Destruction of nature as dangerous as climate change, scientists warn

Unsustainable exploitation of the natural world threatens food and water security of billions of people, major UN-backed biodiversity study reveals
Jonathan Watts The Guardian 23 Mar 18;

Human destruction of nature is rapidly eroding the world’s capacity to provide food, water and security to billions of people, according to the most comprehensive biodiversity study in more than a decade.

Such is the rate of decline that the risks posed by biodiversity loss should be considered on the same scale as those of climate change, noted the authors of the UN-backed report, which was released in Medellin, Colombia on Friday.

Among the standout findings are that exploitable fisheries in the world’s most populous region – the Asia-Pacific – are on course to decline to zero by 2048; that freshwater availability in the Americas has halved since the 1950s and that 42% of land species in Europe have declined in the past decade.

Underscoring the grim trends, this report was released in the week that the decimation of French bird populations was revealed, as well as the death of the last male northern white rhinoceros, leaving the species only two females from extinction.

“The time for action was yesterday or the day before,” said Robert Watson, the chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) which compiled the research. “Governments recognise we have a problem. Now we need action, but unfortunately the action we have now is not at the level we need.”

“We must act to halt and reverse the unsustainable use of nature or risk not only the future we want but even the lives we currently lead,” he added.

Divided into four regional reports, the study of studies has been written by more than 550 experts from over 100 countries and taken three years to complete. Approved by the governments of 129 members nations, the IPBES reports aim to provide a knowledge base for global action on biodiversity in much the same way that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is used by policymakers to set carbon emission targets.

Although poaching often grabs the headlines for the demise of the rhino and other animals, worldwide the biggest threats to nature are from habitat loss, , chemicals .

Conversion of forests to croplands and wetlands to shrimp farms has fed a human population that has more than doubled since the 1960s, but at a devastating cost to other species – such as pollinating insects and oxygen-producing plants – on which our climate, economy and well-being depend.

In the Americas, more than 95% of high-grass prairies have been transformed into farms, along with 72% of dry forests and 88% of the Atlantic forests, notes the report. The Amazon rainforest is still mostly intact, but it is rapidly diminishing and degrading along with an even faster disappearing cerrado (tropical savannah). Between 2003 to 2013, the area under cultivation in Brazil’s northeast agricultural frontier more than doubled to 2.5m hectares, according to the report.

“The world has lost over 130m hectares of rainforests since 1990 and we lose dozens of species every day, pushing the Earth’s ecological system to its limit,” said Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Programme. “Biodiversity and the ecosystem services it supports are not only the foundation for our life on Earth, but critical to the livelihoods and well-being of people everywhere.”

The rate of decline is moreover accelerating. In the Americas – which has about 40% of the world’s remaining biodiversity – the regional population is gobbling up resources at twice the rate of the global average. Despite having 13% of the people on the planet, it is using a quarter of the resources, said Jake Rice, a co-chair of the Americas assessment.

Since the start of colonisation by Europeans 500 years ago, he said 30% of biodiversity has been lost in the region. This will rise to 40% in the next 10 years unless policies and behaviours are transformed.

“It will take fundamental change in how we live as individuals, communities and corporations,” he said. “We keep making choices to borrow from the future to live well today. We need a different way of thinking about economics with a higher accountability of the costs in the future to the benefits we take today,” Rice said.

“It’s because of us,” added Mark Rounsevell, co-chair of the European assessment. “We are responsible for all of the declines of biodiversity. We need to decouple economic growth from degradation of nature. We need to measure wealth beyond economic indicators. GDP only goes so far.”

The authors stressed the close connection between climate change and biodiversity loss, which are adversely affecting each other. By 2050, they believe climate change could replace land-conversion as the main driver of extinction.

In many regions, the report says current biodiversity trends are jeopardising UN global development goals to provide food, water, clothing and housing. They also weaken natural defences against extreme weather events, which will become more common due to climate change.

Although the number of conservation areas has increased, most governments are failing to achieve the biodiversity targets set at the 2010 UN conference in Aichi, Japan. In the Americas, only 20% of key biodiversity areas are protected.

The authors urged an end to subsidies for agriculture and energy that are encouraging unsustainable production. The European Union’s support for fishing was among those cited for criticism. Watson also urged people to switch to a more sustainable diet (less beef, more chicken and vegetables) and to waste less food, water and energy.

There are glimmers of hope. In northern Asia, forest cover has increased by more than 22% as a result of tree-planting programs, mostly in China. But this was from a very low base and with far fewer species than in the past. In Africa, there has been a partial recovery of some species, though there is still a long way to go.

Watson – a former chair of the IPCC and a leading figure in the largely successful campaign to reduce the gases that were causing a hole in the ozone layer – said the biodiversity report was the most comprehensive since 2005 and the first of its type that involved not just scientists, but governments and other stakeholders.

Despite the grim outlook, he said there was cause for hope. The report outlines several different future paths, depending on the policies adopted by governments and the choices made by consumers. None completely halt biodiversity loss, but the worst-case scenarios can be avoided with greater conservation efforts. The missing link is to involve policymakers across government and to accept that biodiversity affects every area of the economy. Currently, these concerns are widely accepted by foreign and environment ministries; the challenge is to move the debate to incorporate this in other areas of government, such as agriculture, energy and water. Businesses and individual consumers also need to play a more responsible role, said Watson.

“We don’t make recommendations because governments don’t like being told what to do. So, instead, we give them options,” he said.

The IPBES report will be used to inform decision-makers at a major UN conference later this year. Signatories to the Convention for Biodiversity will meet in Sharm El-Sheikh in November to discuss ways to raise targets and strengthen compliance. But there have been more than 140 scientific reports since 1977, almost all of which have warned of deterioration of the climate or natural world. Without more pressure from civil society, media and voters, governments have been reluctant to sacrifice short-term economic goals to meet the longer-term environmental challenge to human wellbeing.

“Biodiversity is under serious threat in many regions of the world and it is time for policymakers to take action at national, regional and global levels,” said José Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Others have put the crisis in starker terms. Biologist Paul Ehrlich, has warned that civilisational collapse is a “near certainty” in the next few decades due to the destruction of the natural world.


IPBES: Keeping its finger on the pulse of biodiversity
AFP Yahoo News 24 Mar 18;

Medellín (Colombia) (AFP) - The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which published a major assessment on the health of the world's species Friday, is an independent body created by more than 100 countries in 2012.

-- Its mission is to gather all the available science on the state of biodiversity, to project future changes, and advise governments on policies to better protect nature's bounty.

-- The IPBES has 128 signed-up country members. Its secretariat is based in Bonn, Germany.

-- It is not a UN body, but was modelled on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose monumental reports helped alert the world to the dangers of global warming and paved the way for a 2015 global plan of action dubbed the Paris Agreement.

-- The IPBES brought out its maiden analysis, on the sorry state of bees and other pollinating animals, in 2016.

-- On Friday, it released four assessments on the state of biodiversity in four world regions -- the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia. Another, about the health of soil, will follow on March 26.

-- Each report takes three years to complete at a cost of about $1 million (about 806,000 euros) apiece.

-- The IPBES gets money from a trust fund replenished by voluntary contributions from member states.

-- The hundreds of scientists who work on each report are volunteers.

-- The experts do not conduct their own research, but pull together data from thousands of scientific publications and condense them into a manageable summary for government policymakers -- who sign off on their content.

-- The body was hit with conflict of interest claims when it emerged that two of the authors of its 2016 pollinator report worked for agrochemical companies Bayer and Syngenta, producers of neonicotinoid pesticides suspected of being involved in a mysterious surge in bee deaths. The IPBES insisted there was no conflict, and said multiple points of view are needed for a balanced analysis.

Biodiversity and nature's contributions continue dangerous decline, scientists warn
Human well-being at risk. Landmark reports highlight options to protect and restore nature and its vital contributions to people
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Science Daily 23 Mar 18;

Biodiversity -- the essential variety of life forms on Earth -- continues to decline in every region of the world, significantly reducing nature's capacity to contribute to people's well-being. This alarming trend endangers economies, livelihoods, food security and the quality of life of people everywhere, according to four landmark science reports released today, written by more than 550 leading experts, from over 100 countries.

The result of three years of work, the four regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services cover the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, as well as Europe and Central Asia -- the entire planet except the poles and the open oceans. The assessment reports were approved by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), in Medellín, Colombia, at the 6th session of its Plenary. IPBES has 129 State Members.

"Biodiversity and nature's contributions to people sound, to many people, academic and far removed from our daily lives," said the Chair of IPBES, Sir Robert Watson, "Nothing could be further from the truth -- they are the bedrock of our food, clean water and energy. They are at the heart not only of our survival, but of our cultures, identities and enjoyment of life. The best available evidence, gathered by the world's leading experts, points us now to a single conclusion: we must act to halt and reverse the unsustainable use of nature -- or risk not only the future we want, but even the lives we currently lead. Fortunately, the evidence also shows that we know how to protect and partially restore our vital natural assets."

The extensively peer-reviewed IPBES assessment reports focus on providing answers to key questions for each of the four regions, including: why is biodiversity important, where are we making progress, what are the main threats and opportunities for biodiversity and how can we adjust our policies and institutions for a more sustainable future?

In every region, with the exception of a number of positive examples where lessons can be learned, biodiversity and nature's capacity to contribute to people are being degraded, reduced and lost due to a number of common pressures -- habitat stress; overexploitation and unsustainable use of natural resources; air, land and water pollution; increasing numbers and impact of invasive alien species and climate change, among others.

Declining Biodiversity -- Now and in the Future

The Americas

"In the Americas, rich biodiversity makes an immense contribution to the quality of life, helping to reduce poverty while strengthening economies and livelihoods," said Dr. Jake Rice (Canada), co-chair of the Americas assessment with Dr. Cristiana Simão Seixas (Brazil) and Prof. Maria Elena Zaccagnini (Argentina).

"The economic value of the Americas' land-based nature's contributions to people is estimated to be more than US$24 trillion per year -- equivalent to the region's GDP, yet almost two-thirds -- 65% -- of these contributions are in decline, with 21% declining strongly. Human-induced climate change, which affects temperature, precipitation and the nature of extreme events, is increasingly driving biodiversity loss and the reduction of nature's contributions to people, worsening the impact of habitat degradation, pollution, invasive species and the overexploitation of natural resources."

According to the report, under a 'business as usual' scenario, climate change will be the fastest growing driver negatively impacting biodiversity by 2050 in the Americas, becoming comparable to the pressures imposed by land use change. On average today, the populations of species in an area are about 31% smaller than was the case at the time of European settlement. With the growing effects of climate change added to the other drivers, this loss is projected to reach 40% by 2050.

The report highlights the fact that indigenous people and local communities have created a diversity of polyculture and agroforestry systems, which have increased biodiversity and shaped landscapes. However, the decoupling of lifestyles from the local environment has eroded, for many, their sense of place, language and indigenous local knowledge. More than 60% of the languages in the Americas, and the cultures associated with them, are troubled or dying out.

Africa

"Africa's immense natural resources and its diverse cultural heritage are among its most important strategic assets for both human development and well-being," said Dr. Emma Archer (South Africa), co-chair of the African assessment with Dr. Kalemani Jo Mulongoy (DRC) and Dr. Luthando Dziba (South Africa). "Africa is the last place on Earth with a wide range of large mammals, yet today there are more African plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and large mammals threatened than ever before by a range of both human-induced and natural causes."

"Africa is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and this is going to have severe consequences for economically marginalized populations. By 2100, climate change could also result in the loss of more than half of African bird and mammal species, a 20-30% decline in the productivity of Africa's lakes and significant loss of African plant species."

The report adds that approximately 500,000 square kilometres of African land is already estimated to have been degraded by overexploitation of natural resources, erosion, salinization and pollution, resulting in significant loss of nature's contributions to people. Even greater pressure will be placed on the continent's biodiversity as the current African population of 1.25 billion people is set to double to 2.5 billion by 2050.

Marine and coastal environments make significant economic, social and cultural contributions to the people of Africa. Damage to coral reef systems, mostly due to pollution and climate change, has far-reaching implications for fisheries, food security, tourism and overall marine biodiversity.

Asia-Pacific

"Biodiversity and ecosystem services contributed to rapid average annual economic growth of 7.6% from 1990 to 2010 in the Asia-Pacific region, benefitting its more than 4.5 billion people. This growth, in turn, has had varying impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services," said Dr. Madhav Karki (Nepal), co-chair of the Asia-Pacific assessment with Dr. Sonali Senaratna Sellamuttu (Sri Lanka). "The region's biodiversity faces unprecedented threats, from extreme weather events and sea level rise, to invasive alien species, agricultural intensification and increasing waste and pollution."

The report says that although there has been an overall decline in biodiversity, there have also been some important biodiversity successes including, for example, increases in protected areas. Over the past 25 years, marine protected areas in the region increased by almost 14% and terrestrial protected area increased by 0.3%. Forest cover increased by 2.5%, with the highest increases in North East Asia (22.9%) and by South Asia (5.8%).

There are concerns, however, that these efforts are insufficient to halt the loss of biodiversity and the decline in the value of nature's contributions to people in the region. Unsustainable aquaculture practices, overfishing and destructive harvesting threaten coastal and marine ecosystems, with projections that, if current fishing practices continue, there will be no exploitable fish stocks in the region by 2048. Intertidal zones are also rapidly deteriorating due to human activities, with coral reefs of critical ecological, cultural and economic importance, already under serious threat, and some reefs having already been lost, especially in South and South-East Asia. According to the report, up to 90% of corals will suffer severe degradation by 2050, even under conservative climate change scenarios.

The report emphasizes that climate change and associated extreme events pose great threats, especially to coastal ecosystems, low-lying coastal areas and islands. Climate change is also impacting species distributions, population sizes, and the timing of reproduction and migration. Increased frequencies of pest and disease outbreaks resulting from these changes may have additional negative effects on agricultural production and human well-being, with impacts projected to worsen.

Forests, alpine ecosystems, inland freshwater and wetlands, as well as coastal systems are identified as the most threatened Asia-Pacific ecosystems. The increasing variety and abundance of invasive alien species is highlighted as one of the region's most serious drivers of ecosystem change and biodiversity loss.

Europe and Central Asia

A major trend is the increasing intensity of conventional agriculture and forestry, which leads to biodiversity decline. There are also examples of sustainable agricultural and forestry practices that are beneficial to biodiversity and nature's contributions to people in the region. Nature's material contributions to people, such as food and energy, have been promoted at the expense of both regulating contributions, such as pollination and soil formation, and non-material contributions, such as cultural experiences or opportunities to develop a sense of place.

"The people of the region consume more renewable natural resources than the region produces," said Prof. Markus Fischer (Switzerland), co-chair of the Europe and Central Asia assessment with Prof. Mark Rounsevell (UK), "Although this is somewhat off-set by higher biocapacities in Eastern Europe and northern parts of Western and Central Europe."

In the European Union, among assessments of the conservation status of species and habitat types of conservation interest, only 7% of marine species and 9% of marine habitat types show a 'favourable conservation status'. Moreover 27% of species assessments and 66% of habitat types assessments show an 'unfavourable conservation status', with the others categorised as 'unknown'.

The authors find that further economic growth can facilitate sustainable development only if it is decoupled from the degradation of biodiversity and nature's capacity to contribute to people. Such decoupling, however, has not yet happened, and would require far-reaching change in policies and tax reforms at the global and national levels.

Abandonment of traditional land-use systems, and loss of associated indigenous and local knowledge and practices, has been widespread in Europe and Central Asia, the report finds. Production-based subsidies driving growth in agricultural, forestry and natural resource extraction sectors tend to exacerbate conflicting land-use issues, often impinging on available territory for traditional users. Maintenance of traditional land use and lifestyles in Europe and Central Asia is strongly related to institutional adequacy and economic viability.

Global Development Goals in Jeopardy

"One of the most important findings across the four IPBES regional assessments is that failure to prioritize policies and actions to stop and reverse biodiversity loss, and the continued degradation of nature's contributions to people, seriously jeopardises the chances of any region, and almost every country, meeting their global development targets," said Dr. Anne Larigauderie, the Executive Secretary of IPBES.

"Achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and the Paris Agreement on climate change, all depend on the health and vitality of our natural environment in all its diversity and complexity. Acting to protect and promote biodiversity is at least as important to achieving these commitments and to human wellbeing as is the fight against global climate change."

"Richer, more diverse ecosystems are better able to cope with disturbances -- such as extreme events and the emergence of diseases. They are our 'insurance policy' against unforeseen disasters and, used sustainably, they also offer many of the best solutions to our most pressing challenges."

The assessment of the Americas concludes that continued biodiversity loss could undermine the achievement of some of the SDGs as well as some of the international climate-related goals, targets and aspirations.

All the plausible future scenarios explored in the Africa assessment highlight that the drivers of biodiversity loss will increase, with associated negative impacts on nature's contributions to people and human well-being. Achieving the African Union's Agenda 2063, the SDGs and the Aichi Targets is unlikely in three out of five scenarios explored.

The experts of the Asia-Pacific assessment point to the value of ecosystem based approaches and identify, among others, lack of solid waste management, as well as air, water and land pollution as factors undermining gains in a number of the Aichi Targets and SDGs for many countries (e.g. extinction of plant and animal species due to deforestation, rising temperature and water pollution).

There has been some progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets in Europe and Central Asia, e.g. in terms of the area under protection or in mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society. However, the pressures on biodiversity from direct drivers of change are unlikely to be reduced and so progress has been negative for indigenous and local knowledge, the equitable distribution of nature's contributions and water security.

Looking beyond the 2030 timescale of the SDGs, scenario analysis highlights that continuation of past and current trends in drivers of change will inhibit the contribution of the region to the widespread achievement of the SDGs, while scenarios which focus on achieving a balanced supply of nature's contributions to people and incorporate a diversity of values are more likely to contribute to achieving the majority of the SDGs.

Promising Policy Options Available

Accompanying the stark concerns of the IPBES experts, however, are messages of hope: promising policy options do exist and have been found to work in protecting and restoring biodiversity and nature's contributions to people, where they have been effectively applied.

In the Americas, protection of key biodiversity areas increased 17% between 1970 and 2010, yet fewer than 20% of key biodiversity areas are protected and coverage varies significantly. The report makes it clear that protected areas and restoration projects are only some of the possible interventions -- with a need to also focus on strategies to make human-dominated landscapes more supportive of biodiversity and nature's contributions to people.

It also makes the point that biodiversity and nature's contributions to people are better protected when integrated into a broad array of economic and sectoral policies, such as payment for ecosystem services and voluntary eco-certification. Appropriate combinations of, for example, behavioural change, improved technology, research, adequate levels of finance, improved education and public awareness programs are among other options.

Measures taken by African Governments to protect biodiversity and nature's contributions to people, have contributed to some recovery of threatened species, especially in key biodiversity areas, and these efforts could be enhanced. Such measures include the establishment and effective management of protected areas and networks of wildlife corridors; restoration of degraded ecosystems; control of invasive alien species and reintroduction of wild animals. Despite the African Union's priorities of poverty alleviation, inclusive growth and sustainable development, especially in the context of global climate change, the report finds that the continent is greatly undervaluing its natural resources.

In addition to enhancing biodiversity conservation through appropriate governance, policies and national implementation, the authors emphasize the need for better integration of indigenous and local knowledge and greater use of scenarios in African decision-making. Of the five possible scenarios they explore, two (regional sustainability and local sustainability) are identified as the most likely paths to meet Africa's economic, social and environmental development aspirations, but the authors point to the need for capacity building on the use of scenarios in decision-making.

For Asia and the Pacific, the IPBES experts point to the success of countries that achieved rapid economic growth in gradually restoring and expanding protected areas -- especially forests. They emphasize that, while assisting these countries in their efforts to meet some of the SDGs and Aichi Targets, this alone will not be sufficient to reduce biodiversity loss caused by the negative impacts of monoculture. For instance, the region registered a growth of 0.3% in terrestrial protected areas and 13.8% in marine protected areas -- putting many countries on track to meet Aichi Target 11 -- but most of the important bird areas and key biodiversity areas remain unprotected."

Better application of science and technology, empowerment of local communities in decision making, integrating biodiversity conservation into other key sectors, scenario planning that is sensitive to economic and cultural diversity, private sector partnerships in financing biodiversity protection, as well as better cross-border regional collaboration, are some of the many important approaches the report identifies.

A range of governance options, policies and management practices is available in Europe and Central Asia to safeguard biodiversity and ensure nature's contributions to people. Some progress has already been made in mainstreaming biodiversity and nature's contributions to people into public and private decision-making.

The assessment report highlights integrated approaches. These include measuring national welfare beyond GDP. Governance could become more effective by using well-designed mixes of policy instruments to motivate changes in behaviour to support sustainable development. The authors also emphasize the relevance of reconciling biodiversity conservation and human rights standards through rights-based instruments, as well as capacity building for indigenous peoples and local communities. Sufficient funding is also needed to support research, monitoring, education and training.

Speaking about the policy options emerging from the four regional assessments, Watson said: "Although there are no 'silver bullets' or 'one-size-fits all' answers, the best options in all four regional assessments are found in better governance, integrating biodiversity concerns into sectoral policies and practices (e.g. agriculture and energy), the application of scientific knowledge and technology, increased awareness and behavioural changes."

"It is also clear that indigenous and local knowledge can be an invaluable asset, and biodiversity issues need to receive much higher priority in policy making and development planning at every level. Cross-border collaboration is also essential, given that biodiversity challenges recognize no national boundaries."

By the numbers

The Americas

Trends / data

13%: the Americas' share of world's human population
40%: share of world ecosystems' capacity to produce nature-based materials consumed by people, and to assimilate by-products from their consumption
65%: the proportion of nature's contributions to people, across all units of analysis, in decline (with 21% declining strongly)
>50%: share of the Americas' population with a water security problem
61%: languages and associated cultures, in trouble or dying out
>95%: North American tall grass prairie grasslands transformed into human-dominated landscapes since pre-European settlement
72% and 66% respectively: of tropical dry forest in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean have been transformed into human-dominated landscapes since pre-European settlement
88%: Atlantic tropical forest transformed into human-dominated landscapes since pre-European settlement
17%: Amazon forest transformed into human-dominated landscapes since pre-European settlement
50%: decrease in renewable freshwater available per person since the 1960s
200-300%: Increase in humanity's ecological footprint in each subregion of the Americas since the 1960s
9.5% and 25%: Forest areas lost in South America and Mesoamerica respectively since the 1960s
0.4% and 43.4%: net gains in forest areas in North America and the Caribbean respectively since the 1960s
1.5 million: approximate number of Great Plains grassland hectares loss from 2014 to 2015
2.5 million: hectares under cultivation in Brazil's northeast agricultural frontier in 2013, up from 1.2 million ha in 2003, with 74% of these new croplands taken from intact cerrado (tropical savanna) in that region
15-60%: North American drylands habitat lost between 2000 and 2009
>50%: US wetlands lost since European settlement (up to 90% lost in agricultural regions)
>50%: decline in coral reef cover by the 1970s; only 10% remained by 2003
Economic value of nature's contributions to people

$24.3 trillion: estimated value per year of terrestrial nature's contributions to people in the Americas (equivalent to the region's gross domestic product)
$6.8, $5.3 and $3.6 trillion per year: nature's contributions to people valued as ecosystem services in Brazil, USA and Canada respectively
>$500 million: annual cost of managing the impacts of invasive alien zebra mussels on infrastructure for power, water supply and transportation in the Great Lakes
Projections

20%: expected regional population increase (to 1.2 billion) by 2050
+/-100%: expected growth in region's GDP by 2050, intensifying many drivers of biodiversity loss if 'business as usual' continues
40%: expected loss by 2050 of the region's original biodiversity under a 'business as usual' scenario for climate change (with loss of 35-36% expected under the three "pathways to sustainability")
By the numbers

Africa

Trends / data

+/- 500,000: km2 of land is degraded due to factors such as deforestation, unsustainable agriculture, overgrazing, uncontrolled mining activities, invasive alien species and climate change, leading to soil erosion, salinization, pollution, and loss of vegetation or soil fertility
+/- 62%: rural population directly dependent on wild nature and its services for survival (the most of any continent)
+/- 2 million: km2 of land designated as protected (including 6% of biodiversity-rich tropical evergreen broadleaf forests and 2.5% of Africa's seas
25%: people having faced hunger and malnutrition (2011-2013) in Sub-Saharan Africa, the world's most food-deficient region
Economic values of nature's contributions to people

West Africa

$4 billion: coastal fishery value added (per year)
$40,000: water purification services (per km2, per year)
$4,500: mangrove coastal protection services (per km2, per year)
$2,800: coastal carbon sequestration services (average per km2, per year)
Central Africa

$2 billion: coastal fishery value added (per year)
$0.8 billion: inland fishery value added (per year)
$14,000: forest carbon sequestration services (average per km2, per year)
$3,500: mangrove coastal protection services (per km2, per year)
$3,000: timber value added (per km2, per year)
Southern Africa

$0.5 billion: coastal fishery value added (per year)
$0.3 billion: inland fishery value added (per year)
$9,000: recreation value (per km2, per year)
North Africa

$0.6 billion: inland fishery value added (per year)
$0.5 billion: coastal fishery value added (per year)
$300: coastal carbon sequestration services (average per km2, per year)
$2,000: timber production (per km2, per year)
East Africa and adjacent islands

$2.5 billion: coastal fishery value added (per year)
$1.2 billion: inland fishery value added (per year)
$16,000: food production (per km2, per year)
$12,000: forest carbon sequestration services (average per km2, per year)
$11,000: erosion control (average per km2, per year)
$7,800: forest bioprospecting (per km2, per year)
$5,000: mangrove coastal protection services (per km2, per year)
$2,200: coastal carbon sequestration services (average per km2, per year)
Projections

>50% of African bird and mammal species could be lost to climate change by 2100
20 -- 30%: expected decline in productivity of lakes by 2100
2.5 billion: predicted population of Africa in 2050 (double the current figure)
54%: Africans expected to live in urban and peri-urban areas by 2030 (up from 39% in 2003) By the numbers
Asia-Pacific

Trends / data

Zero: exploitable fish stocks in the region by 2048 if current fishing practices continue
Up to 90%: percentage of corals expected to suffer severe degradation by 2050, even under conservative climate change scenarios
1%-2%: annual estimated coral loss even for the most managed reefs
4.5 billion: people that benefit from the region's biodiversity and ecosystem services, including food, water, energy, and health security, as well as cultural and spiritual fulfilment
400 million: region's share of people below the poverty line (out of 767 million worldwide) -- defined as $1.90 per person per day, using 2011 purchasing power parity
7.6%: regions' average annual economic growth (1990-2010) compared to 3.4% global average
2-3%: region's annual urbanization rate (among the fastest in the world)
Nearly 200 million: people in the region that directly depend on the forest for their non-timber forest products, medicine, food, fuel as well as other subsistence needs
$33.5 billion: estimated annual economic loss due to invasive alien species in South-East Asia
12.9%: reduction in forest cover in South-East Asia due largely to an increase in timber extraction, large-scale bio-fuel plantations and the expansion of intensive agriculture and shrimp farms (1990 to 2015)
22.9% and 5.8%: respective increase in forest cover in North-East Asia and South Asia (1990 to 2015), through policies and instruments such as joint participatory management, payment for ecosystem services and the restoration of degraded forests
37%: share of aquatic and semi-aquatic species in the region's freshwater ecosystems threatened by, among others, climate change, overfishing, pollution, infrastructure development and invasive alien species
60%: grasslands degraded due to overgrazing by livestock, invasion by alien species, or conversion to agriculture, resulting in a rapid decline of native flora and fauna
8 out of 10: top most plastic-polluted rivers in the world are in Asia -- accounting for up to 95% of global load of plastics in the oceans
Nearly 25%: proportion of region's endemic species that are threatened
Projections

24% and 29%: mammal and bird species likely to go extinct in lowland forests of Sundaland in South-East Asia in coming decades if forest loss continues at the present rate
+/-45%: anticipated loss of habitats and species by 2050 if business continues as usual
By the numbers

Europe and Central Asia

Trends / data

>50%: share of nature's regulating and some non-material contributions to people that declined from 1960 to 2016
42%: terrestrial animal and plant species with known trends that have declined in population size the last decade
5.1 hectares: per capita ecological footprint in Western Europe (subregion's biocapacity: 2.2 hectares, meaning Western Europeans depend on net imports of renewable natural resources and material contributions of nature to people)
3.6 hectares: per capita ecological footprint in Central Europe (biocapacity: 2.1 hectares)
4.8 hectares: per capita ecological footprint in Eastern Europe (biocapacity: 5.3 hectares)
3.4 hectares: per capita ecological footprint in Central Asia (biocapacity: 1.7 hectares)
15%: per capita decrease in water availability (since 1990)
25%: agricultural land in the EU affected by soil erosion (23% in Central Asia), which, combined with a decline in soil organic matter, might compromise food production
20%: increase in erosion control on arable land in Western and Central Europe
7%: of the assessments of EU marine species of conservation interest have shown favourable conservation status; 27% have shown unfavourable conservation status
9%: of the assessment of EU marine habitats of conservation interest have shown favourable conservation status; 66% have shown unfavourable conservation status
26.6%: estimated proportion of marine fish species (for which trend data exist) that have declining populations, due to unsustainable fishing, habitat degradation, invasive alien species, eutrophication and climate change
1.6%: estimated proportion of marine fish species (for which trend data exist) with increasing populations, due to improved conditions including better fishing management and decreased eutrophication
20%: diversity of arable crop species that have declined since 1950 in Western and Central Europe
73%: percentage of assessments of EU freshwater habitats of conservation interest indicating unfavourable conservation status
51%: extent of decline of wetlands in Western and Central Europe, and western parts of Eastern Europe, since 1970
16 -- 65%: threatened species of crabs (bivalves 23 -- 49%; crayfish 24 -- 47%; gastropods 33 -- 68%; dragonflies, 9 -- 44%) in Western and Central Europe, and western parts of Eastern Europe v71%: fish populations in decline in past decade
60%: amphibian populations in decline in past decade
37%: freshwater fish species threatened with extinction (amphibians: 23%) in Western and Central Europe and western parts of Eastern Europe
Economic value of nature's contributions to people

$765 / hectare / year: estimated median value (mid-range) of value (2017) of nature's habitat maintenance in the region
$1,965: estimated median value (mid-range) of the economic value per hectare per year of nature's regulation of freshwater and coastal water quality (2017)
$1,117: estimated median value (mid-range) of the economic value per hectare per year of nature's non-material contributions to people, including physical and psychological experiences linked to tourism and recreation (2017)
$464 estimated median value (mid-range) of the economic value per hectare per year of nature's regulation of climate

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Asian oil, gas producers stepping up activity after long lull

Florence Tan, Emily Chow Reuters 23 Mar 18;

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Asia’s oil and gas producers are starting to revive projects aimed at deflating years of ballooning energy imports after new investment dried up following the 2014 industry crisis.

Spending has so far been driven mainly by state oil companies such as India’s ONGC, Thailand’s PTTEP and PetroVietnam, which need to produce more oil and gas to ensure their countries’ energy security, executives said this week during an industry event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Asia is by far the biggest, fastest-growing consumer of oil, yet its output is falling faster than in any other region. That mismatch more than doubled Asia’s oil import bill to around $500 billion (354.1 billion pounds) last year, compared with year 2000 levels.

With oil prices back above $60 per barrel and at times flirting with $70 a barrel, oilfield service providers say there is renewed appetite for producers to spend and importers to cut import bills by investing in production. [O/R]

“Asia is a net importer of energy. I think there’s a strong desire from Southeast Asian organizations to change that trend. We’ll see a lot more potential developments here to try to balance that equation,” said Ian Prescott, vice president for Asia with U.S. engineering company McDermott.

Fifty oil and gas fields in Southeast Asia, with a collective 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent in resources, will likely be approved for development between 2018 and 2020, according to consultancy Rystad Energy, requiring some $28 billion of capital expenditure from final investment decision (FID) to first production.

SPENDING REVIVAL

In one sign of revival, Abu Dhabi-owned Mubadala Petroleum, Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas [PETR.UL] and Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell agreed to spend $1 billion on a shallow-water gas project in Malaysia this week.

In India, changes to gas pricing policies revived activities in its eastern deepwater fields, led by ONGC and a joint venture between Reliance Industries and BP.

“India has waited too long to enter deepwater. Deepwater development makes more sense for the country (India) than importing LNG at $8 per million British thermal units,” Ashish Bhandari, a vice president at GE-owned oil service company Baker Hughes, said at the OTC Asia conference.

In Southeast Asia, PetroVietnam is developing a large gas field known as Block B, while Thailand’s PTTEP is on the hunt for more gas supplies in the region to meet demand in Thailand and Myanmar.

Despite the uptick in activity, exploration for new oil and gas remains lower in Asia than elsewhere, especially onshore North America and in the Atlantic basin.

Kevin Robinson, vice president of Malaysia’s oil and gas service company Sapura Energy, said the main factors deterring investment in Asia were tough fiscal regimes, cumbersome bureaucracies, and maturing fields with limited future reserves.

“It’s a reality check for governments in Asia to look at how much investment they are getting, and how they need to improve their fiscal terms to attract more investment,” Robinson said.

ONGC’s director of offshore, Rajesh Kakkar, said the “easy oil is gone ... what is left is deepwater, high pressure, and high temperature”, making extraction more costly.

But given competition from cheap producers in the Middle East and soaring output from shale drillers in the United States, Petronas’ Chief Executive Officer Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said there was pressure to keep costs low.

“While oil prices are showing signs of recovery, the sustainability of these prices remains to be seen ... If we don’t keep these escalating costs in check, the industry runs the risk of negating the value we have gained from intensive cost efficiency efforts over the last 3 years.”

Reporting by Florence Tan, Emily Chow and A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Henning Glostein and Tom Hogue

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Mar 18

Apr 2018 sampling events for NUS–NParks Marine Debris Monitoring Programme
News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

More Insect Prey for Malkoha Chick
Singapore Bird Group

SIBiol Research Trust Fund and Student Research Award - Grant Calls!
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

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Jurong residents may enjoy 1 month free electricity under Open Electricity Market

Today Online 22 Mar 18;

SINGAPORE — Those living in Jurong who are thinking of switching their electricity retailer may now be able to enjoy free electricity for a month.

In a media statement on Thursday (March 22), Tuas Power Supply said the first 1,000 customers who sign up for its three-month trial will get free electricity for the first month.

“There is always an inertia in a newly open market; hence in order to save the hassle for consumers who want to benefit savings from the opening, we are offering a free trial for consumers to try our services whilst enjoying the savings in their electricity bills as early as possible,” said Tuas Power Supply General Manager Michael Wong.

“There is no need to commit to a 12 or 24 months contract.”

The company added that in partnering with SP services for the billing of its services, it is able to “provide its customers with a seamless and convenient experience because customers (can) continue to pay for their electricity via the same single SP bill together with other utilities”.

Since 2001, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has been progressively opening up the electricity market to promote greater competition by giving consumers the choice and flexibility to buy electricity from retailers.

Under the soft launch of the Open Electricity Market initiative starting April 1, about 108,000 household and 9,500 business accounts in Jurong will have the option of buying electricity from 14 retailers, or continue buying electricity from SP Group at the regulated tariff.

The rest of Singapore will have the option in the second half of 2018, the EMA announced earlier in the week.

Tuas Power supply will be at several roadshows in Jurong to explain its different electricity plans directly to consumers.


*CORRECTION: In the headline of a previous version of this story, we referred to the full liberalisation of the electricity market as Open Energy Market. This is incorrect. The term should be Open Electricity Market. We are sorry for the error.

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Taps turned off at NUS as part of water rationing exercise for students

CYNTHIA CHOO Today Online 22 Mar 18;

SINGAPORE — On Thursday morning (March 22), National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate Harith Hakim was greeted by buckets of water in the men’s toilet as he went to brush his teeth and shower before class.

Mr Hakim, 22, who lives in Ridge View Residential College (RVRC), was one of 670 students involved in a 10-hour water rationing exercise held at a NUS residential college for the first time. Organised in conjunction with World Water Day, the 7am to 5pm exercise saw water supply cut off at 27 toilets, 123 shower cubicles and 14 pantries at the college.

Residents were allocated 10 litres of water each to use during the exercise, with the water supplied via buckets and jerry cans.

Mr Hakim said it was a “stark” reminder of how much he had taken running water for granted.

“I was startled to see buckets placed in the toilet in the morning... having to use scoops of water to brush my teeth and shower really made me more aware of how we much take running water for granted,” said the second-year mechanical engineering student.

Minister for Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli visited RVRC on Thursday to observe the water rationing exercise.

The college was chosen to pilot the exercise due to its focus on sustainability and the environment. Under a living-learning programme, RVRC’s students are encouraged to take on a sustainability project every year.

Mr Masagos commended NUS’ efforts on pioneering a water rationing exercise among students, as he said it was one method to cultivate good water conservation habits.

He added: “We have to do that in a safe environment, and the university is one such place. We hope to see this in other institutes of higher learning where in a controlled way, we can implement a water rationing exercise, and students and also staff can participate.”

Mr Masagos also saw a demonstration of the smart shower facilities in RVRC during the tour of the college’s facilities on Thursday.

About 70 smart shower devices were installed in RVRC in August last year as part of a joint study conducted by researchers from the Institute of Water Policy under the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics at NUS.

The devices provide residents with real-time information on water usage during showers via a numerical display. They can also set water conservation goals, and monitor their water usage history via a mobile application.

Over the four month study, which involved about 350 students, researchers found that each student used about five litres of water less on average during a shower.

Professor Lorenz Goeffer, who was one of the study’s researchers, said that the results were encouraging.

“Even though students don’t have a financial stake in the water they use, they cut down on water usage when they are made aware of how much they use,” he said.

Prof Goeffer said further studies are required before they decide whether to roll out smart showers at other residential colleges and hostels around the campus. He also noted a “slight constraint” as the devices had to be installed on handheld shower heads, and that many are currently fixed to the walls.

The latest Public Utilities Board study on water consumption published last year showed that showers make up the highest water usage in a household.

As part of its water conservation efforts, the water agency will install smart shower devices in about 10,000 new Build-To-Order homes by the end of 2019. The first tranche of 300 flats in Bukit Batok were fitted with smart shower devices last week.

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Early-morning inferno at Kranji recycling company put out after 8 hours

LOW YOUJIN Today Online 22 Mar 18;

SINGAPORE – An early morning fire at a multi-material recycling and waste management company in Kranji on Thursday (Mar 22) was extinguished by firefighters more than eight hours after it started, in what is the second major industrial fire this week.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) told TODAY that the fire, which broke out at a warehouse in 11 Kranji Crescent, started at around 2.16am and was brought under control at 6.15am, before it was finally put out at 10.15am.

There were no reported casualties.

According to the website of Wah & Hua, the owners of the warehouse, the firm provides service for the collection of recyclables from small business businesses to large corporations.

When TODAY was at the scene in the morning, firefighters were seen carrying out damping down operations after the fire was put out. SCDF said this prevents any potential rekindling of fire from "hot burnt surfaces".

Speaking to TODAY, a resident of a dormitory beside the burnt warehouse said he was alerted to the incident by his roommate.

"My friend was using the toilet at around 2am when he heard a sound and saw flames from the warehouse," said Mr Suresh Kumar in Tamil.

The 25-year-old admin assistant said he and the rest of residents of the dormitory, which was occupied by 20 people, evacuated to a grass patch opposite the warehouse. They were forced to move further down the street as the smoke became thicker.

A security cordon that was set up by the SCDF stretched from the warehouse to the dormitory, and it prevented Mr Suresh from reaching his nearby workplace at Leading Bio Energy Singapore.

Throughout the fire, the SCDF kept the public abreast about the developments of the fire, starting with social media posts that were first put up at 3.11am.

"Sixteen firefighting appliances and support vehicles and about 70 personnel" responded to the fire, according to a Tweet from the SCDF.

About an hour after the SCDF's first tweet, it added that three unmanned firefighting machines had been deployed at "strategic points" together with five water jets to "surround and suppress the blaze".

While it is currently unclear what caused the fire, the SCDF said it involved "piles of waste material contained within the warehouse".

"Such fires involving piles of waste material are typically deep-seated and difficult to be extinguished quickly," it explained.

Describing the challenge of fighting the fire, the SCDF said that their personnel not only had to deal with poor visibility and air quality due to the smoke-filled room, they had to be careful of the burning zinc roof and the potential for it to collapse.

This is the second time in a week that SCDF officers had to battle a major industrial fire.

On Tuesday, a raging blaze broke out at an oil storage tank on Pulau Busing, an island off the south-western coast of Singapore.

It was finally extinguished early on Wednesday morning (March 21) after a six-hour firefighting operation. ADDITIONAL REPORTING NAJEER YUSOF

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Despite Government Pledges, Ravaging of Indonesia’s Forests Continues

Seven years after Indonesian officials declared a moratorium on logging in undisturbed areas, logging and palm oil interests have not eased their assault on the world’s third-largest expanse of tropical forest, with major impacts on biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions.
NITHIN COCA Yale Environment 360 22 Mar 18;

Driving from Medan, Indonesia’s third-largest city, to Lake Toba, the world’s largest volcanic lake in the central highlands of Sumatra, the extent of the country’s deforestation becomes numbingly clear. For hours, a visitor passes plantation after plantation — here palm oil, there paper pulp — all the way to a small, protected forest ring around the lake.

Global demand for forest commodities has devastated major portions of the world’s third-largest tropical forest, with Indonesia losing more than 100,000 square miles of woodlands and peatlands — an area larger than the United Kingdom — from 1990 to 2015, dealing a huge blow to one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. The island of Sumatra alone lost 29,000 square miles — about one-third of its forests — from 1990 to 2010.

Seven years ago, this relentless toll led Indonesia to declare a moratorium on logging new concessions in undisturbed tropical forests and peatlands — a move seen as critical in stemming forest loss and the accompanying fires, haze, and greenhouse gas emissions. That it came shortly after a $1 billion dollar pledge from the government of Norway as part of the then-nascent Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program, led many to hope that this was an important step toward reversing decades of deforestation in Indonesia. Adding to the momentum were zero-deforestation pledges from companies like Asia Pulp & Paper and the Consumer Goods Forum, which includes major palm oil buyers such as Mars, PepsiCo, and Proctor & Gamble.

Nearly seven years after the declaration of the moratorium, however, the initiative has failed to stem the loss of forests and peatlands across the Indonesian archipelago. Satellite monitoring shows that palm oil and paper plantations continue to expand, with at least 10,000 square miles of primary forest and peatland — the equivalent of five islands the size of Bali — disappearing since the moratorium went into effect, according to one analysis. In 2015, a massive El Niño-fueled fire event — linked to burning for land-clearing — was believed to be the worst in Indonesian history, emitting an estimated 1,750 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere — nearly twice what Germany does in a year, according to The Global Fire Emissions Database.

Following the moratorium, says Asep Komarudin, Forest Campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, “there were no significant improvements in Indonesia’s natural resource governance, particularly in the forestry sector.”

Indeed, several years ago, Indonesia became the world leader in deforestation, overtaking Brazil. Erik Meijaard, a conservation scientist who founded the Borneo Futures initiative, says he has seen little change in Indonesian Borneo, where palm oil plantations continue to expand.

“If fact, there was a marked increase of deforestation after 2010… you get a very rapid expansion of the oil palm industry into forest areas, so if a moratorium was called in 2011, it didn’t seem to have an impact on the oil palm sector at least,” said Meijaard. Data from Global Forest Watch shows a similar pattern – little change in deforestation rates across the country since the moratorium went into effect.

The reasons for this are manifold. First, there is the weakness of the moratorium itself, which was only a so-called Presidential Instruction, not a legally binding statute, meaning it lacked strong enforcement mechanisms. Moreover, the moratorium only applied to new concessions, not existing concessions that had already been ceded to companies and smallholders, but had not yet been cut down or burned. Adding to the moratorium’s ineffectiveness are ongoing problems with corruption, and the drive — particularly after the election of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to the presidency in 2014 — to rapidly expand the economy. Moreover, government weakness and inefficiency also have meant that Norway’s pledged funds have scarcely been used to protect forests.

Moreover, the zero-deforestation pledges made by corporations have not yet had a major impact. A study published earlier this year in Nature Climate Change analyzed pledges from 450 companies and found that the majority were insufficient in their scope to meaningfully reduce deforestation on their own. The report’s authors argued that companies also need to push governments at all levels to crack down on deforestation globally.

Some experts say that while Indonesia’s progress is disappointing, fixing decades of forestry mismanagement in a few years was always an impossible task. They also note that deforestation rates have come down from their peak in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“The very important steps in the right direction that Indonesia has taken are unfairly characterized as failures because the whole big ship has not turned around yet,” said Jonah Busch, an environmental economist and a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. “If there hadn’t been a moratorium, deforestation might have been even higher.”

The problem, conservationists say, is that the necessary changes are not happening fast enough to protect Indonesia’s landscapes and biodiversity. The country has 350,000 square miles of tropical forests, the third-largest area in the world after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to ProFauna, an Indonesian wildlife protection nonprofit, Indonesia is first in the world in endemic birds and mammals. A country with just 1.3 percent of the world’s land has 17 percent of its wildlife species.

A study published in February in Current Biology found that nearly 150,000 orangutans had been lost in Borneo from 1999 to 2015, chiefly due to habitat loss. The Sumatran rhino, the smallest of all living rhinoceroses and the only Asian rhino with two horns, is critically endangered; Save The Rhino, a wildlife conservation group, estimates that fewer than 100 of the animals remain in the wild. They now are found only in a few slivers of Sumatra’s remaining rainforests, the largest of which, the Leuser Ecosystem, is facing a major threat from agribusiness.

While the loss of tropical landscapes is devastating on its own, the destruction is amplified when you factor in the key tool used by companies, smallholders, and villagers to clear land: fire. Large-scale fires and haze events began only after the timber boom of the 1970’s, and were exacerbated by expansion of palm oil and pulpwood plantations. Fires now occur nearly yearly and are why Indonesia is regularly one of the top five countries in the world for greenhouse gas emissions.

This is because much of Sumatra and Kalimantan, the two islands where the bulk of deforestation has taken place, are composed primarily of peatlands. Peatland soils can contain several times more carbon than the trees themselves, and evidence is growing that current global stocks of carbon in peat are massively underestimated. Peatlands are naturally wet and swampy, but palm, acacia, and eucalyptus all require dry land to grow, so plantation owners drain the land, creating a tinderbox for fires.

Worldwide, emissions related to forest and land disturbance are responsible for about a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to data from the World Bank. Indonesia is the largest global contributor to these emissions, spewing 240 to 447 million tons of CO2 annually from land disturbance alone, according to data from Global Forest Watch. Gaining control over these emissions by reducing deforestation would make an important contribution to helping meet global CO2 emissions-reduction targets, scientists say.

“There are a lot of potential emissions reductions from conserving forests in Indonesia,” said Busch, “and there are a lot of reasons to think that those are relatively cheap ways to reduce emissions relative to industrial reductions. The world has good reasons to take advantage of this low-cost climate solution… but it has not been happening to the extent it should be.”

Such imperatives drove Norway’s pledge to Indonesia. According to the Norwegian Ministry of Environment and Climate, only 12 percent of the $1 billion that Norway pledged has been disbursed so far, and that portion has been designated specifically for helping the Indonesian government properly monitor, evaluate, and disseminate payments for reducing deforestation. Some of the money already disbursed has been used to improve firefighting and resolve social conflicts between communities and companies in forest areas, Ola Elvestuen, Minister of Climate and Environment for Norway, told Yale Environment 360.

One of the core problems is a lack of incentives for developing countries to protect forests, especially when faced with the need to expand their economies. While Norway’s $1 billion pledge sounds like a lot of money, it pales compared to the size of the industries responsible for deforestation. In 2015, Indonesia’s pulp exports were $1.8 billion and palm oil $15 billion; coal exports in 2016 were $12.9 billion.

Norway’s pledge was meant to be just the start, with other countries following suit. But additional climate financing has not been forthcoming. While developed countries agreed to put $100 billion into the Green Climate Fund as part of the Paris Agreement to fight climate change, only about $10 billion has been committed. Factor in lower revenues from carbon credit money linked to cap-and-trade programs in places like Europe and Canada, and you have a major funding gap in investments in programs like REDD+.

“The amount of money that’s on the table for conserving forests is not nearly enough to compete with the amount of money that is changing hands every day for clearing forests for palm oil and paper pulp,” said Busch.

Still, there are some signs of hope. The Norwegian government is optimistic that direct payments for emissions reductions can begin soon, meaning that Indonesia can tap into more than $800 million to protect and restore forests.

“Any change in how land and forests are used take time, especially in such a large and diverse country as Indonesia,” said Elvestuen. “We are appreciating that Indonesia is making important governance reforms in the forest and land use sectors and we are looking forward to quickly seeing results in terms of reduced deforestation and forest degradation.”

According to Shintia Arwida, a scientist at the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research, the government has finally established a unit that will serve as the primary funding mechanism, a key step toward receiving and dispersing REDD+ payments. So far, however, forest conservation in Indonesia has taken a back seat to economic development, which depends on expanding the very industries responsible for deforestation and fires. A case in point: Plans are going forward to build 3 million acres of sugar and oil palm plantations in Indonesian Papua, one of the few regions of the country that has yet to see massive deforestation.

Stemming deforestation in Indonesia is hardly the responsibility of Indonesia alone, said Busch, as companies with zero-deforestation pledges and countries vowing to support REDD+ programs must intensify their efforts. “Indonesia is too big to fail when it comes to climate,” he said.

Yet as is often the case in Indonesia, defining progress is not easy. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Forestry released what seemed to be good news for the country’s remaining forests. According to their data, deforestation had decreased in the past two years. However, dig deeper into the data and a different reality emerges: Pulpwood plantations were counted as “forests.” Only by defining deforestation as forests could Indonesia show it was making progress.

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Indonesia: Palm oil environmental issues stressed amid negative campaign fears

Moses Ompusunggu The Jakarta Post 22 Mar 18;

Joining the wave of what the industry has described as a “negative campaign” against palm oil, three documentaries on oil palm plantations have been released and two of them have garnered international recognition.

One documentary, Austrian filmmaker Werner Boote's The Green Lie, was screened at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival, the Berlinale, last month. Part of the film was shot in Muarojambi regency, Jambi, during the forest fires in 2015.

Another one, American-Indonesian Ashram Shahrivar's Sigek Cokelat (Chocolate Bar), was screened at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival in the US and at the London International World Cinema event.

The most recent is the work of renowned documentary filmmaker, Dandhy Laksono's Watchdoc, titled Asimetris. The film was launched this month and has circulated in the country. The three share one thing in common: they set out to explain the palm oil industry’s detrimental effect on the environment.

Their international and nationwide reception appears to be just in time as the world puts the sustainability of the palm oil industry under greater scrutiny. The industry helps in the production of everyday items in our life like soap, cooking oil, cosmetics and chocolate bars, but has long been linked to deforestation in rainforest countries, including Indonesia.

Ashram said he wanted Sigek Cokelat to be an “eye-opening” experience on what was really happening in West Kalimantan palm plantations, referring to the decades-long deforestation that has reduced the habitat of orangutans, while people enjoyed chocolate, the production of which uses palm oil.

The Green Lie address the same issue. "The fact is that [the palm oil industry] has taken over ancestral lands, damaged the environment and has even violated human rights," said Feri Irawan, an environmentalist in Jambi, who appears in The Green Lie, which was nominated for best documentary award in the Berlinale in February.

That kind of criticism has been strongly voiced also by international NGOs, leading to what palm oil producers -- notably Indonesia and Malaysia – have called discriminatory and protectionist policies, such as the European Parliament's approval in January of a bill that will limit the use of palm oil as transportation fuel starting from 2022 and Norway's ban in 2017 on the public procurement and use of palm oil-based biofuel.

The policies could hurt Indonesia's exports, the country's authorities and business players warn. As the world's largest palm oil producer, Indonesia exported 31 million tons of palm oil last year, or 75 percent of Indonesia’s total output, bringing US$22.9 billion in foreign exchange revenue.

"Palm oil is one of primary elements of Indonesia's national interest, notably because it is related to the prosperity of 17 million Indonesian citizens, including smallholder farmers, who directly and indirectly depend on the palm oil industry," the Indonesian Embassy in Brussels said in a statement after the European Parliament's move.

International communities have singled out Indonesian oil palm plantations in the chorus of criticism of environmental aspects of the biofuel industry, Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) board member Fadhil Hasan said on Thursday.

Fadhil gave an instance of the European Union's stance on Argentina, the world's leading soy exporter and biggest provider of biodiesel made from its derivatives.

"For Argentina, it was the trade aspect that was highlighted. The environmental aspect was not highlighted," said Fadhil.

The EU set duties in November 2013 of 8.8 percent to 20.5 percent for Indonesian biodiesel producers and between 22 percent and 25.7 percent for Argentine biodiesel producers, in both cases to apply for five years.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) upheld Argentina's complaint on the bloc's decision in an appeal ruling in October 2016 and ruled in favor of Indonesia, which also challenged the decision, in January this year.

But there was no punitive action proposed by the European Parliament on Argentina like was announced for Indonesia, Fadhil said, referring to the calls for the banning of palm oil in biofuels in 2021, which was based on environmental concerns.

According to a rating created by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Argentina is among the top 10 countries that destroy their forests the most, and the FAO calculates the loss has amounted in more than 7.5 million hectares since 1990, environmental news organization Mongabay reported in 2016.

Greenpeace’s forest campaign in Argentina, Hernán Giardini, told Mongabay that “the advance of genetically modified soy production since the mid-1990s until now, and the intensive cattle raising in the north” are the main causes of forest loss in the country.

Gapki has stated on its website that when talking about global deforestation, the accusations against palm oil are “over the top”, especially if compared with deforestation resulting from soy plantations and cattle ranching.

Jon Afrizal contributed to this article from Jambi


Indonesia Unfair: Documentary Filmmaker Dandhy Laksono Strives for Impact
Dames Alexander Sinaga Jakarta Globe 22 Mar 18;

Jakarta. Production house WatchdoC released the ninth documentary film in its The Blue Indonesia Expedition project, titled "Asimetris,” on March 13.

The Bekasi-based company is owned and run by journalist-cum-film producer Dandhy Laksono, who said the film is an exposé of the palm oil industry in Indonesia and its impact on the environment.

In 2015, Sumatra and Kalimantan experienced devastating fires, with more than a million hectares of forest destroyed and dozens of people killed.

A prolonged dry season caused by an especially strong El Niño effect had been blamed for the fires, but Dandhy believes clearing lands for monoculture plantations – like palm oil plantation – using fire was the real cause.

"The impact of those fires is far more costly than what the palm oil itself brings back," said Dandhy, who is one of the producers in the new film.

He said the 68 minute-documentary, which was shot by 13 videographers, is trying to tell farmers they should not use their land for monoculture farming, including growing oil palm trees.

"The film also sends a message to governments, policymakers, the military and journalists to look at things from a broader perspective before making policies. They should consider more aspects than just economic growth, foreign exchange and so on. The environmental impact [of monoculture plantations] has cost the country more than it's getting back," Dandhy said.

Documentaries a Game Changer

Dandhy claimed documentary films have already changed the course of journalism in Indonesia.

"Most in the media are too busy covering high-level politics, big narratives about economic growth and infrastructure development and what the president likes to do in his spare time," the 42-year-old told the Jakarta Globe.

He said land conflicts, threats to indigenous societies, natural disasters and other humanitarian issues are often ignored by the nation's press.

Dandhy has produced more than a hundred documentaries and more than 500 TV features on social and environmental issues in Indonesia since 2009.

WatchdoC was founded by Dandhy and his friend Andhy Kurniawan, another ex-journalist.

Dandhy – who has also written two books, "Indonesia for Sale" and "Investigative Journalism" – said the WatchdoC team collects money from their own savings to produce the documentaries.

In 2015, Dandhy partnered with journalist Suparta "Ucok" Arz in The Blue Indonesia Expedition Team, traveling around Indonesia on a motorcycle and making documentaries on environmental and social issues for a full year.

Their adventure caught the attention of the media and went viral on social media.

In 2016, WatchdoC released a documentary called "Jakarta Unfair" about forced evictions carried out by the Jakarta administration in the name of infrastructure development.

Urban activists criticized the evictions, ordered by Jakarta's then governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's, saying it discriminates against the urban poor.

2016 was an intense year in the capital, as the gubernatorial election turned into one of the most divisive in history. The documentary Jakarta Unfair created controversies, with some saying it was anti-Ahok or anti-Jokowi propaganda and a screening of it was canceled.

"We're not aligned to anyone politically. We did not start from political alliances. We've been here long before Jokowi," Dandhy said, referring to Indonesian President Joko Widodo by his nickname.

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Indonesia: Walhi Reveals 82 Percent of Land Controlled by Corporations

Tempo 23 Mar 18;

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Environmental group Wahana Lingkungan Hidup (Walhi) revealed that 82 percent of Indonesia’s land spaces are controlled by big corporations.

“The current domination by corporations is 82 percent, which is acquired by concessions and permits in the sector of forestry, plantations, and mining,” said Walhi Executive Director Yaya Nur Hidayati on Thursday, March 22.

According to Walhi’s records, the land spaces acquired by corporations in the sector of forestry amounts to 31.7 million hectares and 11.1 million hectares of land space for business use. Meanwhile, 32.7 million hectares are controlled by mining corporations and 83.5 million hectares used for mining in the oil and gas industry.

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The Philippine seas and climate change: Unlocking Blue Carbon Solutions for a cooler planet

VAL BUGNOT GMA Network 22 Mar 18;

It was 2014 when I first set foot in an island community called Nasingin in Bohol province. Nestled just below Banacon island, Nasingin is home to at least 2,400 people. The whole community stretches 1.7km long and I was able to walk around in less than 15 minutes. The ground, made from dirt and coral, disappears twice a day when the high tide comes in.

I visited Nasingin on a research mission to get the locals’ notions on climate change. Constantly battered by fierce typhoons, sea surges, and strong winds, the community knows that nature’s course has changed drastically in the last few years.

Artemio Vergara, chief of the peoples’ organization, eagerly showed me around. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the community lives in poverty—freshwater supply is scarce, livelihood options are limited to fishing, and household heads usually go to neighboring towns in search for jobs and better opportunities.

But despite these conditions, Nasingin has something that they consider a treasure: the 300-ha mangrove forest cover that frames their island, protecting it from harsh winds and the unfriendly sea.

According to Mr. Vergara, the mangrove forest is a result of collective community action.

“I was twelve years old when we started planting mangroves. Local chieftains here consider this as a priority and as years passed by, we were able to grow this mangrove forest,” he narrated.

Touring the forest cover aboard a motorize banca, the community members proudly show the massive mangrove trees that expands well beyond the island’s horizon. These forests have always been there for them, the community members shared.

Nasingin often faces destructive typhoons along with sea surges and strong winds. When disaster strikes, nobody could go fishing. Economic activities are disrupted and most families are forced to go hungry. During these trying times, they turn to their mangroves.

“It has always protected us. The mangroves act as a barrier between us and strong waves. That’s why we’re still here. When we couldn’t go out to fish, we usually find shellfish in the mangroves and that’s enough to help us survive,” Maria Luz Sagarino, a community member and a mother of four shared.

The 300-ha mangrove that cradles the community does not only provide valuable protection against the forces of nature, it is also a lifeline for residents of Nasingin. The forest cover served as a breeding ground and nursery for various species of fish, shellfish, and marine animals—most of which can be viable sources of livelihood and sustenance.

And with climate change increasing the likelihood of extreme weather disturbances, Nasingin’s mangrove forest will prove to be a valuable resource not only to the community but to its neighboring towns as well.

Nasingin is just one of the communities in the Philippines that greatly benefits from its mangrove ecosystem. Across the country, these marine reserves present viable blue carbon solutions to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

The Philippines as a Frontrunner for Blue Carbon Solutions

The Philippines, as an archipelagic country, hosts a significant portion of the world’s mangrove stocks. According to this report by PEMSEA, the East Asian region alone accounts for four million ha of mangroves—roughly 30 percent of the global total. The country has the third largest mangrove ecosystem at 0.26Mha, after Indonesia’s 2.71Mha and Malaysia’s 0.56MHa.

These mangrove cover are extremely important in addressing climate change. In a research conducted by the Nature Conservancy and IHCantabria for the WAVES program of World Bank, it was found out that mangroves helped reduced flooding for 613,000 people annually, 23 percent of whom are living below the poverty line. Mangroves are also responsible for saving as much as US $1 billion in residential and industrial property damages. If mangrove forest cover can be reverted back to their 1950s level, added benefits will be felt by 267,000 people, 61,000 of which are living in extreme poverty condition.

On top of these, mangroves are efficient in sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere. The PEMSEA report underscored that East Asia’s mangrove stocks hold 8.8 billion tons of CO2 and collectively, these mangrove ecosystems sequester 22.4 MMt CO2 from the atmosphere.

In terms of adaptation, mangroves protect coastlines and its communities by absorbing wave energy, providing protection from storm surge, and preventing coastal soil erosion. In some cases, mangroves can also double as seawalls, protecting communities from sea level rise.

Mangroves are part of coastal blue carbon ecosystems—an umbrella term used to describe mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows that can sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store these for hundreds of years. These ecosystems, aside from sequestering carbon, provide rich breeding grounds for fish stocks, contribute to the filtration of sediment, and ensure the protection of coral reefs from erosion and flooding.

It is essential to unlock blue carbon solutions to help cool down the planet. Experts agree that for humanity to survive, global temperature levels should not increase by more than 2°C. As such, a 1.5-degree increase in global temperature still brings in catastrophic events: more frequent extreme weather disturbances, sea level rise, stronger and longer spells of drought and El Niño, and the extinction of flora and fauna. Mangrove ecosystems, with its proven capacity for carbon sequestration, can be leveraged in a way that strongly supports a country’s achievement of its NDC towards meeting this global goal.

The Philippines, as one of the countries that ratified the Paris Agreement in 2016, has identified the potential of blue carbon solutions in climate change adaptation and mitigation. In fact, the country is one of the five countries that explicitly used this term in its Nationally Intended Contribution (NDC).

In its NDC, the Philippines agreed to “about 70 percent of emission reductions by 2030 relative the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario.” To achieve this, the country highlighted the role that marine ecosystems play, citing blue carbon potentials.

The Threat to Blue Carbon Solutions

Despite their valuable contribution to climate change mitigation, coastal ecosystems around the world are threatened by anthropogenic activities, with over 800,000 hectares destroyed per year. When these ecosystems are destroyed, they release enormous amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere, further contributing to the rise of Earth’s temperature.

According to this policy brief by Nature Conservancy, if half of the annual loss in coastal ecosystems are addressed, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 0.23 GT per year—an amount equivalent to the 2013 emissions of Spain. Further, if wetlands are to be restored to their 1990 cover, potential carbon sequestration can amount to 160Mt CO2 per year—enough to offset 77.4 million tonnes of coal burned. In terms of protecting communities against climate-related disasters, the paper posits that 100 meters of mangroves are enough to reduce wave height by as much as 66 percent.

Local Communities, Blue Carbon Solutions towards a Cooler Planet

The 2020 deadline for limiting global temperature increase to 1.5°C is fast approaching and there is a need to act now. The Philippines is strategically endowed with massive assets towards blue carbon solutions.

Measures should be in place to ensure that local communities take the center stage in managing and protecting their resources. In the case of Nasingin, the community is awarded a certificate of stewardship from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and granting them the authority to plant, manage, and protect their mangrove forest. The agency and the community also entered into a Community-Based Forestry Management (CBFM) contract to ensure that the community will always have the agency and power over their resources.

Aside from safeguarding the rights of local communities, it is also imperative to establish an incentive mechanism for those who are heavily dependent on mangrove ecosystems. In Banacon Island, a larger neighboring island of Nasingin, experts estimated that the 40-year mangrove plantation can store as much as 370.7 tons of carbon per hectare. This capacity can pave the way for incentive programs to further stimulate the community’s buy in and provide an economic benefit for their resource management efforts.

Communities should always be in the spotlight in scaling up blue carbon solutions. Technical assistance through capacity building and livelihood programs should be made available to them. As such, the government, together with the academe, should identify and value indigenous approaches to blue carbon solutions and develop these for replication.

Collaboration amongst local government play a key part in scaling up blue carbon solutions as well. A good example for this is the enforcement of the Verde Island Passage Marine Protected Area Network; a 1.14-million hectare marine ecosystem formed by the waters of Romblon, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, and Batangas. The network aims to strengthen enforcement of marine protection laws to ensure the protection of the “center of the center of marine biodiversity.”

Lying in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is constantly battered by nature’s forces. Climate change continues to threaten the country’s vulnerability and proves to be a multiplier in the social pressures that it is currently experiencing. However, the Philippines has a lot of solutions under its belt—blue carbon solutions being one of these. Addressing climate change lies on ensuring the wellbeing of our people and making sure that they have the capacity to survive and thrive in these trying times. — LA, GMA News

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'Great Pacific garbage patch' sprawling with far more debris than thought

The patch of detritus is more than twice the size of France and is up to 16 times larger than previously estimated
Oliver Milman The Guardian 22 Mar 18;

An enormous area of rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean is teeming with far more debris than previously thought, heightening alarm that the world’s oceans are being increasingly choked by trillions of pieces of plastic.

The sprawling patch of detritus – spanning 1.6m sq km, (617,763 sq miles) more than twice the size of France – contains at least 79,000 tons of plastic, new research published in Nature has found. This mass of waste is up to 16 times larger than previous estimates and provides a sobering challenge to a team that will start an ambitious attempt to clean up the vast swath of the Pacific this summer.

The analysis, conducted by boat and air surveys taken over two years, found that pollution in the so-called Great Pacific garbage patch is almost exclusively plastic and is “increasing exponentially”. Microplastics, measuring less than 0.5cm (0.2in), make up the bulk of the estimated 1.8tn pieces floating in the garbage patch, which is kept in rough formation by a swirling ocean gyre.

While tiny fragments of plastic are the most numerous, nearly half of the weight of rubbish is composed of discarded fishing nets. Other items spotted in the stew of plastic include bottles, plates, buoys, ropes and even a toilet seat.

“I’ve been doing this research for a while, but it was depressing to see,” said Laurent Lebreton, an oceanographer and lead author of the study. Lebreton works for the Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch-based non-profit that is aiming to tackle the garbage patch.

“There were things you just wondered how they made it into the ocean. There’s clearly an increasing influx of plastic into the garbage patch.

“We need a coordinated international effort to rethink and redesign the way we use plastics. The numbers speak for themselves. Things are getting worse and we need to act now.”

Plastic has proven a usefully durable and versatile product but has become a major environmental blight, tainting drinking water and rivers. Around 8m tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year, where it washes up on beaches or drifts out to sea where the pieces very slowly break down over hundreds of years.

Larger pieces of plastic pollution can entangle and kill marine creatures, while tiny fragments are eaten by small fish and find their way up the food chain. Plastic often attracts toxic pollutants that are then ingested and spread by marine life. It’s estimated there will be more waste plastic in the sea than fish by the year 2050.

Much of the plastic waste accumulates in five circular ocean currents – known as gyres – found around the globe. The Ocean Cleanup has pledged a “moonshot” effort to clean up half of the Great Pacific garbage patch within five years and mop up the other rubbish-strewn gyres by 2040.

The organization is developing a system of large floating barriers with underwater screens that capture and concentrate plastics into one area ready to be scooped out of the ocean. A prototype, to be launched from San Francisco this summer with the aim of spawning a clutch of devices each of which can collect five tons of waste a month, will, if successful, be followed by dozens of other boom-like systems measuring up to 2km (1.2 miles) long.

The project comes with caveats, however – its system will not catch the proliferation of microplastics measuring under 10 millimeters (0.39in) and the whole operation will require further funding from next year. Any successful clean-up may also be overwhelmed by a global surge in plastic production – a recent UK government report warned the amount of plastic in the ocean could treble within the next decade.

“There is a big mine of microplastics there coming from larger stuff that’s crumbling down, so we need to get in there quickly to clean it up,” said Joost Dubois, a spokesman for the Ocean Cleanup.

“But we also need to prevent plastic getting into the ocean in the first place. If we don’t manage the influx of plastics we will be the garbagemen of the ocean forever, which isn’t our ambition.”

The problem of plastic pollution is gaining traction in diplomatic circles, with nearly 200 countries signing on to a UN resolution last year that aims to stem the flood of plastic into the oceans. However, the agreement has no timetable and is not legally binding.

Dr Clare Steele, a California-based marine ecologist who was not involved in the research, said the study provided “great progress” in understanding the composition of the Great Pacific garbage patch.

But she regretted that while removing larger items, such as ghost fishing nets, would help wildlife, the clean-up would not deal with the colossal amount of microplastic.

“Those plankton-sized pieces of plastic are pretty difficult to clean up,” she said. “The only way is to address the source and that will require a radical shift on how we use materials, particularly single-use plastic such as cutlery, straws and bottles that are so durable.

“We need to reduce waste and come up with new, biodegradable alternatives to plastic. But one of the easiest steps is changing the way we use and discard the more ephemeral plastic products.”

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State of Climate in 2017 – Extreme weather and high impacts

World Meteorological Organization ReliefWeb 22 Mar 18;

The very active North Atlantic hurricane season, major monsoon floods in the Indian subcontinent, and continuing severe drought in parts of east Africa contributed to 2017 being the most expensive year on record for severe weather and climate events.

The high impact of extreme weather on economic development, food security, health and migration was highlighted in the WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2017. Compiled by the World Meteorological Organization with input from national meteorological services and United Nations partners, the report provides detailed information to support the international agenda on disaster risk reduction, sustainable development and climate change.

The Statement, now in its 25th year, was published for World Meteorological Day on 23 March. It confirmed that 2017 was one of the three warmest years on record and the warmest not influenced by an El Niño event. It also examined other long-term indicators of climate change such as increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, sea level rise, shrinking sea ice, ocean heat and ocean acidification.

Global mean temperatures in 2017 were about 1.1 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. The five-year average 2013–2017 global temperature is the highest five-year average on record. The world’s nine warmest years have all occurred since 2005, and the five warmest since 2010.

“The start of 2018 has continued where 2017 left off – with extreme weather claiming lives and destroying livelihoods. The Arctic experienced unusually high temperatures, whilst densely populated areas in the northern hemisphere were gripped by bitter cold and damaging winter storms. Australia and Argentina suffered extreme heatwaves, whilst drought continued in Kenya and Somalia, and the South African city of Cape Town struggled with acute water shortages,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

“Since the inaugural Statement on the State of the Global Climate, in 1993, scientific understanding of our complex climate system has progressed rapidly. This includes our ability to document the occurrence of extreme weather and climate events, the degree to which they can be attributed to human influences, and the correlation of climate change with epidemics and vector-borne diseases,” said Mr Taalas.

“In the past quarter of a century, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have risen from 360 parts per million to more than 400 ppm. They will remain above that level for generations to come, committing our planet to a warmer future, with more weather, climate and water extremes,” said Mr Taalas.

Direct measurements of atmospheric CO2 over the past 800 000 years showed natural variations between 180 and 280 ppm. “This demonstrates that today’s CO2 concentration of 400 ppm exceeds the natural variability seen over hundreds of thousands of years, “ said the Statement.

Socio-economic impacts

2017 was a particularly severe year for disasters with high economic impacts. Munich Re assessed total disaster losses from weather and climate-related events in 2017 at US$ 320 billion, the largest annual total on record (after adjustment for inflation).

Fuelled by warm sea surface temperatures, the North Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest ever for the United States and eradicated decades of developments gains in small islands in the Caribbean such as Dominica. The National Centers for Environmental Information estimated total U.S. losses from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria at US$ 265 billion. The World Bank estimates Dominica’s total damages and losses from the hurricane at US$ 1.3 billion or 224% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Climate impacts hit vulnerable nations especially hard, as evidenced in a recent study by the International Monetary Fund, which warned that a 1 °C increase in temperature would cut significantly economic growth rates in many low-income countries.

The overall risk of heat-related illness or death has climbed steadily since 1980, with around 30% of the world’s population now living in climatic conditions that deliver potentially deadly temperatures at least 20 days a year, according to information from the World Health Organization quoted in the Statement. It also included a section on the relationship between climate and the Zika epidemic in the Americas in 2014–2016.

In 2016, weather-related disasters displaced 23.5 million people. Consistent with previous years, the majority of these internal displacements were associated with floods or storms and occurred in the Asia-Pacific region.

Massive internal displacement in the context of drought and food insecurity continues across Somalia. From November 2016 to December 2017, 892 000 drought-related displacements were recorded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In the Horn of Africa, the failure of the 2016 rainy season was followed by a harsh January–February 2017 dry season, and a poor March-to-May rainy season. In Somalia, as of June 2017, more than half of the cropland was affected by drought, and herds had reduced by 40–60% since December 2016 due to increased mortality and distress sales, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme.

Floods affected the agricultural sector, especially in Asian countries. Heavy rains in May 2017 triggered severe flooding and landslides in south-western areas of Sri Lanka. The negative impact of floods on crop production further aggravated the food security conditions in the country already stricken by drought, according to FAO and WFP.

The oceans

Global sea surface temperatures in 2017 were somewhat below the levels of 2015 and 2016, but still ranked as the third warmest on record. Ocean heat content, a measure of the heat in the oceans through their upper layers down to 2 000 meters, reached new record highs in 2017.

The Statement said that the magnitude of almost all of individual components of sea level rise has increased in recent years, in particular melting of the polar ice sheets, mostly in Greenland and to a lesser extent Antarctica.

For the second successive year, above-average sea surface temperatures off the east coast of Australia resulted in significant coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef.

The Climate Statement contained a special section on ocean acidification from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. Over the past 10 years, various studies have confirmed that ocean acidification is directly influencing the health or coral reefs, the success, quality and taste of aquaculture raised fish and seafood, and the survival and calcification of several key organisms. These alterations have cascading effects within the food web, which are expected to result in increasing impacts on coastal economies.

Cryosphere

Sea ice extent was well below the 1981–2010 average throughout 2017 in both the Arctic and Antarctic. The winter maximum of Arctic sea ice was the lowest winter maximum in the satellite record. The summer minimum was the 8th lowest on record, but a slow freeze-up saw sea ice extent once again near record lows for December.

Antarctic sea ice extent was at or near record low levels throughout the year

The Greenland ice sheet mass balance change from September to December 2017 was close to average. Despite the gain in overall ice mass this year, it is only a small departure from the trend over the past two decades, with the Greenland ice sheet having lost approximately 3 600 billion tons of ice mass since 2002.

Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent was near or slightly above the 1981–2010 average for most of the year.

Notes for Editors

Information used in this report is sourced from a large number of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and associated institutions, as well as Regional Climate Centres, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) and Global Cryosphere Watch. Information has also been supplied by a number of other United Nations agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO).

WMO uses datasets (based on monthly climatological data from observing sites) from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and the United Kingdom’s Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in the United Kingdom.

It also uses reanalysis datasets from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts and its Copernicus Climate Change Service, and the Japan Meteorological Agency. This method combines millions of meteorological and marine observations, including from satellites, with models to produce a complete reanalysis of the atmosphere. The combination of observations with models makes it possible to estimate temperatures at any time and in any place across the globe, even in data-sparse areas such as the polar regions.

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