auctions in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) under the backloading plan.

On 17 March 2014 Paris instituted a one-day car ban. By government decree, half the cars in the city were not allowed to hit the streets, lest their owner be hit with a €22 fine.

On 13 March 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency and BP executed an agreement resolving all suspension and debarment actions against BP that barred the company from doing business with the federal government following the company’s guilty plea in the Deepwater Horizon disaster of April 2010. The administrative agreement will be in place for five years.

A proposed update of EU law to make environmental impact assessments clearer, ensure they take account of biodiversity and climate change and involve the public, was backed by the European Parliament on 12 March 2014 in Strasbourg. This update, already informally agreed with the Council of Ministers, was approved by 528 votes to 135, with 15 abstentions.

An Italian judge has ordered the shutdown of a coal-fired power plant that has been blamed for at least 442 deaths. On 11 March 2014, police followed the judge’s orders and shut down the two 330-Megawatt coal-fired units of the Vado Ligure plant.

EU states would have to reduce the consumption of most common and polluting plastic bags by 80% by 2019, under draft rules backed by the Environment Committee on 10 March 2014. To this end, MEPs recommend using economic instruments such as taxes and levies, marketing restrictions or bans.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia have identified four new human-made gases in the atmosphere. New research published on 9 March 2014 in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals that more than 74,000 tonnes of three new chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and one new hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) have been released into the atmosphere. Scientists made the discovery by comparing today’s air samples with air trapped in polar firn snow – which provides a century-old natural archive of the atmosphere. They also looked at air collected between 1978 and 2012 in unpolluted Tasmania. Measurements show that all four new gases have been released into the atmosphere recently – and that two are significantly accumulating. Emission increases of this scale have not been seen for any other CFCs since controls were introduced during the 1990s. But they are nowhere near peak CFC emissions of the 1980s which reached around a million tonnes a year.

On 5 March 2014, Greenpeace activists from national and regional offices took action across Europe to highlight the risk of ageing nuclear reactors. Greenpeace activists broke into the grounds of nuclear plants in six European countries Wednesday, urging governments to close down ageing reactors on safety grounds.

Sea-level rise not only affects settlement areas for large parts of the world population but also numerous sites of the UNESCO World Heritage. This is shown in a study by Ben Marzeion from the University of Innsbruck and Anders Levermann from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, published on 5 March 2014 in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The UNESCO World Heritage List comprises a total of more than 700 cultural monuments. If global average temperature increases by just one degree Celsius, already more than 40 of these sites will directly be threatened by the water during the next 2000 years. With a temperature increase of three degrees, about one fifth of the cultural world heritage will be affected in the long term.

The EU's TEN-T Programme will invest over €4 million in the development of an open access fast charging station network in Europe. This project aims to create an open access fast charging corridor along major highways connecting Sweden, Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands, to allow 'green' travel between these countries. The pilot project will install a total of 155 chargers along the main motorways: 30 in the Netherlands, 23 in Denmark, 35 in Sweden and 67 in Germany. The new electric vehicle transport road will help accelerate electric vehicle uptake in northern Europe and will serve as best practice to other European countries.

on 27 February 2014 the Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released a joint publication that explains the clear evidence that humans are causing the climate to change, and that addresses a variety of other key questions commonly asked about climate change science.

On 26 February 2014, Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera, visited the Bay of Tic-Toc to inaugurate the new Tic-Toc Marine Park. The reserve spans a marine area of 87,500 hectares, stretching from Punta Yeli to Punta Guala on the southern border of the Los Lagos region. From now on it will be used only for scientific and recreational activities; all industrial activities are prohibited. Located off Chile’s southern coast, the new Tic-Toc Marine Protected Area is an important feeding and nursing ground for the blue whale. In addition to blue whales, unique species of dolphins such as the Chilean dolphin and Peale’s dolphin, as well as two endangered species of otter are found in the Tic-Toc Marine Protected Area ecosystem, says the global conservation organization WWF. The achievement is the result of 15 years of work by several conservation groups to protect the waters against threats such as overfishing and aquaculture activities.

A man in a smog-ridden northern city has become the first person in China to sue the government for failing to curb air pollution, a state-run newspaper reported on 25 February 2014.

New rules designed to achieve the CO2 emission reduction target of 95g/km for new cars by 2020 were endorsed by Parliament on 25 February 2014. The text retains this target, albeit with a one-year “phase-in” period in 2020. It also allows “super credits”, whereby the cleanest cars in each manufacturer’s range count for more than others, to apply from 2020 to 2022. The text was approved by 499 votes in favour, 107 against and 9 abstentions.

On 24 February 2014, a Cabinet Office official told reporters that Tamura city, located around 20 kilometers away from Fukushima, will be open to its former residents, as “The formal lifting of the evacuation order will come on April 1, affecting around 300 people.” .

The Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Pak Agus Dermawan, signed a new regulation,creating the world’s largest manta sanctuary, encompassing a massive 6 million square kilometers of ocean, enforcing full protection for Oceanic and Reef Manta Rays (Manta birostris and Manta alfredi) in Indonesia.

The European Commission has launched legal proceedings against the UK for its failure to cut excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide, a toxic gas. The UK Supreme Court has already declared that air pollution limits are regularly exceeded in 16 zones across the UK. The Court also noted that air quality improvement plans estimate that for London compliance with EU standards will only be achieved by 2025, fifteen years after the original deadline, and in 2020 for the other 15 zones. EU legislation contains flexibility as regards the deadlines for returning air pollution to safe levels. Although the original deadline for meeting the limit values was 1 January 2010, extensions have been agreed with Member States which had a credible and workable plan for meeting air quality standards within five years of the original deadline, i.e. by January 2015. The UK has not presented any such plan for the zones in question. The Commission is therefore of the opinion that the UK is in breach of its obligations under the Directive, and a letter of formal notice has been sent. The UK has two months to respond.

On 20 February 2014 the European Commission published a new report paints a worrying picture of Europe's seas. The Commission's analysis, shows a marine environment that will require urgent efforts to reach good status by 2020. The report, together with the European Environment Agency's "Marine messages" offers the first comprehensive overview of the state of EU seas. Member States have reported on the state of their marine waters, on what they consider to be "good environmental status", and on the targets they have put in place to reach good status.

The Lao government’s decision to forge ahead with the Don Sahong hydropower project in southern Laos, located just one kilometre upstream of the core habitat for Mekong dolphins, could precipitate the extinction of the species from the Mekong River, warns a new WWF brief. According to the WWF paper, the dam builders intend to excavate millions of tonnes of rock using explosives, creating strong sound waves that could potentially kill dolphins which have highly sensitive hearing structures. Increased boat traffic, changes in water quality, and habitat degradation represent other major direct risks to the dolphins, along with the cumulative indirect effects of disturbance and stress. The dam will block the only channel suitable for year-round fish migration, putting the world’s largest inland fishery at risk.

On 20 February 2014, the third “World Ocean Review” (WOR 3) was presented to the public with the motto, »World Ocean Review 3 - Raw materials from the Sea - Opportunities and Risks. The WOR 3, published by the non-profit organization maribus gGmbH with the support of the magazine »mare«, the International Ocean Institute (IOI) and the Cluster of Excellence »The Future Ocean«, describes in detail the known metal and energy commodities in the oceans and illuminates in a scientifically sound and for the layman comprehensible manner the opportunities and risks of mining operations and the use of raw materials in the sea. The new report provides facts about the amount of known oil and gas reserves and the solid gas hydrate deposits below the seafloor. Furthermore, it elaborates on the potential of mineral resources such as manganese nodules, cobalt crusts and massive sulfides. In addition, the report focuses on the responsibility of the international community for environmentally sound exploitation and the international legal challenge for socially just distribution of resources in international waters.