Last week, the Denmark government released a new energy proposal that details plans for natural gas, renewables, and a carbon tax. The proposal calls for a temporary increase in natural gas production to reduce the country’s reliance on Russian energy. The proposal also aims to output more natural gas to assist other countries in dropping Russian gas. The government noted production from gas fields in the North Sea could increase by 25% in the short term.

A Danish court has ruled that Brahetrolleborg Forest and Agriculture, an agricultural company, is not entitled to compensation for new restrictions imposed on the use of its land to protect the environment. The Danish Environment Ministry designated land owned by the company as a Natura 2000 zone in 2005, which imposed special requirements on sustainability and habitat protection, and barred the owners from clearing woodland to plant Christmas trees.

Half of the world's wetlands have been destroyed in the past century, while melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica contributed to an 11 milimeter rise in sea levels, according to new reports. A study by the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity found that just 12.8 million kilometers remains of the 25 million kilometers of wetlands that existed in 1900, as over-exploitation, aquaculture, and storm damage destroy them at a rate of as much as 80 percent per year in some areas.

Rising sea levels and Greenland's glacial melt have not increased as fast as previously predicted, but ice loss has still increased 30 percent over the last decade, and sea level rises have endangered low-lying coasts, according to a new report published in the May issue of Science. Previous studies estimated that glaciers would double their ice loss by 2010 and continue at that speed, and the actual flow of ice rivers has caused "significantly less" of an increase in sea level rise.