Events Anniversary for 2024-12-25

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.

The European Commission has officially established the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS ERIC), a new pan-European environmental research infrastructure which aims to provide long-term carbon and greenhouse gas observations across the Europe. The ICOS European Research Infrastructure Consortium has been established with eight founding members: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland, which is the ICOS ERIC hosting country, as well as Switzerland which currently has an observer country status. The ICOS has successfully completed almost a decade long process from entering the European Commission ESFRI Roadmap to establishment of the ICOS ERIC. The ICOS ERIC inauguration has been held in Brussels on 24t November 2015 when Robert-Jan Smits has handed out the official plate to the Finnish Minister of Education and Culture Sanni Grahn-Laasonen and ICOS Director General Werner Kutsch in the presence of the hosting country delegation.

On 21 December 2015, Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt gave the go-ahead to the expansion of the Abbot Point Coal Terminal near Bowen in north Queensland, making it one of the world's largest coal ports. The controversial project involves dredging 1.1 million cubic metres of spoil near the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which will then be disposed of on land.

Climate change is rapidly warming lakes across the globe. This is the result of a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and presented on 16 December 2015 during the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). In this first worldwide synthesis of in situ and satellite-derived lake data, the scientists find that lake summer surface water temperatures rose rapidly (global mean = 0.34°C decade−1) between 1985 and 2009. Their analyses show that surface water warming rates are dependent on combinations of climate and local characteristics, rather than just lake location, leading to the counterintuitive result that regional consistency in lake warming is the exception, rather than the rule. The most rapidly warming lakes are widely geographically distributed, and their warming is associated with interactions among different climatic factors—from seasonally ice-covered lakes in areas where temperature and solar radiation are increasing while cloud cover is diminishing (0.72°C decade−1) to ice-free lakes experiencing increases in air temperature and solar radiation (0.53°C decade−1). The pervasive and rapid warming observed here signals the urgent need to incorporate climate impacts into vulnerability assessments and adaptation efforts for lakes.

On 16 December 2015 Environment Ministers of the EU stood up to defend nature, calling for more money for protected areas and opposing a re-opening of the Birds and Habitats Directives. Ariel Brunner, BirdLife Europe Senior Head of Policy, said: “Today’s council conclusions give the European Commission a clear mandate; to not waste time and energy with a destructive reopening of the Birds and Habitats Directives, but to focus on what really matters: proper enforcement and implementation, the dramatic shortfall in funding for conservation and addressing the negative impacts of agriculture.”

A draft decision to raise diesel car emission limits for nitrogen oxides (NOx) by up to 110%, along with the introduction of the long-awaited Real Driving Emissions (RDE) test procedure, is neither explained nor justified, and would undermine the enforcement of existing EU standards, said Environment Committee MEPs, in a resolution, voted on 14 December 2015, which objects to the draft. Parliament has a right to veto the proposal.

On 12 December 2015 the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris adopted the first climate agreement which commits all countries. With this agreement the international community sets itself the internationally binding target of limiting global warming to below 2 degree Celsius. It also lays down that the world must become greenhouse gas-neutral by the second half of the century. The Paris Agreement maps out quite specifically how this target is to be achieved. As of 2020, every five years the countries shall update their nationally determined contributions, which must be as ambitious as possible. That is to say they must be more, not less ambitious than the preceding ones. In addition, every country has to report its GHG emissions to ensure that progress is not only made on paper but in reality. The agreement contains the firm commitment to support developing countries with regard to climate action and mitigation measures. The international community must also support the poorest and most vulnerable countries in coping with damage and loss due to climate change, e.g. via climate risk insurances and better damage prevention. The Paris Agreement overcomes the outdated division between developed and developing countries. Instead of the old division between developed and developing countries a fair differentiation will ensure that contributions are determined by the respective capabilities.

The European Commission has decided to refer Germany to the Court of Justice of the EU over the failure to apply Directive 2006/40/EC (Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive) on mobile air-conditioning systems which prescribes the use of motor vehicles' refrigerants with less global warming potential and the phasing out of certain fluorinated greenhouse gases. The Commission alleges that Germany has infringed EU law by allowing the car manufacturer Daimler AG to place automobile vehicles on the EU market that were not in conformity with the MAC Directive, and failing to take remedial action. Daimler AG invoked safety concerns regarding the use of refrigerants prescribed by the MAC Directive. These concerns were not shared by any other car manufacturer and were rejected by Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, KBA) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC), which undertook an additional risk analysis in 2014. Despite contacts between the Commission and the German authorities in the context of the infringement procedure, Germany has not taken any further steps against the issuing of the type-approval of non-compliant motor vehicles and has not taken appropriate remedial action on the manufacturer. In referring Germany to the Court of Justice, the Commission aims to ensure that the climate objectives of the MAC Directive are fulfilled and that EU law is uniformly applied throughout the EU so as to ensure fair competitive conditions for all economic operators.

On 8 December 2015 the Supreme Court of the Philippines ordered a permanent ban on field trials of genetically engineered (GE) eggplant and a temporary halt on approving applications for the “contained use, import, commercialisation and propagation” of GE crops, including the import of GE products. The court ruled in favour of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, as well as several Filipino activists, academics and politicians. The Supreme Court affirmed the May 2013 Court of Appeals order for the government to prepare an immediate plan of action to rehabilitate field trial sites and protect, preserve, and conserve the environment, and recommend policies and measures to reform the present regulatory process. The temporary ban is in place until a new ‘administrative order’ takes effect, and includes the highly controversial ‘Golden’ rice, an experimental project by International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) that is currently back at the laboratory stage due to poor performance

The Philippines Commission on Human Rights (CHR) announced that it will launch an investigation on 10 December 2015 (International Human Rights Day), which could hold fossil fuel companies responsible for the impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events. This will be the world's first national human rights investigation into big polluters. The 50 companies that will be investigated include Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and ConocoPhillips. They are part of the 90 legal entities that are responsible for the majority of global carbon and methane emissions in the earth’s atmosphere, as identified by peer-reviewed research into so-called ‘Carbon Majors’ published in 2014.

The Guardian reports the Botswana government has sold the rights to frack for shale gas in the Kgalagadi transfrontier park, one of the largest conservation areas in Africa. The park is home to gemsbok desert antelope, black-maned Kalahari lions and pygmy falcons, the paper says. But conservationists and top park officials – who were not informed of the fracking rights sale – are now worried about the impact of drilling on wildlife. Prospecting licences for more than half of the park were granted to a UK-listed company called Karoo Energy in September 2014, although the sale has not been reported previously, the papers says.

How can development banks and other investors decide whether an investment is climate-friendly or not? A new study produced in the context of the German G7 presidency provides answers to this question. The paper was presented on the sidelines of the Climate Change Conference in Paris. It specifically deals with criteria that both public and private investors can use as a guide to ensure that their investments contribute to limiting global warming to below two degrees Celsius. The researchers derive categorisation of possible investments from various 2ºC scenarios. On a positive list there are investments in renewable energies, energy storage and low-carbon transport routes and means, which are important elements in limiting global warming to below two degrees Celsius. On the negative list, however, are investments in construction of new conventional coal power plants, which in principle are not compatible with the 2°C limit according to scientific scenarios.

On 1 December 2015, Japan’s whaling fleet set sail for the Antarctic despite international pressure to end its annual hunts. A mother ship and three other vessels, along with 160 crew, plan to kill 333 minke whales in the Antarctic. The Japanese fisheries agency said the fleet would conduct research, despite the International Court of Justice in den Haag, ruling last year that the hunts were a cover for commercial whaling and have no proven scientific merit.