Where are we on the environment? #16

December’s global events in five headlines, for those interested in the environment, sustainability and ecological transition.

1.

Indonesia, one of the world’s main coal exporters, has banned the export of the fossil fuel for the entire month of January fearing that part of the country could be left without, and therefore extended blackouts could occur. Indonesia provides coal to China, India, Japan and South Korea and other countries.

2.

After more than thirty years of operation, Germany will permanently shut down the reactors of three of the six nuclear power plants still active in the country as part of the plan to gradually move away from nuclear power. The German Ministry of the Environment announced that the remaining plants still operating will be shut down by the end of 2022.

3.

In order to try and reverse the dramatic decrease in the sea urchin population caused by overfishing, in Sardinia there will be a three-year sea urchin fishing ban. The species in question is the Paracentrotus lividus (purple sea urchin), one of the most common species in the Mediterranean and the main edible species. The decision was also made with the goal of avoiding the "commercial extinction of the species”, explained Gabriella Murgia, the Regional Councillor for Agriculture.

4.

A law has been passed in New York that will prohibit the use of natural gas in the heating systems and kitchens of almost all buildings built after 2027. The heating, cooling and power supply systems of commercial and residential buildings account for nearly 70 percent of New York's greenhouse gas emissions.

5.

Shell, the oil company, has given up on exploiting an oil field off the coast of the Shetland Islands in Scotland. The project to build an extraction plant in that area was harshly criticised by British environmental activists, according to whom the British government, by authorising it, had gone against its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.