Found 10463 publications. Showing page 396 of 419:
National E-waste Monitor 2025 - Norway
The National E-waste Monitor 2025 – Norway provides a detailed assessment of the current situation of e-waste statistics and legislation, and an outlook on e-waste statistics up to 2050.
Norway is the world’s leading nation in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) generation per capita, producing 27.5 kg per person in 2022, equivalent to 149 kt.
However, the country has established an efficient collection system, successfully gathering 72% of generated e-waste, with 107 kt tons collected in 2022 (approximately 19.5 kg per capita).
The country’s WEEE stock has seen significant growth over the past decade, expanding from 14 million tons in 2010 to nearly 20 million tons in 2022. However, based on the monitor’s results, the implementation of robust Circular Economy measures could help EEE Put on the Market in Norway reaching, by 2050, half of the to 2010 levels (67 kt). The big drop is explained by more repairability and improved durability of EEE products; by contrast, the projection in a Business as Usual scenario would be 5 times higher (294 kt) than in the Circular Economy scenario.
In terms of international trade, Norway reported 20 kt of used EEE exports for reuse, primarily within the European Union. Legal WEEE exports saw an increase from 27 kt in 2022 to 38 kt in 2023. Authorities intercepted 15.5 t of illegal exports due to inadequate documentation and functionality testing.
Upcoming country investments may go in the direction of recycling technologies for rare earth metals and precious materials recovery, improved small electronics collection systems, stricter labelling requirements for recyclable components and hazardous substances.
While Norway’s e-waste management system is already considered exemplary, the monitor’s results emphasize the need for more ambitious targets aligned with the WEEE Directive to create a truly sustainable and circular electronics management system. The focus is now shifting toward public awareness campaigns to encourage repair over replacement and the development of more efficient collection methods for small electronic devices.
Citation: E. D’Angelo, M. Schubert, T. Yamamoto, C.P. Baldé, E. Bourgé and G. Abbasi, United Nations Institute for Training and Research, NILU, “National E-waste monitor 2025 - Norway”, 2025, Bonn/Oslo, Germany and Norway.
NILU
2025
Methane in Svalbard (SvalGaSess)
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas whose emission into the atmosphere from Arctic environments is increasing in response to climate change. At present, the increase in atmospheric methane concentrations recorded at Ny-Ålesund and globally threatens the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees, preferably 1.5 degrees, by increasing the need for abatements. However, our understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes that control methane in the Arctic are strongly biased towards just a few lowland sites that are not at all like Svalbard and other similar mountainous, ice-covered regions. Svalbard can therefore be used to better understand these locations. Svalbard’s methane stocks include vast reserves of ancient, geogenic methane trapped beneath glaciers and permafrost. This methane supplements the younger, microbial methane mostly produced in waterlogged soils and wetlands during the summer and early winter. Knowledge about the production, removal and migration of these two methane sources in Svalbard’s complex landscapes and coastal environments has grown rapidly in recent years. However, the need to exploit this knowledge to produce reliable estimates of present-day and future emissions of methane from across the Svalbard landscape is now paramount. This is because understanding these quantities is absolutely necessary when we seek to define how society must adjust in order to better manage greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere
2025
2025
Seminar focused on health inequality arranged by the project Healthy Choices and the Social gradient.
2025
2025
2025
CO₂-Entfernung im Ozean – Hoffnung und Risiko zugleich
Der Ozean gilt als Schlüssel zur CO₂-Entfernung – doch Forscher warnen vor unklaren Folgen und fehlender Kontrolle.
2025
2025
2025
At the same time Arctic ecosystems experiences rapid climate change, at a rate four times faster than the global average, they remain burdened by long-range transported pollution, notably with legacy polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The present study investigates the potential impact of climate change on seabird exposure to PCB-153 using the established Nested Exposure Model (NEM), here expanded with three seabird species, i.e. common eider (Somateria mollissima), black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) and glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus), as well as the filter feeder blue mussel (Mytulis edulis). The model's performance was evaluated using empirical time trends of the seabird species in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, and using tissue concentrations from filter feeders along the northern Norwegian coast. NEM successfully replicated empirical PCB-153 concentrations, confirming its ability to simulate PCB-153 bioaccumulation in the studied seabird species within an order of magnitude. Based on global PCB-153 emission estimates, simulations run until the year 2100 predicted seabird blood concentrations 99% lower than in year 2000. Model scenarios with climate change-induced altered dietary composition and lipid dynamics showed to have minimal impact on future PCB-153 exposure, compared to temporal changes in primary emissions of PCB-153. The present study suggests the potential of mechanistic modelling in assessing POP exposure in Arctic seabirds within a multiple stressor context.
2025
2025
2025
Sources of ultrafine particles at a rural midland site in Switzerland
Ultrafine particles (UFPs; i.e., atmospheric aerosol particles smaller than 100 nm in diameter) are known to be responsible for a series of adverse health effects as they can deposit in humans' bodies. So far, most field campaigns studying the sources of UFPs have focused on urban environments. This study investigates the outdoor sources of UFPs at the atmospheric monitoring station in Payerne, which represents a typical rural location in Switzerland. We aim to quantify the primary and secondary fractions of UFPs based on specific measurements between July 2020 and July 2021 complementing a series of operational meteorological, trace gas and in situ aerosol observations. To distinguish between primary and secondary contributions, we use a method that relies on measuring the fraction of non-volatile particles as a proxy for primary particles. We further compare our measurement results to previously established methods. We find that primary particles resulting from traffic and residential wood burning (direct emissions – mostly non-volatile BC-rich) contribute less than 40 % to the total number of UFPs, mostly in the Aitken mode. On the other hand, we observe local new particle formation (NPF) events (observed from ∼ 1 nm) evident from the increase in cluster ions (1.5–3 nm) and nucleation-mode particle (2.5–25 nm) concentrations, especially in spring and summer. These events, mediated by sulfuric acid, contribute to increasing the UFP number concentration, especially in the nucleation mode. Besides NPF, the chemical processing of particles emitted from multiple sources (including traffic and residential wood burning) contributes substantially to the nucleation-mode particle concentration. Under the present conditions investigated here, we find that secondary processes mediate the increase in UFP concentration to levels equivalent to those in urban locations, affecting both air quality and human health.
2025
Tiltaksutredning for lokal luftkvalitet i Bærum 2025-2030
Stiftelsen NILU har, i samarbeid med Transportanalyse AS, utarbeidet trafikk- og luftkvalitetsberegninger for Oslo og Bærum kommuner. Arbeidet omfatter en kartlegging av luftkvaliteten ved trafikkberegninger og utslipps- og spredningsberegninger for relevante forurensningskomponenter (PM10, PM2,5 og NO2) for Dagens situasjon 2022, Referansesituasjonen 2030 og for 2030 med tiltak. Det er beregnet risiko for overskridelse av dagens grenseverdier i forurensningsforskriften og for grenseverdier i revidert EU-direktiv som vil innføres fullt fra 2030.
NILU
2025
2025
Remote marine areas of the Arctic have become a sink for pollutants like Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), transported long distances from southern latitudes. This presence of contaminants is creating pressure on Arctic organisms. As such, Svalbard´s wildlife has been monitored for decades to follow temporal trends of pollutants, in addition to better understanding the effects of pollutants on Arctic wildlife.
Seabirds are a key group of Arctic animals that are particularly sensitive to the pollutants’ toxicity via effects on behavior, demography and long-term population viability. Understanding how pollutants affect population viability is essential to protect Arctic wildlife but has been an understudied topic in marine ecology.
Two populations of female common eider (Somateria mollissima) have been monitored in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard) and Grindøya (Troms) since 2007 and 1984, respectively. Concentrations of POPs have been analyzed in eiders blood samples, between 2007 and 2009 for Kongsfjorden and from 2005 to 2009 for Grindøya. Previous studies found higher concentrations of HCB (Hexachlorobenzene) for common eiders breeding in Kongsfjorden, while it is the concentrations of PCB (polychlorinated bipheyls) that are the highest for the common eiders breeding in Grindøya. Additionally, the adult survival is higher Kongsfjorden compared to Grindøya common eiders. However, the interaction between those different concentrations of POPs and the adult survival of those two populations have not been studied yet.
Here, we will investigate whether POPs may affect adult survival of female common eiders breeding both in Kongsfjorden and Grindøya. If the POP levels are sufficiently high to induce health effects, we predict that higher concentrations of POPs will negatively affect adult survival.
2025
Abstract. Airborne microplastics are a recently identified atmospheric aerosol species with potential air quality and climate impacts, yet they are not currently represented in global climate models. Here, we describe the addition of microplastics to the aerosol scheme of the UK Earth System Model (UKESM1.1): the Global Model of Aerosol Processes (GLOMAP). Microplastics are included as both fragments and fibres across a range of aerosol size modes, enabling interaction with existing aerosol processes such as ageing and wet and dry deposition. Simulated microplastics have higher concentrations over land, but can be transported into remote regions including Antarctica despite no assumed emissions from these regions. Lifetimes range between ∼17 d to ∼1 h, with smaller, hydrophilic microplastics having longer lifetimes. Microplastics are present throughout the troposphere, and the smallest particles are simulated to reach the lower stratosphere in small numbers. Dry deposition is the dominant microplastic removal pathway, but greater wet deposition occurs for smaller hydrophilic microplastic, due to interactions with clouds. Although microplastics currently contribute a minor fraction of the total aerosol burden, their concentration is expected to increase in future if plastic production continues to increase, and as existing plastic waste in the environment degrades to form new microplastic. Incorporating microplastics into UKESM1.1 is a key step toward quantifying their current atmospheric impact and offers a framework for simulating future emission scenarios for an assessment of their long term impacts on air quality and climate.
2025
Plan hopes to capture carbon by tapping the ocean's power - Earth.com
A look at how ocean carbon removal fits into climate plans and why experts say strong safeguards are needed before it can scale.
2025
The report presents interim 2024 maps for PM10 annual average, PM2.5 annual average, O3 indicator peak season average of maximum daily 8-hour means, and NO2 annual average. The maps have been produced based on the 2024 non-validated E2a (UTD) data of the AQ e-reporting database, the CAMS Ensemble Forecast modelling data and other supplementary data. Together with the concentration maps, the inter-annual differences between 5-year average 2019-2023 and 2024 are presented (using the 2019-2023 regular and the 2024 interim maps), as well as basic exposure estimates based on the interim maps.
European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment (ETC HE)
2025