4
June 2009 - In 2007 Denmark’s total greenhouse
gas emission fell by 6.6 per cent in relation
to 2006. When corrected for annual temperature
variation, electricity export and CO2 sequestration
in forests and soils, the total emission
however rose by 0.9 per cent from 2006 to
2007. The total net emission in 2007 was
5.9 per cent lower than in 11000. In relation
to the base year 11000, traffic has been
responsible for the greatest emission increase,
while stationary combustion sources and
agriculture have considerably reduced their
emission of greenhouse gases.
With regard to its greenhouse
gas emission, Denmark is committed to attaining
a reduction of 21 per cent during the period
2008-2012 in relation to the base year of
11000 determined by the Kyoto Protocol.
This target has been agreed under the Kyoto
Protocol and the EU’s burden-sharing agreement.
Emissions from international shipping and
air traffic are not covered by the protocol.
How, then, is the part of the greenhouse
gas balance that concerns Denmark’s national
greenhouse gas emissions looking?
The latest inventory from
Denmark’s National Environmental Research
Institute (NERI), Aarhus University shows
that the total emission fell from 2006 to
2007. Keeping to the raw figures that are
reported to the Climate Convention, Denmark’s
national greenhouse gas emission fell by
6.6 per cent in 2007 in relation to 2006
– when the net removal of CO2 by forest
and soil is included in the calculations.
Compared with 11000, there has been a decline
of 5.9 per cent in the total net emission
(i.e. the total emission minus total removal
of CO2 in carbon sinks) that Denmark has
reported to the UN. CO2 sequestration in
forests and soils here is calculated in
accordance with the Climate Convention,
whereas under the Kyoto Protocol, only a
small amount of this removal can be included
in the calculations, see Article 3.3 and
3.4 of the Protocol.
A closer look at these
figures, however, shows that export of electricity
to Norway and Sweden was lower in 2007 than
2006. At the same time, we were blessed
with a mild winter which gave fewer degree
days than usual. Correction for climatic
variation and electricity trade, and without
taking CO2 removal in 2007 into account,
gives a rise of 0.9 per cent in relation
to 2006. The rise in this corrected greenhouse
gas emission total is due mainly to increasing
energy consumption in the transport sector.
Danish greenhouse gas
emissions. Contributions from the main sectors
to the total emission in 2007 (top) and
time series in CO2-equivalents for 11000-2007
Less from agriculture,
more from traffic
The greatest contribution to Denmark’s emission
of greenhouse gases comes from combustion
from stationary sources (power stations,
district heating plants, household boilers,
etc), traffic as well as agriculture, which
together account for 93.2 per cent of the
total Danish emission. Trends in the three
sectors, however, have progressed very differently
since 11000. While emissions from stationary
sources and agriculture have fallen, the
emission from the transport sector has risen
by 32 per cent since 11000, mainly due to
increasing road traffic.
Facts about the report
The figures are taken from Denmark’s annual
report on greenhouse gases sent to the UN
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 15
April 2009. The report contains information
on Denmark’s inventories from 11000 to 2007
and is reported in the format (CRF) that
the convention prescribes. The tables contain
information on emissions, activity data
and emission factors for each year, emission
trends for the individual greenhouse gases
and the total greenhouse gas emission in
CO2-equivalents.
The following greenhouse
gases are reported to the Climate Convention:
• Carbon dioxide, CO2
• Methane, CH4
• Nitrous oxide, N2O
• Hydrofluorocarbons, HFCs
• Perfluorocarbons, PFCs
• Sulphur hexafluoride, SF6
The emission inventories
only give part of the picture in relation
to Denmark’s reduction target for 2008-2012.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, in 2008-2012,
partial credits from CO2 sinks, credits
from projects to limit greenhouse gas emission
in other countries and any allowances purchased
from other countries are to be included
in the calculations. Trends in the overall
situation for credits and allowances – for
state as well as allowance-regulated enterprises
– will be followed via the allowance register,
which will form the basis for annual reporting
from 2009. Further details on CO2 allowances
and credits in Denmark are available on
the Danish Energy Agency’s website.
Emissions at dmu.dk
Contact: Chemical engineer
Ole-Kenneth Nielsen, tel. 4630 1819, okn@dmu.dk
Denmark ’s National
Inventory Report 2009. Emission Inventories
11000-2007 - Submitted under the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change. Nielsen, O.-K., Lyck, E., Mikkelsen,
M.H., Hoffmann, L., Gyldenkærne, S.,
Winther, M., Nielsen, M., Fauser, P., Thomsen,
M., Plejdrup, M.S., Albrektsen, R., Hjelgaard,
K., Vesterdal, L., Møller, I.S. &
Baunbæk, L. 2009. National Environmental
Research Institute, Aarhus University .
826 pp. – NERI Technical Report No 724.
Summary | Sammenfatning | Full report pdf
(8.7 MB)
+ More
Researchers map hypoxia
in the Baltic Sea over 10,000 years
25 May 2009 - The Baltic
Sea seen from Pomle Nakke at danish island
Falster. - A cruise of around three weeks
from 24 May on the research ship ’Aranda’
will give researchers from seven countries
new insight into the implications of warmer
climate for hypoxia in the Baltic Sea.
Two-metre long sediment
cores taken from the bottom sediments from
various parts of the marine area will tell
researchers how warmer climate known from
earlier periods – in the Bronze Age 5,000-6,000
years ago, and in Viking times, c. 1,000
years ago – enhanced oxygen depletion as
well as how the warmer temperatures predicted
for the future can impact oxygen content
in the Baltic Sea and thereby the ecosystem
as a whole, with its fish, sediment-living
organisms and plants.
Hypoxia in the bottom
waters of the Baltic Sea has over the last
100 years reached its widest extent ever
in the history of the young sea. Tens of
thousands of square kilometres of seafloor
have been laid to waste, ravaged by poisonous
hydrogen sulphides, and empty of fish and
bottom-living organisms.
Inputs of large amounts
of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous
from agriculture and wastewater of the surrounding
countries, together with warmer climate
over the last 100 years, are the principle
reasons for the current state of the Baltic
Sea , with its impoverished flora and fauna
and poisonous blue-green algal blooms.
The Baltic Sea is a
complex, natural system which has been brought
out of balance. The Baltic countries efforts
to reduce the input of nutrients to the
sea have begun to take effect, but are counteracted
by a climate with rising temperatures. Over
the past 30-40 years the annual average
temperature of the sea has risen 1 degree
C.
At the same time, the
absence of bottom-living organisms contributes
to maintaining and enhancing a vicious circle.
Under normal conditions bottom-living organisms
usually strengthen the processes by which
nutrients are removed from the water by
digging themselves into the sediments, thereby
ventilating the seabed.
Action plans have been
adopted to improve the situation in the
Baltic Sea . However, more knowledge is
required on the interactions between nutrients,
bottom-living organisms, climate and several
other conditions, e.g. salinity, in order
to determine the reductions in nutrient
additions necessary to reduce hypoxia in
the Baltic Sea - and to be able to make
realistic evaluation of the implications
of the action plans implemented.
The three-year project
HYPER will contribute to gathering this
information.
Description of HYPER
in pdf-format
R/V Aranda
The research ship ’R/V Aranda’ (59 metres
long, 1,734 tonnes) is owned by the Finnish
Institute of Marine Research . The vessel
is an oceangoing, ice-reinforced research
ship fitted for year-round research in marine
biology, physics, chemistry and geology.
The vessel is equipped with a quality-certificated,
full-scale laboratory.
Cruise route
Departs: Helsinki 24 May 2009. Route: Helsinki
– Gulf of Finland – Gotland Deep – Bornholm
Basin – Rönne (Bornholm) 2.-4. June
– Gulf of Bothnia – Rauma – Helsinki . Arrival
Helsinki 17 June 2009
+ More
Young NERI-scientist
behind Europe's best publication in the
field of environmental sciences 2008
4 June 2009 - Project
researcher Lars-Henrik Heckmann, National
Environmental Research Institute (NERI),
Aarhus University, has been presented with
the ’SETAC Europe Best Publication Award’
for the scientific article: ‘Systems biology
meets stress ecology: linking molecular
and organismal stress responses in Daphnia
magna’, published in 2008 in the journal
‘Genome Biology’ with Heckmann as lead author.
The article stems from Lars-Henrik Heckmann’s
PhD research undertaken at the University
of Reading in the UK.
The award was presented
at SETAC Europe’s 19th Annual Meeting in
Gothenburg, Sunday 31 May. SETAC (Society
of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry)
is one of the world’s largest scientific
fora within ecotoxicology and environmental
chemistry. The award is designed to honour
outstanding contributions to environmental
research in the form of articles in peer-reviewed
international journals.
The award is presented
to students or young researchers under 35
for the best publication in the field of
environmental sciences. Heckmann received
the award in the category: Ecotoxicology,
eco-epidemiology and biological/biochemical
studies.
Lars-Henrik Heckmann
is currently working with ecotoxicological
effects of nanoparticles in earthworms.
The methodology used in his research originates
from his PhD research and can be described
in short as providing a more detailed picture
of a given stressor (chemicals, nanoparticles,
etc.) in invertebrates by coupling the effects
measured at DNA level to effects at population
level.
‘Systems biology meets
stress ecology: linking molecular and organismal
stress responses in Daphnia magna’. Heckmann,
L-H et al. Genome Biology 2008, 9:R40
