The Evening Report - Jan 18
Green power abounds in Denmark. Border concerns in Finland.
⚡️Energy & Environment🍃
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Goals are good but they don’t mean much if they aren’t met. That is the essence of a new report from the EU Climate Council. The EU has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 on the way to becoming completely carbon neutral by 2050. This new report finds that EU member nations across the board need to step it up if the EU is to meet those targets.
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The Danish government is beginning to focus on the agricultural sector in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate Minister Lars Aagaard spoke to DR:
“There is no doubt that agriculture must deliver, and that this is where we must use our efforts to achieve both our Danish and European climate goals.”
While serious progress has been made in reducing the emissions produced by the industrial and energy sectors things remain more or less unchanged in agriculture. The Danish government has proposed a tax on emissions produced by the agricultural sector.
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Currently, the Danish government doesn’t mandate that cars have snow tires on during the winter months. But, after the recent snowstorm and traffic chaos, which included cars getting stuck and slip sliding around that could change. Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen has ordered that an analysis be done to determine if snow tire use should be legislated. A final decision will be made once the analysis is complete.
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Never has power been greener in Denmark than in 2023. Last year, greenhouse gas emissions from using household appliances and powering homes were just a quarter of what they were ten years ago. Year over year emissions are down 23%. Green Power Denmark says this is due to the green energy transition moving Denmark away from fossil fuels combined with household energy conservation.
The use of coal in power plants to create electricity, an already dwindling practice, dropped by 38% in just the first nine months of 2023.
CEO Kristian Jensen:
“This is clear evidence that the green transition is moving something. It is significantly less stressful for the climate when we use electricity in households and industry today than it was just a few years ago.”
There was record-setting energy production from wind turbines and especially solar power across Denmark last year.
“It is especially the solar cells that have delivered more energy in 2023. This is because many new solar cells were installed at the end of 2022 and the first half of last year. Unfortunately, the same was not the case for the wind turbines.”
It wasn’t just domestic green energy production either.
“We get hydropower from Norway, solar energy from the Netherlands and wind power from Germany. It is economically and climate-wise an advantage that we exchange power with each other. In this way, we make the most efficient use of renewable energy, and it is absolutely crucial when we have to further reduce CO2 emissions in the coming years, preferably to zero, by 2030.”
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A potential environmental disaster is unfolding in slow motion in Randers. The municipality has been working around the clock for weeks trying to prevent a massive pile of toxic soil containing fly ash, heavy metals, and oils from sliding into Alling Å, a nearby stream. There are approximately 200,000 tonnes of contaminated soil creeping towards the stream. The municipality says it has been able to prevent further pollution of the waterway but the situation remains very tense.
Testing seems to show a decline in heavy metals in the waterway, which is somewhat good news. But at the same time, soil samples of the slope threatening the stream from the waste site contain “a very high content of heavy oils” vastly exceeding safety limits.
Nordic Waste, who runs the facility had been silent for weeks after leaving the Kommune to tackle the emergency response effort. In a press release, the company denies it has abandoned the site.
“In our opinion, this happened in mutual understanding with Randers Municipality. We therefore do not feel that we ran away from work at a minute's notice or threw in the towel.”
The company has refused all media interviews.
It will take years and billions of Danish kroner to clean up the toxic soil. And that is without any further complications or unforeseen weather events like massive amounts of rain that would have drastic implications.
Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke has issued two orders to Nordic Waste to provide a “significant financial guarantee” within a very short time frame. The company has yet to comply.
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Good news, eating seafood isn’t nearly as bad for the environment as first feared. Concito, a Danish Green Think Tank that assesses the climate impacts of various foods, has more than halved the environmental footprint it has assessed to eating fish.
Program Manager Michael Minter:
“Beef still has a significantly higher climate footprint than all other foods, and originally fish also had a relatively high climate footprint in the climate database. But due to new information on energy consumption and feed use in aquaculture production, the climate consequence of consuming fish is now significantly lower.”
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The Danish government wants to expand testing for wind turbines but it hasn’t yet figured out whether it should build a new facility or expand the one it already has.. If it goes new then it is eyeing a site at Ballum Enge by the Wadden Sea. The other option is to expand an existing test center at Østerild in Thy. However, people living near the existing testing center aren’t happy about any expansion plans and are making their displeasure known.
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A 15-year-long court battle has ended and Norway’s government has been cleared by the court to begin dumping millions of tonnes of mining waste in its fjords. Environmental groups who sued the Norwegian state have lost their case claiming that the move would threaten marine biodiversity and cause serious environmental damage. Apart from Norway, only Papua New Guinea and Turkey dispose of mining waste in the sea.
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With about two months to go before the official end of winter in Europe, the EU’s natural gas storage levels remain in good shape. Despite the cold snap gripping parts of the continent gas storage is sitting at 78%. European Union officials estimate they may end the winter with gas storage tanks about half full. This will be advantageous the coming effort to get those tanks topped right back up before next winter.
🦠COVID🦠
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Denmark’s Statens Serum Institute says there was a “very strong decrease” in COVID activity as measured by wastewater surveillance results (blue line). Infection-related hospitalizations (green line) also declined.
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The SSI says RS virus infections are also on a downward slide while influenza infections have flat-lined but it adds that flu cases are “expected to increase.”
The institute is monitoring the effectiveness of this year’s influenza vaccine. It calculates that so far it offers 50% protection against infection across all age groups, which is slightly higher than last flu season. By age, efficacy is highest for the pediatric dose for children two to six years old (77%) and lowest for seniors over 65 (26%).
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The SSI says the storm of different respiratory infections is having a deadly impact on vulnerable seniors, which is driving Denmark’s excess mortality rate, the number of deaths compared to a ten-year average, to “an elevated level.”
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Denmark’s winter vaccination effort came to an end this week with over 2.6 million inoculations against COVID and influenza being administered. The Danish National Health Authority says Denmark had the highest vaccination uptake across the entire Nordic region.
According to the agency, 75.9% of those 65 to 79 years old received a COVID booster dose while 79.7% had a flu shot. For those over 80, the inoculation rate was also very close with 80.4% getting a COVID booster and 80% getting vaccinated against influenza.
Chief Physician Kirstine Moll Harboe:
"This autumn's vaccination effort has been a success with a very high uptake for both COVID and flu vaccination, especially among the oldest and most vulnerable, who are at greatest risk of serious illness and death. Compared to other European countries, we are again at the top this year, and we and everyone who has contributed to the implementation of the program should be proud of that.”
This also marks the third year in a row that Danish health authorities offered a special pediatric nasal flu vaccine for children two to six years old. Vaccination uptake in that group continues to underwhelm with just 16% of eligible kids inoculated.
"The adherence to influenza vaccination for children aged 2-6 this year is lower than expected. Therefore, we will investigate what has had an impact on the parents opting out, for example, whether the offer has been available enough so that we can decide whether it should be an offer in the future.”
Preparations for this fall’s vaccination campaign are already underway as officials analyze this winter’s effort to see what lessons can be learned.
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While the National Health Authority lauds the success of this year’s vaccination campaign its own numbers show that vaccination rates among vulnerable seniors have declined year over year. This should be a concern,
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Denmark is once again seeing an increase in cases of strep throat. The Statens Serum Institute says there is a higher number of group A streptococci infections than is normal. The incidence rate is highest among vulnerable seniors who are already susceptible to COVID, RS Virus, and influenza. In rare cases strep infections if found in blood, spinal fluid, or joints can be potentially life-threatening.
Last year, Denmark also suffered an unexpected strep throat epidemic in the first few months of the year.
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There were 77,654 homes sold across Denmark last year, a 5% increase from 2022, but a far cry from the real estate boom seen during the height of the pandemic. In each of the first two years of the COVID pandemic over 100,000 homes were sold across the country. In 2020 and 2021 when Denmark was experiencing strict lockdowns people in crowded cities like Copenhagen fled to smaller towns throughout the country.
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The number of people flying in and out of Copenhagen Airport continues to build but it’s still not quite back to pre-pandemic levels. The airport says 26.8 million travelers used the airport last year. That is a 20% year-over-year increase but still not back to 2018 and 2019 levels when just over three million travelers came through CPH.
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COVID hospitalizations (509) are falling in Sweden (-142) while the number of intensive care patients (7) has also dropped (-19).
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COVID indicators are decreasing in Sweden but the country’s Public Health Agency cautions that while it may be due to a decreasing infection spread but may also be indicative of a lack of testing over the holidays.
In the first week of January, only 19 of Sweden’s 21 regions submitted any testing data and even then numbers were low. Sweden only tests seniors in care and people being admitted to hospital. The new year began with a 13% drop in already meager testing numbers. Based on that narrow window the positivity percentage is 18%, a three-point drop from the previous week.
Sweden continues to struggle with a delay in reporting COVID deaths as it has for well over a year now. Its latest numbers are two weeks old with 177 confirmed fatalities in week 51. That compares to an average of 215 deaths per week over the three previous weeks, which is brutally high. Of those, 67% were seniors over 80.
The health agency says the BA.2.86 variant and its sub-variants, chief among them JN.1, are now dominant across Sweden.
“To date, there are no clinical or epidemiological data to suggest that JN.1 presents a different disease picture or severity than the other circulating omicron subgroups. Vaccination provides robust protection against serious illness and death even when infected with the JN.1 variant.”
On the vaccination front, 69% of vulnerable seniors over 80 have had a COVID booster dose. While uptake is 61% among those 65 to 79 years old.
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Flu activity in Norway has dipped but the Norwegian Institute of Public Health warns that it cannot rule out influenza infections increasing again before the season is over. The institute says the winter COVID wave is also returning as it urges vulnerable seniors and others in high-risk populations to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
“Hospitals and municipalities must still be prepared for respiratory infections and admissions with respiratory infections in the future.”
Coronavirus infections have been declining since the beginning of December but that assessment is uncertain due to low testing numbers. Last week, there were 211 new COVID-related hospitalizations, which is 134 fewer than the week before. The NIPH cautions that there is a lag in admissions data with some hospitals not reporting. There were three new intensive care cases after 11 in the week previous.
39 more lives were lost to the coronavirus in the first week of January.
As elsewhere in the Nordics and around the world the JN.1 variant is dominant in Norway. The institute says the BA.2.86 variant accounts for 90% of all positive sequenced results with JN.1 accounting for the lion’s share of those results.
Flu indicators are down across the board including in hospital admissions (185) last week (-71). Norway continues to see two competing influenza strains as it deals with two simultaneous outbreaks.
“Further development are uncertain. We cannot ignore the possibility of a new increase later in January and a new peak to come in the late winter, as has been the case in many previous flu seasons.”
RS virus cases continue to increase but overall infection numbers remain lower than the epidemic Norway saw last winter. Infection-related hospitalizations (100) increased (+36) week to week.
Vaccination numbers in Norway remain much lower than they should be. Just 64% of vulnerable seniors have been inoculated while uptake is a mere 33% for those in high-risk populations over the age of 18.
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A study by the Finnish Institute for Health has found that disabled people under the age of 64 suffered the highest number of COVID deaths in the first year of the pandemic than any other population. The study examined fatalities among people receiving disability benefits and found that in 2020 deaths rose by 26% among disabled men compared to 12% for the rest of the male population. For disabled women fatalities increased by 26% while deaths among the rest of the female population decreased by 8%.
Research Professor Mika Gissler says similar results have been found in other international studies.
"The vulnerability of disabled people to serious consequences of the coronavirus can be increased, for example, by a higher prevalence of risk factors such as chronic diseases and a greater risk of being exposed to infection due to living in the community or needing other help.”
The institute says while their study has confirmed an increase in mortality among the disabled population more focused studies are needed to determine exactly why that is.
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Another study by Finland’s Health Institute found that people who smoke were less likely to get vaccinated against COVID. It determined that uptake among smokers was 83% for two vaccine doses compared to 89% for the rest of the population.
Senior Researcher Sebastián Peña:
“These are worrying results and suggest that people who use tobacco are experiencing some kind of vaccination fatigue.”
The institute estimates there are about 700,000 people in the country who use tobacco products. Smokers also have a higher risk of complications if they get infected with COVID.
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COVID hospitalizations rose again across Canada according to the latest report from the Public Health Agency. In the week ending January 9, the total number of beds in use by an infected patient increased by 80 to 4,705. Of those, General admissions accounted for an increase of 62 to 4,532. While there were 173 intensive care patients, 18 more than the previous week. The number of severely infected people requiring a ventilator remains unchanged for a second week at 74.
COVID continues to apply sustained pressure on a struggling Canadian healthcare system.
PHAC says another 126 lives were lost to the virus last week.
The weekly positivity percentage across Canada was 14.5%.
🇺🇦/ 🇷🇺 War
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The Finnish Border Guard is stepping up patrols and surveillance along its land border with Russia. This is due to heightened concerns about illegal immigrants attempting to cross the closed border despite severe winter weather.
Commander of the North Karelia Border Guard District Matti Pitkäniitty:
“[The] Finnish Border Guard has intensified border surveillance at Finnish-Russian land border. More patrolling, technical surveillance, and Frontex Standing Corps. In addition, temperatures are around -20C with more than 60cm of snow in our area of North Karelia.”
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Despite Finnish border crossings with Russia remaining closed until at least February 11, authorities have detained several small groups of migrants attempting to cross into Finland illegally. Since August of last year, 1,323 migrants seeking asylum have crossed the land border from Russia into Finland leading the Finnish government to close all crossings.
One of those groups was made up of migrants from Syria who told Finland’s national broadcaster Yle that there are between 2,000 to 3,000 people on the Russian side waiting to cross.
Deputy Commander of Southeast Finland's Border Guard Heikki Ahtiainen told Yle they can’t count on the accuracy of that number but they do know they are still facing a serious situation.
"However, there is a significant number of third-country nationals on the Russian side of the border who want to enter Finland or Europe via Finland illegally.”
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters the border security situation remains a big concern.
"The situation is acute. The borders are staying closed now, but the influence activities are continuing with illegal border crossings. The government is securing the border in all circumstances. We will take additional measures if necessary.”
Finland shares the longest land border with Russia of any European country. It is currently working to secure the border with a fortified fence along a 200-kilometer stretch of the some 1,300-kilometer-long border.
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The number of civilians being killed in Ukraine increased significantly in the last few months of 2023. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says from November to December civilian deaths increased by 26.5%. In November there were 468 civilians who were killed. In December another 592 innocent lives were taken. The agency adds the December death toll is likely underreported. And it says with continued Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian areas the bloody trend has continued into January. According to the UN, more than 10,200 civilians, including 575 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's invasion.
🇹🇷/ 🇸🇪
The Turkish Parliament resumed sitting this week after adjourning over the Christmas holidays. That means it will have to resume its hard work on finding new and more creative ways to delay any vote on Sweden’s NATO membership. Sweden’s NATO application sat in purgatory for most of the fall in the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee before it was sent to the parliament floor just before the holidays.
Turkey and Hungary continue to be the only two NATO member countries that have yet to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership.
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The Danish government has tabled another 151 million Danish kroner (about $29 million Cdn) to help rebuild war-torn Ukraine. This is the 3rd reconstruction package tabled using money in Denmark’s special Ukraine fund. This funding is earmarked for, among other things, securing Ukraine’s electricity grid, heating systems, and landline removal.
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A warning last week from a Swedish government minister that everyone from politicians to businesses and individuals need to prepare for war has caused quite a stir in the country. The warning was couched as a just-in-case scenario but in the aftermath, there has been a run on portable stoves, canned goods, emergency radios, and water purifiers across the country. Radio Sweden is also reporting that supermarkets are seeing increased sales for things like pasta and canned ham.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson tried to calm the waters saying that there are no concerns about war arriving on Swedish soil. He says the comments by his Defense Minister were “overstated.”
“There's no indication that war is an immediate threat, but it's pretty obvious that the risk for war in our part of the world has increased drastically.”
Sweden is the only Baltic neighbour to Russia that is not in NATO making its security situation a little tense. That said it has defense agreements with its Nordic neighbours and other countries like the United States.
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If war came to the shores of the Danish island of Bornholm it would not be ready. That is the assessment of the island’s Emergency Manager.
Louise Lyng Bojesen:
“If war comes, it will always be possible for the Bornholm emergency services to call for help. However, it is not certain that that help will be forthcoming.”
Danish authorities do not assess that the island or any other part of Denmark is under any imminent threat even as concerns about a newly aggressive Russia grow. Bornholm lies off the Swedish coast in the strategically important Baltic Sea.
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The United Kingdom has committed to providing another 2.5 billion pounds (about $4.2 billion Cdn) in military aid to Ukraine this year. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the pledge during a recent visit to Ukraine.
“I am in Ukraine to deliver a simple message. Our support cannot and will not waver. To all Ukrainians, Britain is with you, as long as it takes.”
The monies are a sizable increase on the value of military aid the UK sent to Ukraine last year. The funds will go towards things like long-range missiles, air defenses, and desperately needed artillery ammunition. It will also include a large donation of drones, most of which will be made in the UK.
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The United Kingdom and Ukraine have also signed a security agreement where Great Britain will provide security guarantees to the war-torn country. It means the UK will share intelligence with Ukrainian forces as well as providing help with cyber security, medical, and military training. It also commits the UK to providing “prompt and sustained” assistance should Russia try to invade Ukraine again.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak:
“If Great Britain and other countries had given such a level of guarantees after 1991, there would have been no Russian aggression at all. Our common goal is to ensure that an attack on Ukraine will never happen again, once the current Russian aggression has been stopped and Ukraine has been strengthened.”
Odds & Ends
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Denmark has quietly been making efforts to reduce noise. From work in finding noise-dampening fabrics to erecting barriers to reduce the noise from highway and road traffic. Now the country’s road directorate is testing a special type of asphalt that claims to reduce traffic noise. The asphalt, called drainage asphalt, is already widely used in the Netherlands.
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An Italian tourist destination has had enough crap. Dog crap to be precise. The town of Bolzano is taking drastic steps to deal with dog poop lying around its streets. It has ordered the town’s dog owners to hand in their dogs for DNA testing. That information will be plugged into a database and any dog poop found lying around that matches with a dog in the registry could results in a hefty fine of up to €965 (about $1,400 Cdn) for the offending dog’s owner.