Malta vs. Switzerland

This week comparison will be between Malta and Switzerland – two completely different countries both in mentality and development.

The island and less developed country is Malta and it has to deal with some serious issues in the area of air quality and quality control. Issues regarding air quality can be spilt in two major parts: the amount of pollution that comes from agriculture and traffic (the anthropogenic input) and the sea salt and dust from Sahara (the natural input). Even though the agriculture sector is not important in this country’s economy, in the rural areas where the farming is sometimes the only income the air pollution reaches the level of danger. Moreover, farming influences landscape quality, biodiversity and soil and water quality. However, the transboundary pollution that affects the Mediterranean space must not be ignored. This is why the Global Air Pollution Crossroads over the Mediterranean article by Lelieveld et. all. shows how the transboundary pollution for CO2 is spilt in: western Europe pollution from France, Germany and Italy and eastern pollution from Poland, Ukraine and Russia; so basically the major concern in Malta is air quality. Like in other countries that have not a really important pollutant industry, in Malta the traffic is responsible for exceeding the CO2 , PM10 and 2.5 ,O3 , C6H6, NO2 and SO2 emissions. The PM 10 and 2.5 issues is one of the environmental problems that has serious impact on humans’ health by a decrease in lung function, general ill, asthma and in some cases even death.

Source: http://www.mepa.org.mt/ter08-air

According to Malta Environment & Planning Authority, the EU standard set limit values for O3, the 120μg/m³ 8-hourly running average value for human health protection is not to be exceeded more than 25 times per year (6.8% of days measured); and also the 180μg/m³ hourly information threshold for human health protection. However, the map above shows that especially in the northern part, Malta is dealing with O3 concentration levels > 100 μg/m³, concentrations that are most likely to be around or above EU MPC. Along with PM 10 and 2.5 pollution, the O3 pollution has the same transboundary origin.

An interesting fact is that because of its small size the amount of pollution is very low compared to other countries from Europe and this is illustrated by how climate change could affect Malta due its position. 

So what should be done? Firstly, it is important to highlight that Maltese Government has adopted some measures to prevent the negative effects of pollution by drawing up some projects. In my opinion the most important are:  Malta’s Air QualityPlan and  the National Allocation Plan for Malta 2008 – 2012 .

Some of the other measures proposed  by the Government are restriction in importation of cars that are more polluting, reduction of conventional energy use and an increase in usage of alternative technologies. Proposals were issued by Government in 2008, and implementation begun in 2010. Other measures can be find here. 

In contrast, Switzerland is a more developed country and has more influence in the European international context. The environmental problems are mostly the ones that are common in all countries: air pollution, water pollution, land use etc. , and each one of them affects the population’s heath as well.

It is known that air pollution causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and also premature deaths and has a major impact on vegetation.

According to the EEA country report, Switzerland’s air quality has improved in the last 25 years and that means reductions in Pm 10 and 2.5, NOx, NMVOC, NH3 and CO2 emissions. This is obviously the result of using new technologies that emit fewer pollutants and a result of this decrease will be a decrease in premature mortality from particulate matter and of course the diseases that can occur after exposure to this kind of pollution. Is expected that should the current measures be carried on in the future, the number of exceedances will drop until 2020.

Some of the international agreements that are signed by Switzerland are: The Arctic Treaty , The Kyoto Protocol, UNECE Geneva Convention onLong-range Transboundary Air Pollution  and the national law about air quality are: Federal Act on the Protection of the Environment or Ordinance on air protection.

If in the past the Fheon phenomenon was quite a delicate problem for Switzerland, now climate change, acid rain and pollution in general are the real issues in this country. Basically one of the obvious impacts is the glaciers retreat in Alps, where there are more than 3000 km²  of glaciers that are quickly melting. On the Swiss glacier monitoring network there are maps and lists that can be analyzed and the speed of the retreat and which one of the glaciers are melting faster than the others can be calculated.

I hope that this video will illustrate better how serious and current is the retreat of glaciers:   

  

Furthermore, on the FederalOffice of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss there are reports that show that during the last 50 years it was recorded an increase of 1.8°C in the Switzerland’s mean temperature and an increase in the frequency of heavy precipitation events in all seasons. Besides this, some projections indicate that is more likely for the summer heat waves and droughts to become longer and more frequent.

Finland vs. Rep Moldova

This comparison will be between Finland and Republic of Moldova. Finland is the peninsular country I will look into this week and also the more developed country between these two.

In Europe, Finland is known as one of the most “green” countries and this is why here, the concentration of air pollutants is lower in Finland and there are only a few cases when the values from this country rush up to the roof. However, there is an important amount of O3 and PM 10 in the atmosphere especially in the urban areas. So, the O3 concentration could occur during the wintertime conditions because of the domestic heating and the increase on PM 10 is the result of the springtime dust periods as are they known in the region. Also, we must not ignore the transboundary pollution which is an important fact in whole Europe. What should be a concern is that in these springtime events, the daily values for PM10 are sometimes higher than the EU limit, so a long exposure of the population could cause some health issue. All the information regarding Finland’s air quality come from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, where real time air quality maps can be found.

Even though is a green country, Finland has its issues and NOX is one of those chapters where there are some problems similarly to other developed EU members. In certain street canyons in downtown Helsinki with the highest traffic volumes, the annual limit value may be exceeded. 

Despite being a developed country, Finland has a particular behaviour for all that means energy and transport. Because its population has adopted a less aggressive approach in the transport and energy areas, the pollution that results from these two activities has nothing to do with GHG, but the result is in other kind of pollution.

An interesting document is the Informative Inventory Report , report which summarizes the evolution of pollution between 1990 and 2007 and makes some projections about how the emissions values for NOX, NH3, NMVOC, SOX , PM10 AND PM2.5 will evolve in 2020 and 2050.

According to Statistic Finland, at the end of 2012 Finland will be able to reach the value of emissions from 1990, target which has been set by the Kyoto Protocol.

A widely accepted idea is that in future  the PM values will become  a higher concern than the classic gases emissions.

On the other hand, Republic of Moldova must deal with some serious problems.  For this country, the most important resources are the soil and the climate but these are in danger to disappear as a result of climate change. Without a real active industry and major cities, Rep. of Moldova is a “victim” transboundary pollution. The economy of this country is actually based on agriculture and every shift and change in climate is felt in productivity and of course in GDP.

According to the Moldavian StateHydrometeorological Service there were recorded 9 droughts between 1990 and 2007. In addition, in 2007 was recorded the most severe drought which affected over three quarters of the Moldavian territory, drought that of course had serious consequence in economy as well.

IPCC’s 4^th report was used as well for projections for Rep. of Moldova and according to National Human Development Reportfor 2009-2010 , Climate Change in Moldova, and the table underneath shows how precipitation and temperature will vary for A2 an B2 scenarios.

Source: After, http://www.undp.md/publications/2009NHDR/Raport_var_ROM_final_TIPAR_03-12-2009_1.pdf

So, the Ministry of Environment is quite involved and has under its order the SHS, the State Hydrometeorological Service with 17 holding quality monitoring stations.

The Ministry of the Environment (MoE) plays a key role in environmental observations and data collection whereas the main network of environmental quality monitoring stations is maintained generally by the State Hydrometeorological Service (SHS).

The air pollution in this country has as major sources in the urban areas the traffic and the construction industry, and in the rural areas the important sources are central heating, bakeries and wineries because Rep. of Moldova has large areas covered by vineyards, due the soil and temperatures.

As in all Europe, the transboundary air pollution manifests through acid rainfall, the result of SO2 AND NO2 emissions, emissions that come from thermal power stations, large industrial enterprises, burning coal and other fossil fuels and of course transport.

The water pollution on the other hand is a stringent problem here and the river Bis that goes through Chisinau (the capital) is one of the most contaminated riversfrom Rep. of Moldova  For this area the air and water pollution is somehow connected because the major causes that lead to this are:

• the emissions from the chemical factories that contaminate both the air because of the non-updated filters and soil dues the infiltration;
• waste burning factories;
• chemical treatment of the agricultural crops and forest areas against diseases and pests.

This video shows one of the pollution sources from Bic. I apologize that is no English translation but I believe that the images speak for theirself.

Source: Youtube

The Russian influence can be seen through the large-scale use of DDT , a very toxic substance that was banned in all the other European countries after a huge number of test came up with the result that using of DDT has dangerous effects on human health and environment.
In 1992, Rep of Moldova signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and in 2003 the Kyoto Protocol and the Capacity Building for Improving the Quality of Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Europe/CIS region.

 The policy of environmental protection, air protection includes a law from 1997, Law nr.1442-XII from 27.12.1997  which has as major objectives: preserve and enhance air quality and prevent and reduce the harmful effects of physical, chemical, biological, radioactive and other factors on atmosphere.
 
The latest documents about climate change mitigations that this country recognizes are “Financing Energy Efficiency Investments for Climate Change Mitigation” 2008–2012 and Moldova Energy Conservation and Greenhouse Gases Emission Reduction” 2006–2016. 

Moreover, David Maddisona and Katrin Rehdanzb conclude in their article from Ecological Economics, that in 1996, Rep. Moldova was the least satisfied country.

  

Italy vs. Latvia

This week, I will be posting a comparison between Italy – a  developed insular country (and by insular I mean, along with the peninsular part, there are some islands that are under the Italian regime) –, and Latvia – a less developed country, but one of those how actually achieved an economical growth during the last rough years in Europe. However, not being part of the Euro zone may be one of the explanations that lead to this finality.

Having a huge opening to the Mediterranean Sea, the environmental issues that occur in Italy are slightly different than other issues across another European countries. However, the sea level rise is not the only concern, melting glaciers in the Alps and desertification are even more stringent.

According to the WWF website, the 4^th IPCC report underlines the major environmental problems for Italy as follows:

• The duration of snow cover is expected to decrease by several weeks for each degree C of temperature increase in the Alps region at middle elevations. An upward shift of the glacier equilibrium line is expected from 60 to 140 m/ degree C. Small glaciers will disappear, while larger glaciers will suffer a volume reduction between 30% and 70% by 2050 ;

• Alps Fomation of large lakes is occurring as glaciers retreat. These lakes have a high potential for Glacier Lake Outburst Floods(GLOFs) ;

• A climate warming-induced upward migration of alpine plants in the high Alps was observed to have accelerated towards the beginning of the 21st century ;

• Alpine summit vegetation elevational shift, increased species richness on mountain tops (due to increased temperature) ;

• Pine processionary moth has displayed a 70 m/decade upward shift in altitude for southern slopes and 30 m/decade for northern slopes in Italian mountains ;

• In Venice Lagoon, the combination of sea-level rise, altered sediment dynamics, and geological land subsidence has lowered the lagoon floor, widened tidal inlets, flats and islands, and caused the shoreline to retreat around the lagoon circumference ;

• Alps : Invasion of evergreen broad-leaved species in forests;

• The Alps could be one of the regions most affected by increase in year-to-year variability in summer climates and thus a higher incidence of heat waves and droughts. Mediterranean droughts would start earlier in the year and last longer;
• Droughts and water stress.

However, the other environmental issues that characterize all of Europe are not excluded from the equation and all of these are discussed in the Fifth National Communication under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/ita_nc5.pdf).

The report from EEA regarding the air pollution focuses on tropospheric ozone during the summer months,  PM₁₀ atmospheric particularly during the winter months and nitrogen dioxide. 

Source:http://www.sense.sinanet.isprambiente.it/Plone/air-pollution/figura1.jpg/image

This image shows how over 50% of all stations in Italy recorded exceedances for the daily limit for this pollutant for more than 35 days. Usually the 35 days limit is reached by the first part of February.

Accordingto a report from The World Health Organization, from the total deaths per year between 2002 and 2004 in Italy, over 8200 of them have as major cause the average concentrations of PM10 greater than 20 mg/m3.

Furthermore, there have been identified the major air pollution and these are: traffic, industry, production of energy and the residential sector. The measures taken to decrease the emissions of air pollutants were the same as in other European countries: improvements in transport vehicles, improvements in technologies that are used in industry etc.

Italy is one the most vulnerable European countries when thinking about climate change facts. The Mediterranean climate is known by its high temperatures and leak of precipitations but specialists are worried because the trend of transformation will turn this climate into an arid one. If this concern becomes reality a lot of changes will occur in the hydrological system and obviously in the territory’s resources.

Beyond the immediate response after disturbing the hydrological cycle (which could be some loss in water supply), there will be some major consequences for the economic sector in sections such as: agriculture, tourism and energy. Along with all of these changes we must not forget about coastal erosion, biodiversity loss and desertification.

Source:http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/impact-of-coastal-erosion-on

Despite some of these changes already being seen, so far the government managed the situation properly and these are some of the documents that are the proof that a plan is in place: Environment andhealth risks from climate change and variability in Italy, Climate Change Impactsand Adaptation Strategies in Italy. An Economic Assessment, Fifth NationalCommunication under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

On the other hand, Latvia is the country that has the fastest economic growth due trade, industry and constructions. This is why the GDP rose by 5.3%  in the 3^rd trimester of 2012 in comparison with the same period from 2011 and by 1,7% in comparison with the previous trimester. 

In addition, the European Commission estimates that Latvia’s economy will advance by 4.3% this year, which will be the highest growth in EU.

Changes in air quality are more obvious in Latvia near the urban areas where economic activities and transport are quite important. This is why in Riga, the capital of the state, between 2004 and 2008 the limit of 35 days/year with a specific amount of PM 10 (50 μg/m3) was exceeded every year. The exceeding of this limit of 35 days is always associated with human health issues.

Source: http://www.meteo.lv/

Another analysis about other air pollutants in Latvia and how their concentrations vary in the last decade in this O. Nikodemus et. all paper.

Besides air pollution, Latvia has serious problems with water quality and coastal erosion. Because of the excessive use of pesticides and nutrients, these days, Latvia’s water supply is polluted. Moreover, the Gulf of Riga and the Davgava River are both heavily polluted, pollution that has led to eutrophication and loss in biodiversity in populations from different water bodies. 

For climate change issues, Latvia has a well formulated plan to reduce the GHG emission, to enhance the air and water quality and reduce the effects of coastal erosion. Firstly, the climate change mitigation begun with Climate Change Mitigation Policy Plan for Latvia for year 1997-1988 document which prepared  the main branches if the economy to the new way of doing things. The next step was made with the Prime Minister Order No. 142 which established the Working Group on 02.04.2004. After that between 2004 and 2005 the Working Group elaborated the programme for the next 5 years, Climate Change Mitigation Programme for 2005-2010. Latvia has also signed the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Conference. The latest document about climate change is The fourth National Communication from 2006 which summaries the improvements made between 1990 and 2003 and is basically a guide for the next years.