Overview of news items
Here you will find the news items of selected year.
21 December 2009
Copenhagen: increased support for two-degree target, but emission reductions too low
The political support for limiting the increase in global temperatures to two degrees has grown, but – as was expected – legally binding international agreements have not yet been made. China and India have agreed to an analysis of their greenhouse gas reduction efforts, financial commitments have been made (30 billion dollars in 2010-2012), and an agreement was reached on management of a fund to combat the consequences of climate change in developing countries.
17 December 2009
Contribution of carbon to PM in the Netherlands is several tens of percentage points
Particulate matter (PM) in the Netherlands consists for 20 to 30% of carbon, according to measurements. This part of PM presently is believed to be especially associated with adverse health effects of PM. We found that the contribution of carbon to PM increased with 2 to 3 µg/m3 from rural to urban traffic measurement locations. The increment is attributed to the contribution from traffic as a source of carbon.
16 December 2009
Deforestation’s contribution to global CO2 emissions decreasing
Historically, emissions from deforestation were the dominant cause of increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. However, over the past decades, these emissions - although still considerable in amount - have reduced to about a fourth of the emissions that are related to energy. Therefore, measures to reduce emissions from deforestation should form part of broader packages that also include options for reducing energy emissions.
to the publication to the press release more COP15 related information
13 December 2009
Hot air not necessarily an obstacle for Copenhagen
In Copenhagen, one of three possible solutions could be found to the problem of surplus Russian and Ukrainian emission rights: i) rich countries all agree to reduce more; ii) a more stringent target is set for Russia, with a reserve for national use; iii) Russian emission trade is limited, but at a good price.
In this way, the so-called hot air would not be an obstacle in the process of reaching an agreement.
8 December 2009
Reducing poverty while conserving biodiversity is possible on a local scale
Decision makers are faced with certain challenges when they explore ways of simultaneously achieving the Millennium Development Goals and the CBD 2010 targets for biodiversity conservation. Decreasing poverty usually coincides with decreasing biodiversity, creating a 'win-lose' situation. Reducing poverty while conserving biodiversity - a 'win-win' - can be achieved on a local scale. However, such a positive outcome is hard to realise when all trade-off effects elsewhere and in the future are considered.
7 December 2009
The increase in global greenhouse gas emissions needs to have turned into a decrease by around 2020, to reach a 2 °C target
A new PBL report gives an overview of the implications of the 2 °C target, by systematically presenting information along the causal chain of climate change. One element is that the increase in global greenhouse gas emissions will need to be halted and have turned into a decrease by around 2020. By 2050, global emissions would need to have been reduced by 35 to 55%, compared to 1990 levels. Meeting such targets requires considerable emission reductions in high-income countries, but also early climate-policy involvement of other major economies. The most significant challenges are those of reaching consensus on the contributions from different countries and sectors, and of putting into place the right policies that lead to innovation and fundamental transitions.
2 December 2009
PBL launches special website for climate summit
PBL has launched a special website: www.pbl.nl/cop15, with information on the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, from 7 to 18 December. From today, here you will find the latest publications on climate change, the activities in Copenhagen of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, and answers to questions, such as ‘Which pledges have been announced by the various countries?’, ‘What are the top twenty countries emitting the most CO2 ?’, and ‘What is the basis of the two-degree climate target proposed by the Dutch and European delegations?’.
1 December 2009
Scientific insights UN climate panel still valid; risks need attention
Scientific insights into climate change that form the basis of the negotiations in Copenhagen are still valid. There are no grounds to doubt the conclusions in the IPCC report published in 2007. Since then, observations have been made that could indicate either an acceleration or a deceleration of global warming. However, it is too early to draw final conclusions. What is lacking is any attention paid to the risks of a faster acceleration of climate change.
19 November 2009
The Netherlands will probably attain the EU air quality standards for fine particulate matter
It is likely that the air quality standards for PM2.5 will be met in time under current and proposed national and European policies, assuming average meteorological conditions. In 2015, the Netherlands has to comply with these standards. A very limited number of exceedances of EU limit or target values may occur along busy streets, due to meteorological year-to-year fluctuations.
5 November 2009
Release GISMO User Support System 1.0
The GISMO User Support System (GUSS) allows exploring human development dynamics, which have been used in the report: ‘Beyond 2015: Long-term development and the Millennium Development Goals’. These include long-term trends in population, economy and the environment, and the impacts on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With GUSS, long-term MDG projections for various scenarios can interactively be explored.
29 October 2009
Getting into the Right Lane for 2050
Reasoning back from 2050, specific strategic actions are identified for the EU in the coming five to ten years. Key factors in the analysis are the magnitude and inherent slow pace of change.
The European Union is placed in a visionary global perspective for 2050 of producing food for a global population of nine billion, while minimising biodiversity loss; mitigating climate change, while enhancing energy security; and developing a low-carbon transport system for the EU.
26 October 2009
Averting global environmental problems is feasible and affordable
Current trends in fossil-fuel use and inefficient land use will lead to large global environmental problems with respect to climate change and biodiversity loss. Technical and economically feasible options are available to meet the challenge to avoid these problems. The main issue is that of creating institutional and policy conditions for a more sustainable economy.
21 October 2009
Sustainability Monitor for the Netherlands 2009
In many respects, the Netherlands is a prosperous country, where public health, average incomes and education levels all have increased considerably since the Second World War. People trust each other and trust national institutions. From a sustainable development perspective, attention needs to be directed towards areas of employment and an ageing population, knowledge, and social cohesion. However, the major ‘Concerns for Tomorrow’ are environmentally oriented. Especially, the problems of climate change and biodiversity are persistent, because solutions require an international approach.
7 October 2009
Proposals Copenhagen: 10% short for reaching the 2 °C climate objective
The current proposals for Copenhagen by the developed countries to reduce emissions do not yet suffice to limit global warming to a rise of 2 ˚C. It would require a reduction of 25 to 40% in greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, compared with 1990 levels, whereas the current proposals would lead to a reduction of 10 to 15%. Developed countries as a group would need to increase their reduction targets for 2020 by at least 6 to 10%, in order to keep the 2 ˚C objective within reach.
1 October 2009
Urban increment of carbon in PM caused by traffic
The contribution of carbon to particulate matter is larger in urban areas than outside those areas. The increment in urban EC and OC concentrations was found mainly to be caused by traffic emissions. The average annual increment was about 0.5 μg/m3. As a consequence, the potential to reduce urban background concentrations by abatement of traffic exhaust emissions, is small. However, from a health point of view, a reduction of carbon in PM is believed to be important.
24 September 2009
Dutch nature benefits from current policies but trends are not strong enough
The area devoted to nature conservation is increasing and the environmental and spatial conditions are improving. Nevertheless, the trends are not strong enough to achieve the stated conservation objectives within the desired period. Policy could focus more on the unique natural values which have their origin in the specific conditions found in the Dutch delta. The Nature Balance is an annual assessment of the natural environment and landscape in the Netherlands within the Dutch policy context.
17 September 2009
Sea salt contribution to particulate matter in the Netherlands is small when PM concentrations are high
Measurements and model results confirm that when PM concentrations are high, the contribution of sea salt to PM is less than the averaged annual contribution. In these cases, subtraction of the sea salt contribution appears to have no or hardly any effect on the incidence of PM10 limit value exceedances. Whether current national regulation regarding sea salt needs updating, is subject to further analysis.
2 July 2009
Millennium Development Goals: progress expected, but not enough and not everywhere
More than a billion people live in poverty, without adequate food, safe drinking water or clean energy. Aimed at providing basic quality of life, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are leading on the agenda for development policies. Although substantial progress has been made over the last 15 year, the report shows this to be insufficient for achieving all goals in all regions by 2015. Many of the goals will not even be achieved by 2030. Reducing child mortality by two-thirds seems to be the most difficult target, requiring substantial additional policy efforts.
25 June 2009
Global CO2 emissions: annual increase halved in 2008
Very high oil prices together with a worldwide financial crisis have caused a halving of the annual increase in global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel consumption and cement production. High energy prices and the recession have decreased oil consumption and slowed down increasing coal consumption. Emissions increased by 1.7% in 2008, against 3.3% in 2007. Since 2002, the average annual increase was almost 4%. Also the increased use of biofuels for road transport and wind energy for electricity generation had a noticeable and mitigating impact on CO2 emissions.
22 June 2009
Large contribution of HFC emissions to global warming expected
By 2050, the effect of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) on global warming will be as large as that of 14% of global CO2 emissions, in business-as-usual scenarios. HFCs are strong greenhouse gases, and are used more and more in refrigeration and air conditioning. HFCs are used as substitutes for ozone-depleting gases.
Over the past decades, the reduction in ozone-depleting gases – which are also greenhouse gases – has limited the effects of global warming. The use of HFCs could significantly undo this effect.
11 June 2009
New assessments must answer the question ‘What are priority actions?’
Eight global assessments and outlooks in the field of environment and sustainable development, published in the last two years (2007-2008), have painted a concurrent picture of the world’s major challenges of environmentally sustainable development. The assessments converge in identifying the main environmental challenges in sustainable development; problems that mostly play out on a global scale and require global solutions.
26 May 2009
Worldwide greenhouse gas emissions growing faster since 2000
New data show that global man-made greenhouse gas emissions increased 15% between 2000 and 2005, representing a sharp jump in the rate of emissions growth, which was 3% for the period 1990-1995 and 6% between 1995 and 2000. These conclusions are based on the latest results from a joint project of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).
15 April 2009
Global climate policy will reduce outdoor air pollution
A stringent global climate policy will lead to considerable improvements in local air quality and consequently improves health. Measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to 50% of 2005 levels, by 2050, can reduce the number of premature deaths from the chronic exposure to air pollution by 20 to 40%. Climate policy will already generate air quality improvements in the OECD countries (particularly in the US) in the mid-term, whereas in developing countries these benefits will only in the longer run show to be significant.
15 April 2009
Global climate policy will reduce outdoor air pollution
A stringent global climate policy will lead to considerable improvements in local air quality and consequently improves health. Measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to 50% of 2005 levels, by 2050, can reduce the number of premature deaths from the chronic exposure to air pollution by 20 to 40%. Climate policy will already generate air quality improvements in the OECD countries (particularly in the US) in the mid-term, whereas in developing countries these benefits will only in the longer run show to be significant.
7 April 2009
Background concentrations of particulate matter in a city show little variation
Measurements have shown that the spatial variability of urban background concentrations of particulate matter (PM) is about the same as the estimated measurement accuracy. The differences are 10% or less. The measurements are consistent with the results form the standard air quality calculations for the Netherlands which are yearly produced for air quality reports.
24 February 2009
A global biodiversity assessment model: GLOBIO3
With unchanged policies, terrestrial biodiversity will decrease between 2000 to 2050 at the same pace as during the last century. This was calculated with the GLOBIO3 model, developed by PBL in collaboration with two UNEP institutes. GLOBIO3 is a quantitative model used in the assessment of policy options for reducing global biodiversity loss. The model is used in global studies, such as the OECD Environmental Outlook, GEO4 and TEEB. Recently, the first peer-reviewed article about the model was published in the journal Ecosystems.
23 February 2009
Electric driving; an attractive challenge
Large-scale use of electric vehicles could drastically reduce CO2 emissions, especially if more electricity would be generated by sustainable energy. Moreover, using electric vehicles would diminish city noise pollution. Obstacles currently consist of the high priced batteries, their relatively long rercharging times, the maximum range of electric vehicles and the lack of charging facilities.
18 February 2009
Interpretations of territorial cohesion
In terms of land use, the impacts of territorial cohesion, however interpreted, would be virtually negligible for the Netherlands in the near future. In the long term, territorial cohesion does provide some interesting opportunities. More important for the Netherlands is the impact that territorial cohesion may have on EU policy by improving cross-sectoral coherence.
13 February 2009
Climate benefits of changing diet
Reducing global meat consumption would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut the costs of climate policy substantially. This is the result of a PBL study published in Climatic Change. Apart from a reduction in methane and N2O emissions, vast agricultural areas would become unused, mostly as a result of reduced cattle grazing, and could take up large amounts of carbon. Shifting worldwide to a healthy low-meat diet would reduce the costs of stabilising greenhouse gases at 450 ppm CO2 eq. by more than 50%.
3 February 2009
High emission reductions are necessary for Annex I countries to meet the EU climate target
This study analyses the possible approaches to greenhouse gas abatement by industrialised (Annex I) countries, to calculate their comparability. The reduction targets for Annex I countries and the abatement costs of achieving these different aggregated reduction targets show a wide range. To meet the EU climate target of 2°C, a 30% emission reduction by the EU is needed, combined with comparable reduction efforts by other Annex I countries and a 15 to 30% below-baseline emission reduction by developing countries.
13 January 2009
European nature sensitive to deposition of nitrogen compounds
By 2010, nitrogen deposition will put the sustainability of about 70% of nature in the EU27 at risk. This was calculated by the Coordination Centre for Effects (CCE), using the new European critical loads database. This database provides scientific support for revising European air pollution abatement policies. The CCE Status Report 2008 also tentatively describes nitrogen effects on species diversity and ecosystem functions.
13 January 2009
Near-linear cost increase to reduce climate-change risk
The relationship between the costs of climate policy and the risks of climate change may look more favorable than commonly perceived. These findings are recently published in PNAS. The research analyzed the relationship between mitigation costs and the likelihood of achieving a climate target. It found that the costs associated with achieving such a target do not necessarily increase exponentially - but instead increase nearly linearly. In economic terms, there is a nearly proportional return on investment in mitigation in terms of increasing the probability of reaching temperature targets (such as the EU 2 degrees target).
