The Environment Chronicle

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

The international community has agreed for the very first time on common, political guiding principles for urban development in the decades ahead. The New Urban Agenda was adopted on 20 October 2016 at the end of the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in the Ecuadorian capital Quito. With the adoption of the New Urban Agenda, the UN member states have committed to involving cities to a greater extent in their policies and measures and improving the framework for achieving sustainable and integrated urban development. This will enhance local capacity to act, financial options and participation. The overarching goal is implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement at local level.

The European Union has submitted a proposal, prepared by Germany, to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) for a marine protected area (MPA) in the Antarctic Weddell Sea. AWI scientists have compiled and analysed the scientific data on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Christian Schmidt, German Minister for Food and Agriculture, explains: "The marine protection area should be reserved for scientific research and strengthen international cooperation in this area. Both form the pillars of the Antarctic Treaty. It is our historic task to protect unique ecosystems like Antarctica."

On 15 October 2016 representatives from nearly 200 member countries of the Montreal Protocol agreed on a deal to reduce emissions of powerful greenhouse gases at a summit in Kigali, Rwanda. The landmark deal will reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, the world's fastest-growing greenhouse gases, the UN Environment Program said in a statement.

On 13 October 2016 seventy-five diverse civil society organisations joined forces to formally launch SDG Watch Europe. This broad coalition will work to ensure that the European Union and its Member States live up to their commitments, made when signing the Agenda 2030 agreement in New York September 2015, to enable a sustainable future at home and abroad. A year ago, governments across the world agreed on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that calls for a bold transformation in policy and practice. Its 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are aimed at ensuring that decisions by governments contribute to a more sustainable, inclusive and equal future for all by 2030.

Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks has welcomed the agreement reached by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to limit greenhouse gas emissions caused by aviation. Following on from the Paris Agreement, this agreement represents the first sector-specific mechanism for combating climate change. The global market-based measure (GMBM) will offset greenhouse gas emissions from aviation. Moreover, countries can implement their own additional climate measures for aviation. The ICAO aims to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020. To this end, a global Market-based measure (GMBM) was agreed, to be implemented in phases, which envisages a gradual offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions from aviation. It will be launched in 2021 and participation will initially be voluntary.

Germany is officially a Party to the Paris Agreement. On 5 October at the United Nations in New York, the German Government deposited its instrument of ratification along with the European Commission and other EU Member States.

On 4 October 2016, in the presence of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the United Nation's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the President of COP 21 Ségolène Royal, the European Parliament approved the ratification of the Paris Agreement by the European Union.

India, one of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, will ratify the Paris global climate agreement pact on 2 October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on 26 September 2016. "Ratification is yet to be done and India too is yet to do it. I announce that India will ratify the decision on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi," Mr Modi said in a speech at a national meeting of his ruling party in the southern state of Kerala.

On 30 September 2016, EU ministers approved the ratification of the Paris Agreement by the European Union. The decision was reached at an extraordinary meeting of the Environment Council in Brussels.

The Parties of CITES had weighed four proposals to protect four Asian and four African species of pangolins, and chose to give them the strongest possible global protections from trade. Pangolins are the most illegally traded mammal in the world. The decisions were reached at the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP 17) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Johannesburg, South Africa, and as a result, the international commercial trade of all eight species of pangolin and pangolin parts is officially prohibited.

The Dutch parliament has voted for a 55% cut in CO2 emissions by 2030, which would require the closure of all the country’s coal-fired power plants. The unexpected vote on 21 Setember 2016 by 77 to 72 would bring the Netherlands clearly into line with the Paris climate agreement, with some of the most ambitious climate policies in Europe. It is not binding on the government. A court in the Netherlands last year ordered prime minister Mark Rutte’s government to cut its emissions by a quarter by 2020, citing the severity of the global warming threat which the Netherlands has recognised in international treaties.

On 13 September 2016 Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, officially unveiled the MeyGen Project, the world’s largest free stream tidal power project, at a ceremony held at the Nigg Energy Park (“Nigg”) in Scotland. After the ceremony the turbine, measuring about 15 metres tall, with blades 16 metres in diameter, and weighing in at almost 200 tonnes, will begin its journey to the project’s site in the waters off the north coast of Scotland between Caithness and Orkney. The turbine will be the first of four to be installed underwater, each with a capacity of 1.5 megawatts, in the initial phase of the project.

On 7 September 2016 Ecuador began pumping its first crude oil from the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) block in Yasuní National Park.

The Eastern Gorilla – the largest living primate – has been listed as Critically Endangered due to illegal hunting, according to the latest update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ released on 4 September 2016 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress taking place in Hawaiʻi. IUCN Red List update also reports the decline of the Plains Zebra due to illegal hunting, and the growing extinction threat to Hawaiian plants posed by invasive species. Thirty eight of the 415 endemic Hawaiian plant species assessed for this update are listed as Extinct and four other species have been listed as Extinct in the Wild, meaning they only occur in cultivation. The IUCN Red List now includes 82,954 species of which 23,928 are threatened with extinction. This update of The IUCN Red List also brings some good news and shows that conservation action is delivering positive results. Previously listed as Endangered, The Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is now listed as Vulnerable, as its population has grown due to effective forest protection and reforestation.

On 3 September 2016 Presidents of China and the United States handed over their countries' instruments of joining the Paris Agreement separately to Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon in Hangzhou.

On 10 September 2016 the IUCN Congress closed with the presentation of the Hawai'i Commitments. This document, titled “Navigating Island Earth”, was shaped by debates and deliberations over 10 days, and opened for comment to some 10,000 participants from 192 countries. More than 100 resolutions and recommendations have been adopted by IUCN Members – a unique global environmental parliament of governments and NGOs – calling on third parties to take action on a wide range of urgent conservation issues. Key decisions included closure of domestic markets for elephant ivory, the urgency of protecting the high seas, the need to protect primary forests, no-go areas for industrial activities within protected areas and an official IUCN policy on biodiversity offsets.

On 31 August 2016, Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc. announced the alarming results of the Great Elephant Census (GEC), the first-ever pan-African survey of savanna elephants. Revealed at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress, the GEC shows a decline of 30 percent in African savanna elephant populations in 15 of the 18 countries surveyed. Over a two-year period, using standardized data collection and validation methods, the GEC accurately determined the number and distribution of the great majority of African savanna elephants and provides a baseline for future surveys and trend analyses. Final results show: Savanna elephant populations declined by 30 percent (equal to 144,000 elephants) between 2007 and 2014. The current rate of decline is 8 percent per year, primarily due to poaching. The rate of decline accelerated from 2007 to 2014. 352,271 elephants were counted in the 18 countries surveyed.

On 26 August 2016, President Obama signed a proclamation expanding the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Previously the largest contiguous fully-protected conservation area in the United States at 362,073 km2, the expanded boundaries make it once again the biggest protected area on the planet at 1,508,870 km2, nearly the size of the Gulf of Mexico.

James Cook University (JCU), University of Sydney and Queensland University of Technology scientists working with laser data from the Royal Australian Navy have discovered a reef behind the Great Barrier Reef. JCU’s Dr Robin Beaman says the high-resolution seafloor data provided by LiDAR-equipped aircraft have revealed great fields of unusual donut-shaped circular mounds, each 200-300 metres across and up to 10 metres deep at the centre. “We’ve known about these geological structures in the northern Great Barrier Reef since the 1970s and 80s, but never before has the true nature of their shape, size and vast scale been revealed,” he said. The fields of circular donut-shaped rings are Halimeda bioherms, large reef-like geological structures formed by the growth of Halimeda, a common green algae composed of living calcified segments.

A University of Alaska Fairbanks-led research project has provided the first modern evidence of a landscape-level permafrost carbon feedback, in which thawing permafrost releases ancient carbon as climate-warming greenhouse gases. The study was published on 22 August 2016 in the journal Nature Geoscience. The project studied lakes in Alaska, Canada, Sweden and Siberia where permafrost thaw surrounding lakes led to lake shoreline expansion during the past 60 years. Using historical aerial photo analysis, soil and methane sampling, and radiocarbon dating, the project quantified for the first time the strength of the present-day permafrost carbon feedback to climate warming. Although a large permafrost carbon emission is expected to occur imminently, the results of this study show nearly no sign that it has begun.

On 16 September 2016, the luxury ship Crystal Serenity completed historic Northwest Passage Journey. The largest cruise ship to sail the Northwest Passage docked on the West Side of Manhattan, New York. On 16 August Crystal Serenity departed from Sward, Alaska carrying 1,700 passengers and crew, and escorted by an icebreaker.

On 5 August 2016 the Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA cancelled the process for licensing the São Luiz do Tapajós megadam in the heart of the Amazon. The 8,000-megawatt São Luiz do Tapajós dam would have been the sixth-largest hydroelectric dam in the world, spanning the five-mile wide Tapajós river and drowning 376 sq km (145 sq miles) of rainforest that is home to some 12,000 Munduruku Indians. But in an unexpected announcement, the Ibama protection agency on Thursday cancelled development permits saying that an environmental impact study submitted by a consortium of Brazilian, European and other companies seeking to build the dam had failed to present enough evidence to judge its social and ecological impacts.

On 27 July 2016 the European Commission took the decision to register the 'People4Soil' European Citizens' Initiative. The 'People4Soil' European Citizens' Initiative invites the Commission to "recognise soil as a shared heritage that needs EU level protection and develop a dedicated legally binding framework covering the main soil threats." The registration of the 'People4Soil' initiative will take place on 12 September.

Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg have just flown all around the world in their solar aircraft "Solar Impulse 2", which is powered by four solar electric motors. The two scientists took off from Abu Dhabi on 9 March 2015, and landed back there on 26 July 2016 after flying more than 40,000 kilometres across two oceans and four continents. That is the first circumnavigation of the world in an airplane powered by renewable energy rather than fossil fuel. The two men want their mission to promote the use of renewable energy in the fight to mitigate climate change.

A UN committee has found that the EU is breaching the Aarhus Convention access to justice law. The Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee ruled after ClientEarth brought a case against the EU for stopping citizens taking environmental cases to the European Court of Justice. The Committee said the way the European Court of Justice has been interpreting EU rules on access to the court breaches the Aarhus Convention. The regulation which applies the Convention also puts the EU in violation of the Convention. The Committee called for the regulation to be amended to ensure individuals and NGOs go to court to challenge the decisions of EU institutions in environmental matters. A UN committee has found that the EU is breaching the Aarhus Convention access to justice law. The Committee said the way the European Court of Justice has been interpreting EU rules on access to the court breaches the Aarhus Convention. The regulation which applies the Convention also puts the EU in violation of the Convention. The Committee called for the regulation to be amended to ensure individuals and NGOs go to court to challenge the decisions of EU institutions in environmental matters.

On 22 July 2016, the Commission authorised three GMOs for food/feed uses, all of which have gone through a comprehensive authorisation procedure, including a favourable scientific assessment by EFSA. The authorisation decisions do not cover cultivation. The GMOs approved on 22 July had received "no opinion" votes from the Member States in both the Standing and Appeal Committees and the Commission adopted the pending decisions. The authorisations are valid for 10 years, and any products produced from these GMOs will be subject to the EU's strict labelling and traceability rules.

On 21 July 2016, the Mexican government announced new vaquita protections in the upper Gulf of California, the only place in the world where the vaquita lives. From September 2016, Mexico will permanently ban the use of gillnets throughout the range of vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus) in the upper Gulf of California. With just 60 individuals remaining in the wild, the vaquita porpoise is the world’s smallest, rarest and most threatened marine mammal. Night fishing will also be phased out by the end of this year, Mario Aguilar Sánchez, Mexico’s National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commissioner, told reporters.

On 19 July 2016 Germany presented first report on the implementation of the global Sustainable Development Goals to the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Germany is one of the first countries to report on its efforts to implement the goals. The German implementation report was compiled with input from German civil society representatives. That is why, in New York, the German government presented the report together with the Federation of German Industries, the German Trade Union Confederation, the German NGO Forum on Environment and Development, and the Association of German Development and Humanitarian Aid Non-Governmental Organisations (VENRO).

On 18 July 2016 the Council adopted a new regulation which updates the multiannual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The new rules improve the existing recovery plan. The regulation transposes into Union law measures adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) between 2012 and 2014. In particular it transposes recommendation 14-04, which rationalises the existing control provisions and sets out procedures in relation to the use of stereoscopic cameras, release operations and the treatment of dead fish in the recovery plan. The plan for Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) applies from 2007 until 2022. It was recommended by ICCAT, an inter-governmental fishery organisation responsible for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas. The EU is a contracting party to ICCAT. This adoption by the Council confirms the first reading agreement reached with the European Parliament in April 2016. The regulation will enter into force and become applicable by the end of 2016.

On 13 July 2016 the European Commission took an important step towards halting biodiversity loss, adopting a list of invasive alien species that require action across the EU. The list contains 37 species that cause damage on a scale that justifies dedicated measures across the Union.

On 11 July 2016 Member states backed a proposal by the European Commission to put limits on the use of the weed-killer glyphosate in the 28-nation bloc, including a ban on one co-formulant called POE-tallowamine. Other measures approved by the EU expert panel include reinforcing the scrutiny of glyphosate use before harvest and restricting the use of the substance in areas like public parks and playgrounds.

To learn more about the specific impacts of climate change and the research work being conducted in the region, Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks visited Svalbard from 11 to 15 July 2016. Her trip to the Norwegian Arctic was conducted in cooperation with the Norwegian environment ministry. The Director of the AWI, Professor Karin Lochte, accompanied Minister Hendricks on her trip.

Plans to update EU type approval rules and emission limits for internal combustion engines in non-road mobile machinery (NRMM), such as lawn mowers, bulldozers, diesel locomotives and inland waterway vessels, were backed by MEPs on 5 July 2016. NRMM engines account for about 15% of all NOx and 5% of particulate emissions in the EU. The legislation defines engine categories, which are divided into sub-categories according to their power range. For each category, it sets emission limits for CO, HC, NOX and particulate matter (PM) and deadlines for implementing them, starting from 2018. The plans include a new in-service engine performance monitoring system which should close the current gap between laboratory emission test figures and those measured in the real world.