Normander, B., Jensen, T.S., Henrichs, T., Sanderson, H. & Pedersen, A.B. (red.) 2009. Danmarks Miljøundersøgelser, Aarhus Universitet. 94 s. – Faglig rapport fra DMU nr. 750.
Chapter 1 – Global environmental challenges of our time
Environmental problems are increasingly seen as inextricably linked to economic and social development. At the same time it is recognised that the reciprocal interactions between various environmental problems and the complex interplay between ecosystem functions must be involved in the solutions.
Where the environmental debate and solutions in previous centuries had a predominant national orientation, today global initiatives are involved to a far greater degree. A range of environmental problems increasingly unfurl as global phenomena. This is true in the case of environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental impact on human health.
Today there is wide scientific agreement that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. There is, however, a certain amount of uncertainty about the extent and speed of global warming. E.g. recent observations of rapidly melting icecaps in the Arctic Ocean exceed the scientific projections by far.
More recent studies show that the human race’s increasing consumption of natural resources is rapidly draining the planet’s biological capacity. The Living Planet Index, which follows trends in the population size of selected animal species, indicates a decline in global diversity of 30 per cent since 1970.
The European Commission underlines that – despite great strides within the areas of air, water and soil quality – the state of the environment is far from satisfactory from a human health perspective. Today there is sufficient knowledge to establish that environmental factors such as air pollution, noise, radon and a number of chemicals each year impair the health of millions of people in Europe.
In Europe, economic growth associated with globalisation has led to a range of environmental burdens having been moved out of the region. This is a direct consequence of that a large part of global production of goods now takes place in developing countries such as China and India. Danish consumption of resources expressed as an ‘ecological footprint’ is the fourth largest in the world. Some of the environmental burdens, however, return to Europe in the form of transboundary pollution and e.g. import of products that are damaging to health and the environment.
It is naturally uncertain how global environmental problems will develop in future, but attempts to predict this show that the most effective results are achieved by strong global collaboration, and where the market is not left to its own devices.
Chapter 2 – Denmark’s environment under climate change
Anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 contributes to that climate is undergoing changes. The Earth’s average temperature has risen by 0.8 ºC since industrialisation began to accelerate in the middle of the 19th century. In Denmark temperature has risen on average by 1.5 ºC since the 1870s.
During the period 1970 to 2004 the global emission of greenhouse gases increased 70 per cent. Denmark’s emission of greenhouse gases has declined from 69.1 million tonnes CO2-equivalents in 1990 to 66.6 million tonnes in 2007. This corresponds to a fall of 3.5 per cent. Denmark, via the Kyoto Protocol, is committed to a reduction of 21 per cent on average in the period 2008-12 compared to the level in 1990. Denmark will make use of the flexible mechanisms found in the Kyoto agreement in order to ensure the target of a 21 per cent reduction is attained.
There are already documented effects of global warming. Sea level in the oceans has risen by approx. 19 cm since the end of the 19th century. The UN’s climate panel predicts that global sea level rise will be between 0.2 and 0.6 metres this century. The Danish coastline will be impacted by sea level rise. Approx. 4,000 km2 of Denmark’s land area lies less than three metres above the surface of the sea and approx. 1,100 km2 lies less than one metre above the surface of the sea. This will change the Danish coastline and thereby the nature that has adapted to the present coastline.
Total precipitation in Denmark has risen by approx. 100 mm per year since 1950. Greater amounts of water will increase the leaching of nutrients to the water environment and thereby the risk of algal blooms and hypoxia.
Water temperature in Danish lakes and marine areas has risen by approx. 2 °C since 1989. Higher temperature has great significance for balance in ecosystems. E.g. algal blooms now occur in marine areas in spring 3-6 weeks earlier than was the case a few decades ago.
Animal and plant life is undergoing change in line with climate change. In Danish forests the pollen season for a range of tree species starts earlier, e.g. birch, which now starts two weeks earlier than in the 1970s.
In Denmark a few attempts have been made to put figures on the costs of climate change. An example relates to coastal protection measures along the west coast of Jutland, where protection in relation to a sea level rise of 0.5 m will cost DKK 0.3 million per km of coastline. Denmark is in the process of adapting to climate change. In 2008 the Danish government issued a national strategy for climate adaptation.
Despite the uncertainties involved, the effects of climate change in Denmark are expected to be less severe than in many other places around the world.
Chapter 3 – Nature and biodiversity in focus
Over the past 50 years humans have impacted nature and changed ecosystems to a degree that has not previously been seen. Large parts of the planet’s natural areas have today been transformed by humans to cultivated systems such as agriculture, forestry and built environment. Internationally it is assessed that 15 out of 24 so-called ‘ecosystem services’ are in decline, including freshwater resources, marine fish populations as well as access to clean air and clean water.
The rate at which species are becoming extinct is estimated to be up to 1,000 times higher today than in pre-industrial times. The European Commission stresses that protection of biodiversity is an important precondition for sustainable development.
Denmark continues to have important and unique areas of nature and a varied cultural landscape, but society’s activities exert great pressure on nature and biodiversity. Denmark is home to approx. 30,000 species of plants, animals and fungi. To date, 5,656 species have been assessed in relation to international Red List criteria, and 29 per cent of the species have been red-listed, i.e. they are at risk of disappearing.
While there are problems in general with the environmental state of forests, area-wise Danish woodland is expanding. Combined population of 22 forest birds has been stable since 1990. The state of the natural environment in the open countryside on the other hand is in decline. Combined population of 22 farmland birds has fallen by approx. 36 per cent since 1990. Area of open habitat such as heath, dry grassland, meadows and dunes is on the decline and 66 per cent of the habitat types have unfavourable conservation status.
A decline in the nutrient load from agriculture and wastewater together with a more sensitive management of watercourses are among the reasons behind the improvement in the Danish aquatic environment since the 1990s. Occurrence of the most sensitive microfauna in Danish watercourses increased by 23 per cent between 2000 and 2007. Lakes have experienced a decline in phosphorous concentrations, and water clarity has improved. Many lakes and watercourses, however, still display a poor state.
On a national scale the groundwater resource is exploited sustainably, but locally there are problems of overexploitation; and pollution with e.g. pesticides and nitrate leads to closure of 100-150 drinking water wells each year.
Even though addition of nitrogen and phosphorous to the sea has more than halved since the 1980s, there continue to be problems of hypoxia in Danish marine waters. Moreover, species diversity and the number of bottom-living organisms in Danish marine waters have fallen since the 1990s.
Denmark, together with the EU, has a target that by 2010 at the latest loss of biodiversity will be halted. In watercourses and lakes there are indications that loss of biodiversity has been stopped. But in the terrestrial and marine environment it appears that biodiversity continues to decline.
Chapter 4 – Environmental and human health
In recent years there has been increasing national and international focus on the relationship between environment and health. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates broadly speaking that environmental factors are the cause of 23 per cent of all deaths worldwide. In developing countries environment-related illnesses cause on average 25 per cent of all deaths, but only 17 per cent of deaths in industrialised countries.
Some of the most important environment-related health effects in Denmark are linked to air pollution and use of hazardous chemical substances. Traffic is one of the great challenges in relation to impacts on human health, both due to air pollution and noise. It is estimated that approx. 3,400 Danes each year die prematurely as a result of particulate air pollution. Air pollution contributes also to aggravation of a range of illnesses, such as asthma, allergy and cardiovascular disease.
Widespread application of chemical substances over many decades has meant that chemical substances have become extensively dispersed in the environment, and that many of these substances end up in humans. Systematic inventories of total use of chemicals have not been made, which means it is difficult to assess the scale of the health effects and link them together with their causes.
In recent years special attention has surrounded the hormone-disrupting properties of, e.g. phthalates, used to soften plastics, and PFASs, used e.g. in impregnation of clothes. Chemical substances with hormone-disrupting effects are suspected as the reason for, or as strongly contributing to, the approx. 50 per cent fall in sperm quality in Danish men since the 1950s. The damaging substances are also suspected to be the cause of defects to the sexual organs of newborn babies.
Recent research has shown that it can be both preventative and therapeutic in terms of illness to spend time in green surroundings. E.g. resistance to disease is increased, sleep quality is improved and the effects of stress alleviated. Danish nature is today the most popular leisure attraction and attracts a larger proportion of the population than cinemas, libraries and art exhibitions. The number of visits to Danish forests has risen significantly in the last two to three decades.
It can be highly expensive not to intervene in relation to environment-related health effects. The European Commission has estimated that in the area of health alone Denmark will save DKK 5 billion as a result of introducing the EU’s new chemical legislation – REACH.
Chapter 5 – Towards a sustainable society ?
During the 1980s increasing focus was directed towards the connection between environment and development and the conflicts there can be between economic growth and the state of the environment. At the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 a global agenda was adopted for sustainable development in the 21st century – Agenda 21. At the same time UN member countries were called upon to prepare national strategies for sustainable development.
Over the past years Denmark has put its strategy for sustainable development – revised most recently in 2009 – into practice in specific action plans for various sectors, e.g. agriculture, aquatic environment, biodiversity, health and transport.
In connection with its sustainability strategy the Ministry of the Environment has produced a set of 87 indicators that can measure progress and backward steps in relation to sustainable development. The indicators show that Denmark continues to be faced with a number of challenges concerning nature, aquatic environment, agriculture and air pollution, while development in a range of social, economic and regulatory areas has become more sustainable.
In several areas economic growth has not led to a corresponding increase in Denmark’s environmental impact. Since 1990, Dane’s water consumption, emission of greenhouse gases and energy consumption have not risen in line with gross domestic product (GDP), whereas generation of waste and transport have increased at almost the same rate as GDP.
From an international perspective Denmark is placed no. 25 in a ranking of environmental performance (EPI index) in 149 countries and as no. 14 in a ranking of efforts in relation to sustainable development (SSI index) in 151 countries. Overall the two indices give a picture of Denmark as generally being at the forefront with regard to the economic and social dimensions of the concept of sustainability, but as lying further away from the aim of sustainable development in terms of the environmental dimension.
Denmark takes on global responsibility by entering into international environmental agreements. Denmark, as just one of five countries, fulfils the UN’s international goal to provide at least 0.7 per cent of gross national income (GNI) to development aid. However, Danish development aid fell from 1.03 per cent of GNI in 2001, its highest level, to 0.82 per cent in 2008.
The political effort to achieve sustainable development in Denmark includes use of a range of measures and various forms of regulation aimed at limiting pollution and environmental impact. E.g. environmental taxation is a major tool. The green tax on SO2 emissions from energy production has contributed to securing a marked reduction, while the phosphorous and pesticide tax in agriculture as well as the petrol and diesel tax have not had the expected effects.
Full report in Danish in PDF-format (5.0 MB).
