News
Publish date: April 14, 2009
News
On April 15th, such a ban will be discussed in a first “trialogue” meeting between the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament and the European Commission.
The main stocks of seals being hunted are now around historical highs. A blanket ban on trade in seal products would thus undermine the EU’s credibility as a serious partner in designing a new policy framework for the Arctic.
“We Europeans have a primary responsibility for the loss of biodiversity throughout the world because of the ecological footprint our consumption puts on the rest of the world. It is our duty to do everything we can to reduce the pressure on endangered species, but a ban on trade in seal products would be counterproductive”, Hoff says.
Most sealing takes place in the North Atlantic, particularly in Canada, and concerns the harp seal. All countries bordering the North Atlantic are part of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which consists of a network of 1,600 scientists. ICES has estimated that several of the stocks being hunted, such as the Greenland and Northwest Atlantic harp seal stocks, are around historical highs.
Throughout the past year, our mission at the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center has focused on two key, but intertwined issues—nuclear and radiation safety as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, and the worldwide influence of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, which itself is actively involved in the war and has participated in the occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
At the beginning of the year, reports in the German and Russian press suggested an approximate 70% increase in uranium imports from Russia to Germany in 2024. But does this reflect broader European trends? It does not. Overall, imports of uranium and nuclear fuel from Russia to Western countries actually dropped sharply in 2024. Unlike the situation in Germany, this is already an established trend.
A Lingen, Germany plant could begin producing nuclear fuel in cooperation with a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, which is directly involved in the war in Ukraine and occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.