The Environment Chronicle

Medicinal Plant of the Year 2017 is the oat (Avena sativa).

On 22 March 2017, the Global Nature Fund announced, the choice of the Lake Steinhude in Lower Saxony, Germany as Living Lake of the Year 2017.

In the past the Förderkreis Sporttauchen e.V. selected the water plant of the year. Since 2011 the national divers' associations of Germany, Austria and Switzerland resume this task. The European white water lily is the water plant of the year 2017.

The German city of Essen has won the European Green Capital Award for 2017. The award was presented by Karmenu Vella, EU Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, at a ceremony on 17 June 2015 in Bristol, UK, which currently holds the title. Essen was singled out for its exemplary practices in protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity and efforts to reduce water consumption. Essen participates in a variety of networks and initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve the city’s resilience in the face of climate change.

Bird of the Year 2017 is the tawny owl or brown owl(Strix aluco).

Moss of the Year 2017 is the Comb-moss (Ctenidium molluscum).

Cactus of the year 2017 is the saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea). It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican State of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California. The saguaro blossom is the state wildflower of Arizona.

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has approved the adoption of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. The resolution, adopted on 4 December, recognizes “the importance of international tourism, and particularly of the designation of an international year of sustainable tourism for development, in fostering better understanding among peoples everywhere, in leading to a greater awareness of the rich heritage of various civilizations and in bringing about a better appreciation of the inherent values of different cultures, thereby contributing to the strengthening of peace in the world”.

On 20 December 2016, President Obama announced that he will use his executive authority to permanently ban new offshore drilling in parts of federally owned waters off the Atlantic coast and in the Arctic Ocean.

On 19 December 2016, the Member State Committee unanimously agreed on the identification of four substances of very high concern (SVHCs): bisphenol A, PFDA, PTAP and 4-HPbl. This will bring the total number of substances on the list to 173.

On 15 December 2016, the Regional Court Essen dismissed the “climate lawsuit” of Peruvian mountain guide and farmer Saúl Luciano Lliuya against RWE. The civil court justified its decision inter alia by pointing to a lack of “legal causality,” which it argued does not exist despite the fact that there may be a “scientific causality”. The claimant and his lawyer had hoped to proceed to the evidentiary stage with the aim of clarifying the legal liabilities of large contributors to climate change for providing protection from the risks associated with climate impacts.

On 14 December 2016, the European Parliament and the Council signed into law the new National Emissions Ceilings (NEC) Directive, based on a Commission proposal that sets stricter limits on the five main pollutants in Europe. It will enter into force on 31 December 2016. When fully implemented, the Directive will reduce by almost 50% the negative health impacts of air pollution, such as respiratory diseases and premature death, by 2030. The Directive is the central element of the Commission's more comprehensive Clean Air Programme for Europe. The role of the Member States in coordinating and implementing the Directive at national level is very important. Member States must transpose the Directive into national legislation by 30 June 2018 and produce a National Air Pollution Control Programme by 2019 setting out measures to ensure that emissions of the five main air pollutants are reduced by the percentages agreed by 2020 and 2030.  They must also coordinate with plans in fields such as transport, agriculture, energy and climate.

A ban on fishing below a depth of 800 meters in the North-East Atlantic was backed by Parliament on 13 December 2016. This ban will apply to bottom trawling, which often wrecks sea bed habitats, and also restrict deep-sea fishing to the area where it took place between 2009 and 2011. Tougher checks at sea and transparent data collection rules will also apply.

The European Commission has co-produced an interactive tool consisting of 3 million satellite images collected over the past 32 years. The Global Surface Water Explorer is an online interactive mapping tool that will be accessible to everyone and serve to improve European and global policies for example on climate change and water management. The maps, developed by the Commission's Joint Research Centre and Google Earth Engine, highlight changes in the Earth's surface water over the past 32 years. While the maps show an increase in surface water across Europe due to dam construction and changes in surface water management and storage, parts of Asia have recorded important decreases. Over 70% of the net loss is concentrated in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. Globally, almost 90 000 km² of land have vanished altogether, and over 72 000 km² have gone from being present all year round to being present for only a few months of the year. The maps are available on the Google Earth Engine platform for all users, free of charge. This study is a contribution to the Copernicus Global Land Service, which provides free and open access to the entire dataset. Copernicus satellites Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 will also offer additional radar and optical satellite imagery that will help to further improve the detail and accuracy of the information in the Global Surface Water Explorer in the future.

The iconic giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), one of the world's most recognisable animals and the tallest land mammal, is now threatened with extinction. The species, which is widespread across southern and eastern Africa, with smaller isolated subpopulations in west and central Africa, has moved from Least Concern to Vulnerable due to a dramatic 36-40% decline from approximately 151,702-163,452 individuals in 1985 to 97,562 in 2015. The growing human population is having a negative impact on many giraffe subpopulations. Illegal hunting, habitat loss and changes through expanding agriculture and mining, increasing human-wildlife conflict, and civil unrest are all pushing the species towards extinction. Of the nine subspecies of giraffe, three have increasing populations, whilst five have decreasing populations and one is stable. The update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species was released on 8 December 2016 at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP13) in Cancun, Mexico.

On 7 December 2016 the EU Commission confirmed European conservation legislation as fit for purpose and effective during their meeting. The Commission underscored the role of the Habitats and Birds Directives as key tools for conserving biological diversity. The European Commission announced the creation of an action plan for the targeted improvement of the implementation of nature conservation legislation in the coming years.

On 29 November 2016 a new radiation cover for the Chernobyl reactor ruin was officially put into service, after six years of construction.

Plans for more ambitious national caps on emissions of key pollutants by 2030 won the support of MEPs on 23 November 2016. They had already been informally agreed with the Dutch Presidency of the Council. The new legislation sets out national emission reduction commitments for sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), ammonia (NH3), and fine particulates (less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter).

On 19 November 2016, GOES-R, the first of NOAA’s highly advanced geostationary weather satellites, lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. GOES-R will scan the skies five times faster than today’s GOES spacecraft, with four times greater image resolution and three times the spectral channels. It will provide high-resolution, rapid-refresh satellite imagery as often as every 30 seconds, allowing for a more detailed look at a storm to determine whether it is growing or decaying. GOES-R data will help improve hurricane tracking and intensity forecasts, the prediction and warnings of severe weather, including tornadoes and thunderstorms. Additionally, GOES-R’s improved rainfall estimates will lead to more timely and accurate flood warnings.

On 15 November 2016, the NDC Partnership, a coalition supporting implementation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was launched at the Marrakech Climate Change Conference. The Partnership is co-chaired by Morocco and Germany and hosted by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Air temperatures sampled by at least five different buoys near the North Pole between 86 and 89 degrees north latitude reached from 0 to 1.2 degrees Celsius on 15 November 2016, according to the data from the International Arctic Buoy Programme.

A 15-year recovery plan to improve the state of the highly valuable but at-risk Mediterranean swordfish stock was adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at its 20th Special Meeting, which was held in Vilamoura, Portugal, on 14 to 21 November 2016. Following a proposal tabled by the European Commission (EC) amid concerns about the species’ current rate of depletion, ICCAT contracting parties agreed on a catch limit of 10,500 metric tons (MT) next year and a gradual reduction of 15 percent over the subsequent five years – from 10,185 MT in 2018 to 8,925 MT in 2022.

On 14 November 2016 , the German federal cabinet finally approved the government’s Climate Action Plan 2050 as the basic framework on how Germany is to become largely greenhouse gas neutral in 2050. In a press release, environment minister Barbara Hendricks pointed out that this was the first time Germany set specific emission reduction targets for individual economic sectors.

On 9 November 2016, Germany earned itself the prize of “Fossil of the Day” by the Climate Action Network-International at COP22 in Marrakesh. The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations, members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks. On 8 November 2016, the German government wasn’t able to pass its Climate Protection Plan 2050.

On 10 November 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union finded that Greece has failed to fulfil its obligation to protect the sea turtle (Caretta caretta) in the Bay of Kyparissia. An EU Directive requires the Member States to contribute to ensuring biodiversity through the conservation of wild fauna. In this context the Member States must take all the measures necessary to establish a system of strict protection for certain animal species.

On 8 November 2016 voters in Washington state chose to reject an initiative that would have been the nation’s first tax on carbon pollution from fossil fuels. Initiative 732 managed to draw just 42 percent of the vote in a state largely lauded for its progressive approach to environmental policy.

Africa is the continent that was hit hardest by extreme weather events in 2015. According to the 12th edition of the Global Climate Risk Index, four out of the ten most impacted countries globally are African: Mozambique (Rank 1), Malawi (Rank 3), Ghana and Madagascar (both Rank 8. Heat waves claimed most lives last year. More than 4,300 deaths in India and more than 3,300 deaths in France show that both developing and developed countries are impacted by extraordinary temperatures. People are suffering from lack of protection and insufficient disaster management especially in poor countries. In the 20 year analysis of weather extremes nine out of the ten most affected countries are developing countries in the 'low' or 'lower-middle' income category. These are mostly countries with very low emissions, which are least responsible for climate change. The hardest hit countries in the period 1996-2015 were Honduras, Myanmar and Haiti. From 1996 to 2015, there were more than 530,000 deaths caused by more than 11,000 extreme weather events, as well as nearly 3.3 trillion US-Dollars (in Purchasing Power Parities, PPP) in damages. The Global Climate Risk Index 2017 was published on 8 November 2016 at the outset of the climate summit in Marrakech, Morocco.

The twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) and the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 12) was held in Bab Ighli, Marrakech, Morocco from 7-18 November 2016.

The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, officially enters into force on 4 November 2016 - four years earlier than originally expected. 94 Parties have ratified of 197 Parties to the Convention (3 November 2016). As of 3 November 2016, the Paris Agreement has been ratified by 94 countries representing 66 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. For the agreement to enter into force it needed to be ratified by 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions.

At the launch of the UN Biodiversity Conference in Cancún, Mexico, ministers from all over the world committed to mainstreaming biological diversity into other policy areas such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism. This is laid down in the Cancún Declaration adopted on 3 December 2016 at the conclusion of the high-level segment. In the declaration, ministers reaffirm the 2010 decision by the CBD parties to phase out incentives and subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity. Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks participated in the high-level segment for Germany.

For each ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) that any person on our planet emits, 3 m² of Arctic summer sea ice disappear. This is the finding of a study that was published in the journal Science on 3 November 2016 by Dr. Dirk Notz, leader of Max Planck research group "Sea Ice in the Earth System" at the Max Planck Institute for Metorology (MPI-M) and by Prof. Julienne Stroeve from the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado, and the University College London, UK. These numbers allow one for the first time to grasp the individual contribution to global climate change. The study also explains why climate models usually simulate a lower sensitivity - and concludes that the 2 °C global warming target will not allow Arctic summer sea ice to survive.

Unusually high air temperatures and a warm ocean have led to a record low Arctic sea ice extent for November, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctic sea ice extent also hit a record low for the month, caused by moderately warm temperatures and a rapid shift in circumpolar winds. Arctic sea ice extent averaged 9.08 million square kilometers for November 2016, 1.95 million square kilometers below the 1981 to 2010 long-term average for the month.

To send a clear signal regarding the protection and sustainable use of natural raw materials, so that the basis of life on the planet Earth is preserved, for future generations as well as our own: this is one of the major goals which the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) aims to achieve with the presentation of its 2016 German Environmental Prize. The Environmental Prize recipients are such pioneers: on 30 October 2016 in Würzburg, German President Joachim Gauck personally handed to the entrepreneur Bas van Abel, the scientist Prof. Dr.-Ing. Angelika Mettke, and the entrepreneur Walter Feeß the largest independent environmental prize in Europe. Van Abels company “fairphone” has as its goal the production of an ethically viable smartphone which causes the least possible damage to the environment and does not exploit humans in its manufacture. We are delighted to honor, in Bas van Abel, a pioneer for more resource efficiency in the smartphone industry. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Angelika Mettke and Walter Feeß receive this year’s German Environmental Prize for their leading roles in bringing the circular recycling economy to the construction industry. We are delighted to recognize Mettke and Feeß for their work to encourage the use of recycled concrete elements and the concrete recycling process. With their commitment, both prize recipients have broken through entrenched structures in the raw materials economy.

The world's experts on Antarctic marine conservation have agreed to establish a marine protected area (MPA) in Antarctica's Ross Sea. This week at the Meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Hobart, Australia, all Member countries have agreed to a joint USA/New Zealand proposal to establish a 1.55 million km2 area of the Ross Sea with special protection from human activities. This new MPA, to come into force in December 2017, will limit, or entirely prohibit, certain activities in order to meet specific conservation, habitat protection, ecosystem monitoring and fisheries management objectives. Seventy-two percent of the MPA will be a 'no-take' zone, which forbids all fishing, while other sections will permit some harvesting of fish and krill for scientific research.

In a landmark decision for both the environment and human health, 1 January 2020 has been set as the implementation date for a significant reduction in the sulphur content of the fuel oil used by ships. The decision to implement a global sulphur cap of 0.50% m/m (mass/mass) in 2020 was taken by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the regulatory authority for international shipping, during its Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), meeting for its 70th session in London. It represents a significant cut from the 3.5% m/m global limit currently in place and demonstrates a clear commitment by IMO to ensuring shipping meets its environmental obligations.

The WWF’s Living Planet Report 2016 shows how people are overpowering the planet for the first time in Earth’s history and highlights the changes needed in the way society is fed and fuelled. According to the report, global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles have already declined by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012, the most recent year with available data. The WWF report uses the Living Planet Index, provided by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), to monitor trends in wildlife abundance. This index reports how wildlife populations have changed in size, rather than the specific number of animals that have been lost or gained. The top threats to species identified in the report are directly linked to human activities, including habitat loss, degradation and overexploitation of wildlife.

The population of critically endangered Mekong River Dolphins (Irrawaddy Dolphins) in the Cheuteal trans-boundary pool between southern Laos and northern Cambodia has shrunk by 50 per cent this year alone and the population is functionally extinct in Laos, according to WWF. WWF survey teams from Laos and Cambodia conducted a dolphin abundance survey and confirmed the current number and breeding status of the dolphins in the transboundary pool. Down to just three individuals – from six just earlier this year – there is now little hope for a reversal of the situation, as the small population is no longer viable.

The proposal for a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic, which was presented at the 65th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Slovenia, has failed to reach the required support. Consensus was not reached on a proposal for the establishment of a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic and therefore a vote was required. As a potential amendment to the IWC Schedule (the document which sets out specific IWC regulations) this vote required a three quarters majority in order to succeed. 64 governments were present with 38 voting yes, 24 voting no, and 2 abstentions. The three quarters majority was not met and the proposal was not passed.

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2016 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, has decided to bestow the 2016 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement for more than two decades of work aimed at reducing the role of human activity on global warming. The Jury has highlighted the importance of this Agreement in the context of international cooperation, as a project that looks to the future to help all countries move together toward a cleaner and more sustainable model.

Avenue of the Year 2016 is a maple avenue between Pölitz and Warnkenhagen in the district of Rostock in the north of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.