Monday Morning News & Notes
Extreme weather across Europe. Denmark is getting a lot wetter.
🍃Environment & Energy⚡️
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A thunderstorm that rolled across Denmark last week was responsible for 1,177 lightning strikes, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. For comparison, in all of 2023, there were 8,777 lightning strikes across the country.
A climate researcher at DMI’s National Center for Climate Research, Martin Olesen, says that climate change will mean a lot more of what we saw last week.
“With global warming, the temperature in the atmosphere as a whole rises, and this also makes it more humid. Those two things together increase the chances of having these strong thunderstorms. This means more violent storms, more often.”
According to DMI, global warming will mean not just more extreme storms but also other weather extremes like huge downpours, searing heat waves, and more droughts. As global temperatures rise, so too will more and more extreme weather events.
During last weekend’s big storm, there were some fairly significant cloudbursts across Denmark, several fires, traffic accidents, and damaged electrical installations. Emergency responders were a little busy during the worst of the storm.
With a major increase in electric vehicles, Danish automotive consumer group FDM is reminding EV owners that in a thunderstorm they should disconnect the charger from their electric car. It says a lightning strike-related power surge can result in some really costly damage.
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Denmark has recorded the 12 wettest consecutive months since the Danish Meteorological Institute began keeping records in 1874. The institute says that from July 2023 to June of this year, a total of 1,125 millimetres of rain hit the ground. The previous record was 1,091 millimetres of rainfall from August 2006 to July 2007.
Last year, Denmark recorded the wettest year on record.
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On Saturday, Austria was hit by a torrential downpour that caused flooding in parts of the capital city of Vienna. 110 millimetres of rain came down in Austria on Saturday alone, setting a new August rainfall record. Emergency responders were dispatched more than 450 times during the downpour as flooding disrupted train traffic and caused chaos on the roads.
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In southern Europe, a wildfire burning in Spain near the border with Portugal resulted in the evacuation of some 100 people in the town of Sejas de Aliste. More than 40 firefighting vehicles, eight helicopters, and a number of firefighters are battling the flames, according to the local newspaper El Norte de Castilla.
Both Spain and Portugal have had to deal with several recent wildfires. Just last week, a large blaze in northeastern Spain resulted in eight villages having to be evacuated.
Greece, Turkey, and France are also currently struggling with searing temperatures and wildfires.
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Strong winds and scorching temperatures are driving a major wildlife on the island of Madeira, a popular tourist destination. The fire roared to life last Wednesday and has only grown since. Nearly 200 firefighters, 38 firefighting vehicles, and a helicopter are battling the flames. So far, about 160 people have been evacuated due to the fire.
The entire Madeira coastline has been placed on orange alert, the second highest level. Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal, has a population of about 250,000. Dozens of flights heading to the island have been cancelled.
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Nearly 500 children had to be evacuated from their summer camps in southern Siberia due to wildfires raging nearby. Some 31 wildfires fueled by hot temperatures and strong winds are burning in the forests of the Siberian region of Tuva. A state of emergency has been declared in the region.
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It isn’t just wildfires. Over the weekend, an earthquake measuring 7.2 struck Russia’s Kamchatka region along the country’s east coast. A tsunami warning was issued and then, a short time later, rescinded. Mother Nature’s Russian romp doesn’t end there, as the Shiveluch volcano, also in the Kamchatka region, erupted shortly after the earthquake, sending a massive plume of fire and ash into the sky.
🇵🇱
Poland is battling an outbreak of toxic golden algae in the country’s Oder River tributary system. Polish authorities are trying to avoid a repeat of the environmental crisis that hit the waterway in 2022. The pollution driven algae outbreak has already killed an estimated 77 tonnes of fish, and the situation remains critical.
The Polish Climate Ministry says it has taken a last ditch crisis measure by pumping hydrogen peroxide into the waterway, which reduced the algae by over 90%.
Algae growth is being driven by mining industry saline water discharges. Poland is working on upstream solutions by building desalination plants.
🇬🇧 🌎
The really big cost of climate change is the cost of climate change. Insurance agencies in Britain paid out a record high £1.4 billion during the second quarter alone. The claims were for weather-related damages from fires and flooding, according to the Association of British Insurers. Those costs helped push home insurance prices up by 6% from the previous quarter. Year over year, home insurance prices have risen by 19% in England.
Rising climate change costs are already beginning to overwhelm the insurance industry, homeowners, and governments at every level, and it is not just in Britain. As climate change drives more and more extreme weather events, the costs of damages will strain finances from individual homeowners to national governments and every sector in between to the breaking point. In the U.S. state of Florida, the property insurance market is already in crisis and threatening to collapse as it grapples with billions in losses due to extreme weather events.
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More woes for the Danish wind energy sector. Wind turbine giant Vestas tabled a loss of €231 million in the 2nd quarter. This is a steeper loss than the €99 million tabled in the 2nd quarter of 2023. Financial experts note that the majority of Vestas earnings tend to fall towards the end of the year with their 2nd quarter results usually looking a little fraught.
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Forgive the use of the ‘w’ word but with another winter drawing closer Denmark’s gas reserves are currently sitting at just over 70%.
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European Union gas reserves are currently sitting at 89.3%. Climate change has been a little bit of a lifesaver for the EU after Russia weaponized its energy exports in 2022 in an effort to bring Europe to its knees. An energy emergency has been headed off by two consecutive warm winters. But as always the weather is a wild card. If Europe goes into a deep freeze this winter it could be the first major test of EU energy reserves since Russia turned off the taps.
🇩🇰🇳🇴🇸🇪🇫🇮🇮🇸
Nordic transportation ministers have issued a joint declaration aimed at increasing the development of environmentally friendly electric aviation. The ministers had previously set a goal of establishing electric flights by 2030.
Swedish Infrastructure Minister Andreas Carlson says electric aviation can improve flight availability and reduce emissions. In the declaration, the ministers say the goal is to increase cooperation within the Nordics to build a clean green electric aviation industry. They say the Nordic countries are ideally suited to make the shift to electric planes with short distances within and between the Nordic nations.
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Finland’s right-wing government is planning on increasing taxes on fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, a move that is drawing a firestorm of criticism. Researchers from the VATT Institute for Economic Research and the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research have co-authored a report showing the increase in taxes would negatively impact EV sales.
Research Professor, and one of the report’s authors, Marita Laukkanen, said the tax increase would hinder Finland from reaching its emission reductions as legally mandated by the EU.
“The planned vehicle tax change and previous decisions directly affect consumers' purchasing decisions and slow down the electrification of the car fleet. Such decisions are clearly at odds with Finland's climate goals and EU commitments.”
Finland’s government, which ran on reducing emissions and the country’s climate impact, has done the exact opposite, enacting measures that have benefited fossil fuel vehicles and increased emissions. After years of steady growth, EV sales have declined. Just 8.8% of vehicles in Finland are electric or plug-in hybrids, which is far lower than any of its Scandinavian neighbours.
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Nearly half of the people in Finland are ready to pay more in order to fight climate change according to a new survey. The Finnish newspaper group Uutissuomalainen commissioned the survey and published the results over the weekend. The poll found that 48% of respondents are prepared to pay more and endure higher costs of living to fight climate change. 32% were opposed, and nearly 20% were undecided. Women were more prepared to bear higher costs than men. Looking at it by age, older people were more willing to shoulder higher costs than younger people.
Finnish Climate Change Panel Chair Jyri Seppälä spoke to the newspaper group:
"Finns are highly conscious of climate change [as indicated by] an EU-wide survey on the topic. Most Finns want us to do our part in climate efforts. Younger people usually don't have a lot of money, while parents may be thinking about what kind of world they will leave to their children and grandchildren.”
The survey had 1,000 respondents.
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The first-ever battery cell production facility in Norway opened over the weekend. Morrow, a battery start-up, officially opened the door of its new production facility in Arendal on Friday. The company plans to gradually scale up production, with the first units being delivered by year’s end and then production gradually ramping up from there.
Morrow uses lithium iron phosphate battery technology and is already contracted to deliver 5.5 gigawatt hours over a seven year span to Nordic Batteries. Each Morrow battery cell has a capacity of 340 watt hours and weighs about two kilograms.
Norway is keen to expand its battery cell production industry, building on the country’s access to clean green power sources and close proximity to customers throughout Europe. If successful, it will give the EU one more European option as it looks to decrease its battery dependence on China.
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Food prices continue to rise in Sweden. According to price-checking website Matspriskollen, the price of potatoes rose by 2.8%, while cucumbers was up by 8%. The agency says that while the increases aren’t huge in and of themselves they are going up from an already high level. It says people in Sweden are paying a lot more for food than they did two and a half years ago.
🦠Outbreaks🦠
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Last week, the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak in Africa a global public health emergency. The outbreak is being driven by a new variant of mpox called ‘Clade 1’. Shortly after the WHO issued its public health alert, the Swedish Public Health Agency confirmed the first case of a Clade 1 mpox infection outside of Africa.
Acting Director General of the Public Health Authority Olivia Wigzell says the Swedish mpox case is linked to travel.
“The case is the first that has been diagnosed outside the African continent. The affected person was infected during a stay in an area in Africa where there is a large mpox outbreak.”
Wigzell says that at the moment, the public health agency does not assess any increased risk to the general public.
“The fact that a patient with mpox is treated in the country does not affect the risk to the population at large. But a new assessment is expected shortly.”
State epidemiologist Magnus Gisslén says while there is no increased risk to the public, people need to take the new strain seriously.
“It is a worrying development. It is assessed that the risk of spread on the African continent is high, but that there is also a risk of spread outside of it. That we are now seeing a case in Sweden is not unexpected it is an epidemic that we have followed for a long time. You should neither overestimate nor underestimate the risks.”
The Swedish public health authorities say they have a good supply of the mpox vaccine ready to go if needed.
The WHO says the new mpox variant is considered to be more deadly than the strain that prompted it to issue its first mpox global health emergency in 2022.
So far this year, the Democratic Republic of Congo has registered more than 16,000 cases and 500 deaths due to the new mpox variant. The majority of cases have been among children under the age of 15.
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In Denmark, the Statens Serum Institute has confirmed five mpox infections so far this year, but none of them have been this new more concerning variant.
SSI Professional Director Tyra Grove Krause:
"Developments in Africa are worrying. The mpox outbreak has intensified over the past month and has seen a spread to other African countries. That is why we are also following the situation closely.”
Krause says Danish health authorities are currently reassessing mpox treatment guidelines to see if any changes need to be made due to this new variant.
"As a Dane, you don't have to worry. We still assess that there is very little risk to the general population here at home, as it looks now.”
🇨🇳
China will more carefully monitor people and foods entering the country for any signs of the mpox strain. China’s Customs Authority says they will more carefully screen people arriving from countries where mpox is confirmed to be spreading. In addition, vehicles, containers, and goods from countries where mpox is active must be disinfected before being allowed into the country.
🦠COVID🦠
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COVID activity as measured by wastewater surveillance declined, according to the latest weekly snapshot from the Statens Serum Institute. The institute says virus concentrations were lower in week 32, and coronavirus activity in Denmark is now classified as “decreasing.”
While COVID wastewater water results continue to fall, sentinel surveillance, voluntary testing done by workers who have become sick in some of Denmark’s biggest workplaces, continues to show that the virus is still pretty active.
The SSI says the number of COVID-related hospital admissions has declined from week to week, “and the strain on the healthcare system remains at a low level.”
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In Sweden, the number of COVID hospitalizations (249) continues to rise (+37) while the number of severely infected people needing intensive care (13) has also increased (+8).
COVID activity, which has been increasing since the end of June, is expected to continue to rise, according to the Swedish Public Health Agency. It says that the number of coronavirus infections has increased by 29% week-to-week. The agency notes that the majority of cases, about 72%, are among vulnerable seniors over the age of 65. It says that with kids returning to school and people returning to work as summer vacation ends, it will only increase the infection spread. The agency adds that another factor driving case numbers are two new variants, KP.3 and KP.2.
That said, the health agency notes that COVID activity is assessed as being “at a low level” compared to the infection wave seen last winter.
Sweden is still struggling with delays in reporting coronavirus-related deaths. 28 people died in its latest weekly statistics, which are three weeks old. The public health fence notes that the number of weekly COVID deaths is statistically unchanged, with weekly fatalities hovering around 29.
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After taking a summer break, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health is once again updating the country’s COVID situation, which it says continues to be stable. Although the agency notes that this could change.
“We assume that there will be some increase in the incidence of respiratory infections in the coming weeks when society gets back into full swing after the summer holidays.”
Norway registered a 12.2% positivity percentage last week, a slight decline from the previous two weeks. The institute says the KP.3 variant is dominant across the country.
The NIPH also notes that a whooping cough outbreak is continuing across Norway. There were 846 confirmed cases in June, another 796 in July, and so far in August, 293 cases have been registered. Young children continue to be the hardest-hit age group.
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The Finnish Institute for Health is warning that mycoplasma bacteria infections are rising for the first time since the COVID pandemic arrived. The bacteria causes respiratory infections with flu-like symptoms, but it can also cause pneumonia, severe skin symptoms, and even in more rare instances, myocarditis. The institute says it has registered 1,250 confirmed cases so far this year, the most since COVID lockdowns and other infection control measures drove numbers into the ground. The last major mycoplasma outbreak in Finland was in 2011, when some 8,000 cases were reported.
Chief Physician Leif Lakoma:
"It seems that only now has there been a rise in cases. Mycoplasma illnesses have returned a little more slowly than some others since the pandemic. The numbers are starting to indicate that there will be at least as many cases as in the years before the pandemic, or even more.”
The institute notes that the confirmed mycoplasma infections so far may just be the tip of the iceberg. True case numbers are a mystery due to a lack of testing and the fact that, like COVID, some people can be infected by mycoplasma but not have any symptoms at all.
Young people under the age of 20 tend to be more susceptible for reasons that remain a mystery. Infections resulting in hospitalization are rare, but the virus is persistent and can linger for weeks, causing an irritating cough.
On the COVID front, the institute notes that cases have been increasing since May, and it expects those numbers to continue to rise due to the beginning of a new school year and with people returning to work after summer vacation.
🇺🇦Ukraine/ Russia War🇷🇺
🇩🇪 🇺🇦 🇷🇺
German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor and have two more suspects, both Ukrainian, in the case of the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The pipeline was blown up just over two years ago, with explosives detonating in three different parts of the pipeline that runs along the Baltic seafloor between Russia and Germany. A group of investigative journalists have been working on the story and reported late last week that the arrest warrant was issued last summer, with the Ukrainian suspect disappearing shortly after.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources within the Ukrainian military, is reporting that the Ukrainian government had a hand in the sabotage.
Florian Flade is a security reporter at the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and he is part of the group of journalists investigating the Nord Stream sabotage. He spoke to the Swedish national broadcaster SVT.
“The investigation points to several Ukrainian suspects, but there is no evidence that the Ukrainian government is behind the attack, even if that suspicion exists.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denied any knowledge or that the Ukrainian government played any part in the attack.
The WSJ reports the idea came after a night of heavy drinking in 2022, when Ukrainian officers and some businessmen were celebrating Ukraine’s early successes in beating back the Russian invasion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the attack was carried out by a group of Ukrainians who rented a sailboat in Germany. An investigation in Germany had previously connected the attack to a 50-foot luxury yacht called Andromeda.
The German investigation is the only European probe into the Nord Stream sabotage that remains active. Similar investigations in Sweden and Denmark each ended with inconclusive findings.
🇱🇹/ 🇷🇺
Russia is again moving troops from its western border to battle Ukrainian forces this time not in Ukraine but to fight them on Russian soil. Lithuania's Minister of Defence Laurynas Kasciunas says Russia has moved troops from its enclave in Kaliningrad to the Kursk region to try and stop the major Ukrainian incursion into the region. Kasciunas says he has passed that information on to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj.
This isn’t the first time Russia has tapped troops from the west to fight the war in the east. After its disastrous invasion attempt led to massive losses and a more entrenched long term warfare, Russia began shifting troops from areas along its western border to keep up the war effort. Entire divisions that used to be stationed in places near the Finnish border were all but destroyed in Ukraine.
🇧🇾/ 🇺🇦
In the aftermath of Ukraine’s counter-invasion of a swath of Russia, the President of Belarus is once again sabre rattling. Over the weekend, Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the Belarusian military was busy solidifying its defenses along its border with Ukraine. He added that Belarus has deployed a large number of soldiers to the Ukrainian border. Lukashenko claimed that Ukraine has dispatched 120,000 soldiers to the border, a claim refuted by the Ukrainian Border Service as categorically false. Further, the Ukrainian Border Service says it has seen no evidence of any increase in activity on the Belarusian side either.
The bluster is likely in response to Ukrainian forces seizing a growing swath of Russian territory in the Kursk region.
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Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure could result in the country losing a very lucrative business. So far this year, EU companies and traders have stored just a fraction of the gas volumes in Ukraine that they have in years past. The EU has grown concerned not just about the potential for major damages as Russian missiles rain down on Ukrainian energy infrastructure but also about the potential for damages to gas transportation infrastructure.
🇸🇪 🇺🇦
Sweden is following Denmark’s lead in adopting a new model for getting weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment to Ukraine. Instead of donating weapons, and with military warehouses all but emptied, Sweden will dispatch staff from its Defense Material Administration to help Ukraine procure its own weapons straight from defense contractors.
Defense Minister Pål Jonson says that this will mean that instead of donating weapons and ammunition, Sweden will now send cold hard cash to Ukraine so it can do its own shopping.
“We are taking measures so that Ukraine can gain access to newly produced defense equipment. We will move from the donation of defense equipment from the Armed Forces' warehouse to the production of newly produced defense equipment, so that Ukraine has access to new defense equipment, all while keeping in mind that it should not weaken our own operational capability too much in light of the serious security situation.”
This evolution in weapons donations to Ukraine should allow European countries to keep supporting the country in its battle against Russia while taking the pressure off of domestic military stockpiles.
Denmark began doing something similar last year in donating millions of Danish kroner to help Ukraine not only procure its own weapons but also to set up its own domestic defense industry.
🇫🇮🇺🇦/ 🇷🇺
A 26-year-old Finnish volunteer fighting for Ukraine was confirmed to have been killed earlier this month. His family identified him as Ville Mykkänen. He was killed in fighting taking place in the Luhansk region, where Russia has been on the offensive. Mykkänen is the fifth Finnish volunteer who has died fighting for Ukrainian forces.
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A school donated to Ukraine by Finland in 2016 has been destroyed by Russian bombardments according to Ukrainian media. The energy efficient school with a solar panel roof, and other green features, was built just southeast of Kherson shortly after Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula.
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The Swedish Armed Forces is facing a critical shortage of road and transportation specialists required to meet NATO demands. With Sweden now a member of the military alliance, it will become an important transit country for NATO forces and allies. Swedish soldiers are supposed to play a key role in getting all those vehicles, armour, and equipment moved around the country. The problem is that currently there are just 30 soldiers trained to do the work, a number the military says will need to at bare minimum double but ideally quadruple.
Defense Minister Pål Jonsson says these specialists play a key role and that work needs to be intensified to train more of them, but it will take time.
“They have an important function within the defense force and that now that Sweden is in NATO more tactical and operational mobility is required.”
Odds & Ends
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Since 2022, the British government has been cracking down on access to unhealthy foods, with rules banning a store from placing foods high in fats and sugars in high-traffic areas and other desirable locations. Things like two-for-one sales are also not applicable to candy, chips, and soft drinks. Some would like to see Denmark follow suit.
A number of health organizations and doctors in Denmark are lobbying the government to enact similar rules here. Among them is the Danish Heart Association.
Chief Nutritional Consultant Natasha Selberg spoke to DR:
“Too many Danes have an unhealthy diet. Very few follow the official dietary advice, and we eat four or five times as many sweets as is recommended. If nothing happens now, that development will continue.”
The Danish Cancer Society is also supporting a crackdown on unhealthy foods.
Head of Prevention Mette Lolk Hanak says there is an increasing obesity epidemic in Denmark.
“There is something wrong with having to fight through chips, sweets, and soft drinks to get to the milk and potatoes.”
A recent study found that one out of every five people in Denmark has an unhealthy diet.
Some grocery stores have taken their own steps. Lidl successfully lobbied to have fruits and vegetables exempted from VAT.
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Uber is returning to Denmark next year, sort of. The driving service has partnered with Copenhagen taxi company Drivr to begin operating in Denmark for the first time since 2017. What it means is that people can use the Uber app, but it will be a car and driver from Drivr that will show up. Uber has used this hybrid model in other countries.
When Uber abandoned Denmark in 2017, it was under a cloud of controversy, with plenty of criticism from the Danish trade unions. The company also had to pay a whopping 25 million Danish kroner for both violating the Taxi Act and because the Danish Tax Office found 99% of Uber drivers in Denmark failed to report their driving income.