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Arctic warming: scientists alarmed by ‘crazy’ temperature rises

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Record warmth in the Arctic this month could yet prove to be a freak occurrence, but experts warn the warming event is unprecedented

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Pollution control

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Shoppers in the Netherlands will get the chance to visit Europe's first plastic-free supermarket aisle on Wednesday in what campaigners claim is a turning point in the war on plastic pollution.

The store in Amsterdam will open its doors at 11am when shoppers will be able to choose from more than 700 plastic-free products, all available in one aisle.

The move comes amid growing global concern about the damage plastic waste is having on oceans, habitats and food chains. Scientists warn plastic pollution is now so widespread it risks permanent contamination of the natural world.

Earlier this year, a Guardian investigation revealed that UK supermarkets were a major source of plastic waste, producing 1m tonnes a year. And for the past 12 months, campaigners have been calling for all supermarkets to offer a plastic-free aisle.

The world's first plastic-free supermarket aisle in Amsterdam. Photograph: Ewout Huibers/PA

Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, the group behind the campaign, said the opening represented "a landmark moment for the global fight against plastic pollution".

"For decades shoppers have been sold the lie that we can't live without plastic in food and drink. A plastic-free aisle dispels all that. Finally we can see a future where the public have a choice about whether to buy plastic or plastic-free. Right now we have no choice."

The aisle will open in the Amsterdam branch of the Dutch supermarket chain Ekoplaza. The company says it will roll out similar aisles in all of its 74 branches by the end of the year.

Ekoplaza chief executive, Erik Does, has been working with the campaign for the past month and said the initiative was "an important stepping stone to a brighter future for food and drink".

"We know that our customers are sick to death of products laden in layer after layer of thick plastic packaging. Plastic-free aisles are a really innovative way of testing the compostable biomaterials that offer a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic packaging."

The aisle will have more than 700 plastic-free products including meat, rice, sauces, dairy, chocolate, cereals, yogurt, snacks, fresh fruit and vegetables.

Campaigners say the products will not be anymore expensive than plastic-wrapped goods and will be "scalable and convenient", using alternative biodegradable packing where necessary rather than ditching packaging altogether.

They add the aisles will be a "testbed for innovative new compostable bio-materials as well as traditional materials such as glass, metal and cardboard."

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Sutherland said: "There is absolutely no logic in wrapping something as fleeting as food in something as indestructible as plastic. Plastic food and drink packaging remains useful for a matter of days yet remains a destructive presence on the Earth for centuries afterwards."

Campaigners say the grocery retail sector accounts for more than 40% of all plastic packaging. A recent Populus poll revealed that 91% of Britons back the introduction of plastic-free aisles.

Founders of A Plastic Planet Sian Sutherland (right) and Frederikke Magnussen. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

The Guardian's investigation into supermarkets' plastic footprint found that leading UK stores create more than 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste every year. However Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose, Asda and Lidl all refused to divulge their plastic output, with most saying the information was "commercially sensitive".

Last month Theresa May highlighted the challenge of plastic pollution while setting out the government's environment policies. The prime minister singled out the role of supermarkets, calling on them to introduce plastic-free aisles. But she was criticised for failing to back up her call with any concrete measures.

Sutherland said campaigners were in ongoing talks with all the major UK supermarkets but, so far, none have committed to introducing a plastic-free aisle.

She added: "Europe's biggest supermarkets must follow Ekoplaza's lead and introduce a plastic-free aisle at the earliest opportunity to help turn off the plastic tap."

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World's first plastic-free aisle opens in Netherlands supermarket

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Shoppers in the Netherlands will get the chance to visit Europe's first plastic-free supermarket aisle on Wednesday in what campaigners claim is a turning point in the war on plastic pollution. The store in Amsterdam will open its doors at 11am when shoppers will be able to choose from more than 700 plastic-free products, all available in one aisle.

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Sustainable economy

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Explaining the Circular Economy and How Society Can Re-think Progress | Animated Video Essay

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Pollution control

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We push off from the quay by Amsterdam's Westerkerk, leaving the tourist bustle and long, fidgety queue for the Anne Frank House behind us. Our little electric boat heads quietly south down the Keizersgracht canal for a tour of the city. Our guide, Erik, points out the sights: a famous hotel, a secret church, the seven bridges view but we are distracted, focused on the plastic debris that bobs by our boat. As with more than 15,000 people before us, we have jumped on board one of Amsterdam's most unusual boat trips: a plastic fishing tour of the canals - and we are eager to see what we can find.

Unlike the slippery perch who flit deep beneath us, the docile plastic is an easy catch. From our open-topped boat, nets in hand, we haul in the flotsam. If we had orange jumpsuits on, jokes Erik, we'd look like we were doing community service. In fact, I'm travelling with seven tourists who have paid to collect rubbish as part of their holiday.

Founded by Marius Smit in 2011, Plastic Whale runs plastic fishing tours in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. While travelling across Asia in his 30s, Smit, now 45, was shocked by the plastic pollution he saw and wanted to make a difference. When he returned to Amsterdam and noticed all the plastic in the canals, he realised the problem was closer to home than he had thought.

The Amsterdam water company, Waternet, has estimated that around 3,500kg of rubbish is removed from Amsterdam's waterways each day. "About 80% of what is floating out at sea comes from cities around the world," says Smit. "My conviction was that there were millions of people like me who wanted to contribute [to change that] in a positive way."

Anne Jakobsen from Copenhagen, fishing alongside me, is a good example. She and her husband, Ole, have brought the family along "to lift the carbon footprint we leave behind. And show the kids you can do something other than the Rijksmuseum," she says.

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Marius Smit, centre, in a publicity image for Plastic Whale. Photograph: Natasja Noordervliet

Rolling up your sleeves and helping a city dispose of its waste may not sound like a fun way to experience a destination but the tour - which claims to be the first of its kind - is surprisingly popular. Plastic Whale has seen a surge of interest as awareness of the plastic crisis has grown. And with the announcement today of the world's first plastic-free supermarket aisle opening in Amsterdam, the city is now seen as a leader in the fight against plastic pollution. In 2017, its Amsterdam fleet of nine boats took 6,000 people fishing for plastic, plucking 50-60,000 PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles out of the water and nearly three times this volume in other waste.

Around 8,500 rescued bottles have been used to make the plastic boat we are travelling in. It's a circular solution to the problem: the more plastic collected, the more boats can be built and the broader the clean-up operation.

Erik is full of interesting anecdotes about the city and the objects they have found in its waters. Since plastic fishing began, he tells us, the canals have revealed an underworld of wallets, passports, and car keys discarded by thieves or dropped by drunken tourists. One passenger shrieked when she mistook a submerged mannequin for a dead body and they once found a bottle containing an envelope addressed to Germany. They put it in the mail but are yet to receive a reply.

Our loot is less exotic. We have a parsnip, some cans and a small sachet of weed labelled "Dr Grinspoon", sieved from the water by nine-year-old Gus Krohn from Minnesota, who is unfamiliar with this quintessentially Amsterdam item. Later Gus enjoys what he calls "a pirate takeover" as we leap onto an abandoned boat covered in trash and rob it of its plastic booty.

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Spiffing work ... Gus having fished out 'Dr Grinspoon'. Photograph: Jake Krohn

"Plastic fishing has a positive impact on kids, they love it," says Smit. "As soon as they take the plastic out of the water, they see it doesn't belong there. When we tell them that we make boats out of it they understand it should be seen as a raw material, not as waste." Today, around a fifth of their trips are with schools.

Visitors keen to try out the plastic fishing tour should sign up soon. As the Plastic Whale fleet expands, plastic will become scarcer and may eventually bring about a natural end to the activity. But for Smit, the Plastic Whale's extinction is part of the mission. He is already investigating moving the concept to Indonesia or India, where he says "poverty and waste go hand in hand".

"We exist to solve a problem," he says. "We want to go out of business."

* plasticwhale.com. Two-hour trip £23pp, includes snack and drinks

Keep it clean: environment-focused events in the UK

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The sea and shore seen from Birling Gap, East Sussex. Photograph: Joas Souza/Getty Images

For an eco-conscious stroll in the UK, from 2-4 March there is the annual Great British Spring Clean, with hundreds of events around the country coordinated by the Keep Britain Tidy campaign. These include events at National Trust properties, from beaches and heaths to parklands, including a litter pick at Badbury Hill, Oxfordshire, Birling Gap in East Sussex and Rhossili on the Gower peninsula. From 7-15 April, Surfers Against Sewage organises the Big Spring Beach Clean, which involves more than 1,000 beach cleans around the UK and, since launching in 2010, has removed 152,741kg of rubbish. The charity also organises a beach clean in autumn. In a similar vein, on the third weekend of September the Marine Conservation Society runs the Great British Beach Clean with litter picking events at more than 300 beaches.
Will Coldwell
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Fishing for plastic: the Amsterdam canal tour with a difference

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We push off from the quay by Amsterdam's Westerkerk, leaving the tourist bustle and long, fidgety queue for the Anne Frank House behind us. Our little electric boat heads quietly south down the Keizersgracht canal for a tour of the city.

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Illegal ivory trade

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More than 30 countries across Africa have called on the European Union (EU) to close down its ivory market, saying it needs to do more to prevent elephants being driven to extinction.

The 27 nation bloc banned the export of raw ivory last year, but the trade between member states continues.

Under current rules, antique ivory can still be exported and campaigners say dealers are using the exception to smuggle newer ivory to Asian markets.

Up to 30,000 African elephants are killed by poachers every year, with the practice particularly rife in the centre of the continent.

At the Giants Club summit - a forum of leaders devoted to tackling elephant poaching - the presidents of Botswana, Uganda and Gabon, signed a petition organised by the Avaaz activist group which demands that the EU shut down the domestic market, end all ivory exports, and support efforts to ban the global ivory trade.

They joined 29 other African nations, that were among 1,000,000 signatories from across the world.

"Europe has led the fight against illegal poaching, but these efforts are being undermined by the continued legal trade in ivory in EU countries," the petition says. "In the context of China announcing its ban on ivory, Europe must now do all it can to prevent elephants being driven to extinction. "

Bert Wander, campaigns director at Avaaz said: "European officials told us they couldn't ban ivory because not enough African leaders wanted them to. Now we're going back to them with signatures from more than 30 countries where most of Africa's elephants live to ask if they have any other excuses.

"The truth is there are none -- the rest of the world is turning its back on the ivory trade. Why not Europe?"

Max Graham, chief executive of Space for Giants said: "We've long argued that all ivory markets should be closed because any vagueness in can you buy it or can't you buy it drives confusion, and criminal networks make billions of euros a year exploiting that confusion.

"It's simple: the EU must follow the US and especially China, and say no ivory is for sale, full stop."

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African countries demand EU completely bans ivory trade

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More than 30 countries across Africa have called on the European Union (EU) to close down its ivory market, saying it needs to do more to prevent elephants being driven to extinction. The 27 nation bloc banned the export of raw ivory last year, but the trade between member states continues.

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Pollution control

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The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased at record speed last year to hit a level not seen for more than three million years, the UN has warned.

The new report has raised alarm among scientists and prompted calls for nations to consider more drastic emissions reductions at the upcoming climate negotiations in Bonn.

"Globally averaged concentrations of CO2 reached 403.3 parts per million (ppm) in 2016, up from 400.00 ppm in 2015 because of a combination of human activities and a strong El Niño event," according to The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, the UN weather agency's annual flagship report.

This acceleration occurred despite a slowdown - and perhaps even a plateauing - of emissions because El Niño intensified droughts and weakened the ability of vegetation to absorb carbon dioxide. As the planet warms, El Niños are expected to become more frequent.

The increase of 3.3 ppm is considerably higher than both the 2.3 ppm rise of the previous 12 months and the average annual increase over the past decade of 2.08ppm. It is also well above the previous big El Niño year of 1998, when the rise was 2.7 ppm.

The study, which uses monitoring ships, aircraft and stations on the land to track emissions trends since 1750, said carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now increasing 100 times faster than at the end of the last ice age due to population growth, intensive agriculture, deforestation and industrialisation.

The last time Earth experienced similar CO2 concentration rates was during the Pliocene era (three to five million years ago), when the sea level was up to 20m higher than now.

The authors urged policymakers to step up countermeasures to reduce the risk of global warming exceeding the Paris climate target of between 1.5C and 2C.

"Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, we will be heading for dangerous temperature increases by the end of this century, well above the target set by the Paris climate change agreement," World Meteorological Organisation chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

The momentum from the Paris accord in 2015 is faltering due to the failure of national governments to live up to their promises. In a report to be released on Tuesday, UN Environment will show the gap between international goals and domestic commitments leaves the world on course for warming well beyond the 2C target and probably beyond 3C. International efforts to act have also been weakened by US president Donald Trump's decision to quit the accord.

Prof Dave Reay, professor of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh, said: "This should set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power. We know that, as climate change intensifies, the ability of the land and oceans to mop up our carbon emissions will weaken. There's still time to steer these emissions down and so keep some control, but if we wait too long humankind will become a passenger on a one-way street to dangerous climate change."

"The numbers don't lie. We are still emitting far too much and this needs to be reversed," the head of UN Environment Erik Solheim said in reaction to the new report. "What we need now is global political will and a new sense of urgency."

The report comes amid growing concerns that nature's ability to deal with CO2 is weakening. Recent studies show forest regions are being cleared and degraded so rapidly that they are now emitting more carbon than they absorb.

"These large increase show it is more important than ever to reduce our emissions to zero - and as soon as possible," said Piers Forster, director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds. "If vegetation can no longer help out absorbing our emissions in these hot years we could be in trouble."

The World Meteorological Organisation predicted 2017 will again break records for concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane, but the growth rate will not be as fast because there is no El Niño effect.
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Global atmospheric CO2 levels hit record high

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The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased at record speed last year to hit a level not seen for more than three million years, the UN has warned. The new report has raised alarm among scientists and prompted calls for nations to consider more drastic emissions reductions at the upcoming climate negotiations in Bonn.

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Pollution control

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Household cleaners, paints and perfumes have become substantial sources of urban air pollution as strict controls on vehicles have reduced road traffic emissions, scientists say.

Researchers in the US looked at levels of synthetic "volatile organic compounds", or VOCs, in roadside air in Los Angeles and found that as much came from industrial and household products refined from petroleum as from vehicle exhaust pipes.

The compounds are an important contributor to air pollution because when they waft into the atmosphere, they react with other chemicals to produce harmful ozone or fine particulate matter known as PM2.5. Ground level ozone can trigger breathing problems by making the airways constrict, while fine airborne particles drive heart and lung disease.

In Britain and the rest of Europe, air pollution is more affected by emissions from diesel vehicles than in the US, but independent scientists said the latest work still highlighted an important and poorly understood source of pollution that is currently unregulated.

"This is about all those bottles and containers in your kitchen cabinet below the sink and in the bathroom. It's things like cleaners, personal products, paints and glues," said Joost de Gouw, an author on the study at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

"When you think about how much of those products you use in your daily life, it doesn't compare to how much fuel you put in the car. But for every kilogram of fuel that is burned, only about one gram ends up in the air. For these household and personal products, some compounds evaporate almost completely."

Globally, the greatest source of volatile organic compounds are plants and trees, but the natural background levels are bolstered by vapours released from hairsprays and perfumes; cleaning products and pesticides; paints and lacquers, and substances such as formaldehyde, which is used in glues, plywood and other building materials. Yet more synthetic VOCs come from burning fuels such as gas and wood.

"It's hard to say how much pollution is down to VOCs, but a rough estimate is that between one quarter and a third of all particles are made up of organic compounds that originate as VOCs," said Alastair Lewis, professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of York. In Britain, one of the most harmful air pollutants is nitrogen dioxide, which is unrelated to VOCs.

Writing in the journal Science, De Gouw and others report that the amount of VOCs emitted from household and industrial products is two to three times higher than official US estimates suggest. The result is surprising since only about 5% of raw oil is turned into chemicals for consumer products, with 95% ending up as fuel.

"This paper is interesting because it shows that domestic use of VOCs is beginning to dominate, displacing the traditional sources from vehicles and industry," Lewis told the Guardian. "It's a challenge for regulators since many of these sources, including cleaning and personal care products, aren't controlled.

"If the paper is right then many countries will need to rethink how they plan to meet their international obligations to reduce emissions. The UK is already thinking about how to tackle and reduce domestic emissions," he said.

William Bloss, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Birmingham, said the work highlighted a continuing need to understand real world emissions. But he added: "We have a much higher proportion of diesel traffic in the UK and we know that diesel use is associated with a lot of different hydrocarbons and particulates. I suspect that in the UK, traffic in the form of diesel vehicles is still the most important."

Even so, De Gouw believes VOCs from household products should still be factored into policies on emissions. "London is a little different to LA because of the higher diesel use, but I expect that even in London a significant fraction of VOCs will come from these kinds of emissions," he said.

David Green, who studies air pollution at King's College London, said: "Organic aerosols, which are produced when these volatile chemicals react in the atmosphere contribute significantly to UK PM2.5 concentrations as they do all over the world. In London, where we measure these routinely, approximately a third of PM2.5s can be attributed to organic aerosols which come from a range of sources including vehicle emissions, wood burning and even cooking. This paper highlights a previously poorly understood source which is currently unregulated."
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Cleaning products a big source of urban air pollution, say scientists

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Household cleaners, paints and perfumes have become substantial sources of urban air pollution as strict controls on vehicles have reduced road traffic emissions, scientists say. Researchers in the US looked at levels of synthetic "volatile organic compounds", or VOCs, in roadside air in Los Angeles and found that as much came from industrial and household products refined from petroleum as from vehicle exhaust pipes.

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Pollution control

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When I arrive home from a big shop, or receive a delivery, I spend 10 minutes unwrapping packaging and putting it in the bin, renaturing my fresh fruit and vegetables before I'm able to cook them.

Plastic is choking our oceans, polluting our waterways and even contaminating our food, but it still dominates our shelves. More than 300m tonnes of it is produced each year, according to (pdf) trade association Plastics Europe. In the UK, just a third of plastic packaging used for consumer products gets recycled.

Fruit and vegetables are washable and often come in their own - compostable - wrapping designed by nature. Yet we choose to display them in plastic trays, themselves cling-wrapped in another layer of plastic.

Hardy vegetables such as potatoes and carrots are overfilled into non-recyclable bags, and other foods are boxed in oversized containers displaying picturesque farms that have no connection to the produce inside.

Plastic packaging can, of course, help keep food hygienic and prolong shelf-life. It makes it more convenient for us - myself included - to grab and go. But the costs of servicing that lifestyle are high, for people as well as the environment.

Our food system has created an anonymous chain that is inaccessible to us, the eaters. And it's disconnecting us from our food, its origin and, ultimately, nature. Plastic and packaging are a symbol of this disconnection - a physical and psychological barrier between us and what we eat.

It's time to break down this barrier and reclaim a vital relationship with our food. And we have the power to do so. Supermarkets are led by us consumers. As we become more conscious about the produce we buy and the packaging we consume, so do they. One example is Marks & Spencer, which last week replaced sticky labels with laser printing on its avocados in response to consumer demand for less packaging.

Connect with communities

As well as influencing business, taking environmentally motivated choices can improve our lives in other ways too. By avoiding plastic, we're more likely to buy produce in its raw state, loose and seasonal. This can lead to shopping from greengrocers and markets, even growing our own food - all of which connects us with communities and our environment.

I love walking through a market filled with fresh produce: stacks of strawberries, mountains of soily potatoes, pyramids of pears. Through haptic sensitivity we learn to choose food that is fresh, ripe and nutritious. Packaged, we choose our produce based on promotions.

Local, seasonal, unpackaged fruit and vegetables also tend to be cheaper than their imported counterparts, even when purchased from independent shops. And buying fresh, seasonal food also means our ingredients are more nutritious and free from potentially harmful chemical wrapping.

If you dislike food wrapped in plastic as much as I do, stop buying it wherever possible. Buy loose, seasonal produce in supermarkets and, if you have a greengrocer or market nearby, use them.

You can take other actions too. Next time you shop, make a complaint about plastic at the customer helpdesk. And if you're a social media user, share pictures of over-packaged food - '@' your local supermarket using the hashtags #GoPlasticFree on Instagram or Twitter.
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Fruit and veg come in their own natural wrapping. Why do we smother them in plastic?

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When I arrive home from a big shop, or receive a delivery, I spend 10 minutes unwrapping packaging and putting it in the bin, renaturing my fresh fruit and vegetables before I'm able to cook them. Plastic is choking our oceans, polluting our waterways and even contaminating our food, but it still dominates our shelves.

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Environmental measures

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It's not easy being green - or is it?

Even people who worry about climate change can find it hard to alter their behavior. Blame habit, or the fact that it is hard to see how your own small actions can have a global impact. Either way, you can't stop a problem by doing nothing. Luckily, there are some simple ways to change your habits with minimal effort.

Take plastic shopping bags. In one recent study, Rebecca Taylor, a grad student at UC Berkeley, looked at cities and counties that have implemented bans on single-use plastic bags and tacked on small fees for paper or reusable bags. She found that not only did it reduce the use of plastic bags, it reduced disposable bag use overall. So it's a win-win - and shoppers in places with plastic bag fees and bans have found it relatively easy to adapt.

We can't all go out and change government policies, but these four simple psychological techniques can get you started making changes to your own behaviors.

Change once

Small changes you only have to make once and don't have to think about again are known as convenience techniques. If you're chronically late, you set your clocks five minutes ahead and voilà - you're on time. This is where bags come in: Keep a few reusable shopping bags with you when you go to the grocery store, and it becomes second nature. For a bigger impact, replace old appliances with ones approved by the EPA's Energy Star program. If you're not ready to splurge on a new kitchen, set your thermostat a few degrees higher in the summer and lower in the winter - it not only reduces your carbon footprint, it's an easy money saver.

Track yourself

Monitoring techniques are another easy way to make a change. Try keeping track of the energy you use when looking at your power bill, aiming for lower targets every month. Some utilities even have apps that allow you to monitor how much energy you're using in real time on your smartphone. UCLA professor Magali Delmas and colleagues did a unique study to see whether people would use less energy if they could see how their usage compared to their neighbors. Sure enough, just that small amount of social pressure led to a 20 percent drop in energy use.

If everyone's doing it, chances are it won't feel hard, it'll feel normal.

Know your impact

Knowledge is power, and knowledge about your power is doubly so. Informational techniques include tools and tricks that help you monitor your impact. When people are informed about the impact their actions have beyond themselves, they're more likely to choose positive behaviors. For example, the average person in the United States contributes more than twice the amount of greenhouse gases as someone in Japan or Europe. Knowing that might inspire someone to find ways to cut back, not to name names... (cough, cough)

Get social

One of the major reasons people don't change is because they feel their actions aren't connected to the bigger picture (there's an informational technique for you). But your own actions can help change minds about that. This is an example of a social psychological technique, which involves interacting with and influencing people.

If you make a change, your action can be contagious. Use one of the simple tricks above, and you might just inspire others to follow suit. You don't have to invite people over to show them your new electric car - just by setting a good example, others might take notice. Help spread the word and you own small change can be much greater than yourself. Lauren Singer takes this approach on her website Trash is for Tossers, where she chronicles her own zero-waste journey through tips and videos. She has attracted a huge community of those who have been inspired to reduce their impact.

Little changes add up. Little changes that spread through social circles can add up to something big. And if everyone's doing it, chances are it won't feel hard, it'll feel normal.

Single-use items are making the fight against climate change even harder, but it doesn't have to be that way. Watch this episode of Climate Lab to learn easy hacks to reduce and reuse.

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It's not easy being green - or is it? Even people who worry about climate change can find it hard to alter their behavior. Blame habit, or the fact that it is hard to see how your own small actions can have a global impact. Either way, you can't stop a problem by doing nothing.

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Environmental laws

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German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution

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Plan to be tested in five cities in effort to meet EU air pollution targets and avoid big fines

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Pollution control

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Millions of heavily polluting vehicles could eventually disappear from roads across Germany after its top administrative court ruled that cities have the right to ban diesel motors in an effort to improve deadly air quality levels.

Tuesday's historic decision potentially affects an estimated 12m vehicles and has delivered a heavy blow to Europe's largest car market, while being celebrated by environmental campaigners.

Germany's highest administrative court in Leipzig ruled in favour of upholding bans that were introduced by lower courts in the cities of Stuttgart and Düsseldorf, two of the most polluted German cities, after appeals were lodged by the states of Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Leipzig court ruling in the case, which was originally brought by the environmental groups Deutsche Umwelthilfe (German environmental aid or DUH) and ClientEarth, paves the way for cities across Germany to follow suit.

"It's a great day for clean air in Germany," Jürgen Resch, of the DUH, said.

The court said it would be up to city and municipal authorities to apply the bans, but advised them to "exercise proportionality" in enforcing them, and to impose them gradually, granting exemptions for certain vehicles, such as ambulances, rubbish collection lorries and police cars.

Ugo Taddei, a lawyer for ClientEarth called the decision "an incredible result for people's health", and suggested it could have an impact in foreign courts. "This ruling gives us legal clarity which we've long waited for, that diesel restrictions are legally permissible and will necessarily trigger a domino effect across the country, impacting as well on other legal cases," he told German media.

ClientEarth believed that imposing traffic restrictions on the most polluting vehicles was the most effective way of improving protection from air pollution, he said.

Experts estimate that excessive amounts of nitrogen oxides or NOx in the air kill between 6,000 and 13,000 people in Germany every year, causing a range of health conditions, from strokes to asthma.

Most NOx comes from transport, especially diesel motors. The EU threshold of 40 micrograms of NOx per cubic metre is frequently exceeded in many German cities, with 70 on the list, most notably Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Munich.

The decision will pitch millions of drivers into a state of uncertainty over how they can travel to work and school in case of a ban, and how they should deal with owning vehicles likely to plunge in value.

It will also provide Germany's new government - which is most likely to be a grand coalition between Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats - with a large headache as it faces calls to consider a compensation scheme.

Eager to reassure anxious car owners, the government insisted nothing would change immediately and stressed that bans were not inevitable.

"The court has not issued any driving bans but created clarity about the law," the environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, said. "Driving bans can be avoided, and my goal is and will remain that they do not come into force."

Angela Merkel said the ruling concerned only individual cities. "It's really not about the entire country and all car owners," the chancellor said.

The president of the Association of the German Automobile Industry, Matthias Wissmann, criticised the decision, insisting that the "ambitious air quality standards in German cities are also achievable without driving bans".

He added that the air quality problems could be solved in the medium term "if and when more vehicles with new exhaust standards entered the car pool".

Shares in German car manufacturers suffered a moderate decline after the ruling.

Debate on NOx has prevailed for years but the political dimensions of the issue were stirred by the revelations in 2015 that carmakers, most notably Volkswagen, had cheated on diesel emission tests.

At a diesel summit in Berlin last November between car industry representatives and the German government to discuss what to do with older vehiclesm, governments on the local, state and national level pledged €1bn to alleviate the environmental impact of diesel.

Merkel, however, was accused of being too ready to let the powerful car lobby off the hook for its own failings and deception. Few believed the financial injection would effectively translate into improved air conditions.

Unlike in the US, where millions of drivers whose diesel cars had been fitted with manipulated emissions software were offered free retrofits, little has been done in Germany to fix the problem. BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen have so far only agreed to finance less expensive software upgrades in Germany, where consumer rights are less stringent.

Precisely how many vehicles might be affected by the ban remains unclear until further details are revealed. Of the 15m diesel cars registered in Germany, around 6m are of a "Euro 6" emissions standard that would probably escape a ban. There are also millions of lorries, buses, taxis and other heavy goods vehicles that use diesel.

Industry representatives have expressed their concern that tradespeople in particular might be disadvantaged in carrying out their daily business, and have called for special exemptions to avoid potentially devastating effects on the economy.

Gerd Landsberg, the director of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB), said it was hard to see how a diesel ban could be effectively implemented and monitored.

"Municipalities are simply not in a position to fulfil any time soon the mountainous bureaucracy tasks that would necessarily accompany a driving ban," he said.

However, Hamburg's environment senator promised swift implementation of the ban on two of the northern port city's most polluted roads. Jens Kerstan said diesel durchfahrtsbeschränkungen, or diesel transit restrictions. could be in place within weeks.
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German court rules cities can ban diesel cars to tackle pollution

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Millions of heavily polluting vehicles could eventually disappear from roads across Germany after its top administrative court ruled that cities have the right to ban diesel motors in an effort to improve deadly air quality levels. Tuesday's historic decision potentially affects an estimated 12m vehicles and has delivered a heavy blow to Europe's largest car market, while being celebrated by environmental campaigners.

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Sustainable economy

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If Britain and other European nations are to fulfil forest protection goals, they must tighten oversight of supply chains for palm oil and other products, a delegation of forest peoples told parliamentarians this week.

The call for urgent, concrete action comes amid an increasingly heated diplomatic row over the issue between the EU and the governments of major palm-producing nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Costa Rica.

The European parliament voted last April to prohibit sales of biofuels made from vegetable oils by 2020 in order to meet its climate goals. This was followed by a related vote last month. Whether and how this might be implemented is now being considered by the European Commission and member states.

The pushback has been strong, particularly in south-east Asia, the origin of 90% of the world's palm oil exports, which is used in hundreds of supermarket products. Palm oil can also be blended with diesel to power engines, which is what the ban would halt.

Influential politicians in these countries, many of whom are closely linked to the industry, accuse the EU of trade protectionism, colonial thinking and undermining poverty reduction efforts. Malaysia's plantations minister described the proposed ban as " crop apartheid."

But indigenous and other communities who are negatively affected by the plantations urge the EU to tighten supply chain controls for palm oil and other products to prevent damage to their land, rights and environment.

Franky Samperante, a founder of the indigenous peoples' organisation Pusaka, said the Indonesian government had granted concessions to more than 50 companies to open plantations on 1.2m hectares of land claimed by local communities. For him, any palm oil from this area should be considered a conflict product and prohibited from sale in Europe.

"There should be sanctions. If not, there is no point," he said.

Samperante is part of a group of 14 forest peoples representatives from 11 nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America visiting Europe this week to lobby for a new action plan on sustainable supply chains.

The delegation proposed concrete steps, including for European nations to establish sustainable trade ombudsmen to look into reports of human rights and environmental violations, and for companies to adopt binding human rights policies rather than voluntary actions.

Tom Griffiths, the author of a report on rights and deforestation, said lofty goals to protect forests were being undermined by a failure to protect the rights of those who live in them.

"There are so many pledges and commitments by companies and government that sound good on paper, but the reality on the ground is starkly different," he said. "At the meetings this we, they are all saying close the gap."

Their recommendations will be presented at a multilateral meeting in Paris in June, when the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to launch his strategy for "deforestation-free trade."

Separately, there have been calls for the EU to adopt a new action plan on deforestation by a coalition of environmental NGOs including the Forest People's Programme, Global Witness, Greenpeace, WWF and the Environmental Investigation Agency.

* This article was amended on 27 February 2018. An earlier version said that the forest people's delegation wanted to ban palm oil in biofuels. The delegations called for an EU Action Plan to tighten supply chains for palm oil and other products, not for a ban.

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Britain and Europe must tighten palm oil supply chains to save forests, EU parliament told

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If Britain and other European nations are to fulfil forest protection goals, they must tighten oversight of supply chains for palm oil and other products, a delegation of forest peoples told parliamentarians this week.