The Environment Chronicle

On 19 December 2007, the General Assembly declared the period 2010-2020 as the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification, on the recommendation of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (resolution 62/195).

The International Polar Year 2007/08 was launched in March 2007, and will continue through early 2009. During this time, a regular sequence of International Polar Days will raise awareness and provide information about particular and timely aspects of the polar regions. December 13th, 2007 was the second International Polar Day, this time focusing on Ice Sheets.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore (former vice-president of the USA) receive Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Each year the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS) announces its selection of the top-ranked words of the year. The German "Word of the Year" for 2007 is Klimakatastrophe.

Dresden Elbe Valley has received the UNESCO World Heritage status in 2004. In 2006 it has been placed on the red list because of the planned Waldschlößchen bridge. The building of this bridge has been started on November, 19th 2007. UNESCO is expected to retract World Heritage status in July 2008.

The National Strategy on Biological Diversity was adopted by the federal cabinet on 7 November 2007.

The International Polar Year 2007/08 was launched in March 2007, and will continue through early 2009. During this time, a regular sequence of International Polar Days will raise awareness and provide information about particular and timely aspects of the polar regions. On September 21, 2007, the International Polar Year (IPY) was launched its first ‘International Polar Day’, focusing on Sea Ice.

The World Heritage Committee took the unprecedented decision of removing a site from UNESCO's World Heritage List: the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary (Oman), home to the rare antelope, because of Oman’s decision to reduce the size of the protected area by 90%, in contravention of the Operational Guidelines of the Convention. In 1996, the population of the Arabian Oryx in the site was at 450 but it has since dwindled to 65.

An alliance of 44 stakeholders joined the European Commission in organising the first ever European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW). This initiative, destined to be the key annual reference point for sustainable energy issues, brought together more than 5,000 experts and decision-makers at a multitude of events in Belgium, Austria, France and Spain during the week of 29 January 2007. Key events of the EUSEW week included the European Renewable Energy Policy Conference and the annual ManagEnergy Conference, which generated ideas, and developed solutions and action plans for different sectors of the economy. The European Commission intends to repeat this very successful event next year.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a major worldwide tree planting campaign. Under the "Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign" people, communities, organizations, business and industry, civil society and governments are being encouraged to plant trees and enter their tree planting pledges on this web site. The objective is to plant at least one billion trees worldwide in 2007. The idea for the "Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign" was inspired by Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 2004 and founder of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 30 million trees in 12 African countries since 1977.