Joint Research Centre - European Commission

The severe Monsoon floods that have affected Pakistan have killed more than 1,600 people, affected about 20 million people (12% of total Pakistani population) and caused extensive damage to agricultural lands and infrastructure including houses.

In close cooperation with the EU  Member States  and the  international community, the European Commission, through its offices for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO/MIC), is providing humanitarian relief and rescue expert support to assist the Pakistani authorities and the Pakistani population. The European Commission, through the Instrument for Stability (IfS), is also  contributing to the early recovery and medium to longer term post disaster needs assessments that are underway under the lead of the United Nations and the World Bank/Asian Development Bank respectively, in cooperation with the government of Pakistan, to assess the extent of the damage and the required needs for early recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. 

The Institute for Environment and Sustainability of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC-IES) has analysed the occurrence and distribution of forest fires in the European part of Russia, since the beginning of July 2010. A series of maps shows the location of fires occurring from 1st of July, and notably during the more intense last two weeks, until the 12th of August 2010. It was quantified, how these fires potentially affected the areas impacted by the Chernobyl accident of the 26th of April 1986. The JRC-IES also analysed the impact of the recent fires on land cover and peat soils in this area.

During the last weeks, Portugal has seen conditions of high and very high fire danger. These conditions that favour fire ignition and spread lead to a number of simultaneous forest fires in Northern Portugal. Fire danger forecast provided by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) shows that fire danger conditions will continue to be critical in the next days, with a gradual decrease of fire danger though still remaining in the very high levels in large areas of the Iberian peninsula. A slight improvement is expected for 19 August.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has established 15 Reference Centres worldwide on the basis of their recognised experience in desertification and land degradation issues. This is done in order to implement country reporting guidelines and development activities for a new indicator-based monitoring and assessment process at regional, sub-regional and national levels. The DESERT Action at the JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) was nominated as one of these Reference Centres. As such, it provides assistance to the countries of the UNCCD regional annexes for the Northern Mediterranean (Annex IV), Central and Eastern Europe (Annex V) and other affected country Parties (e.g. USA, Canada, Hungary).

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on indirect land use change and biofuels. Indirect land use change (ILUC) occurs when land formerly used for a food crop is turned over to production of biofuels. As a result, cultivation of the displaced food crop is often transferred to a location where land prices and the costs associated with agriculture are lower – this can be on grasslands and forested land. This is of concern because the deforestation and cultivation of virgin or semi-virgin land releases high levels of carbon previously held in soil and plants into the atmosphere. Subsequent use of nitrogen fertilizers on poorer soils would also lead to emissions of N₂O from the soil.

The Commission has issued several studies on the topic. Interested parties are welcome to base their contributions on these studies, where comments on the underlying assumptions, data and methodology are of special interest, as well as on other analytical work. The Commission is also seeking advice on concrete policy options.