Umweltbundesamt

Chemicals

Sustainability initiatives and approaches in the chemical sector

To allow the ISC3 a quick start to its substantive work, the clients (UBA/BMUB) have commissioned the drafting of three studies. The objective of this study was to create a knowledge base by mapping the most relevant initiatives/approaches in the field of sustainable chemistry. For this purpose, the follow-ing sectors were examined: Green chemistry (n = 8), international organizations (2), (chemic...read more

Soil | Agriculture

Immobilisation of nitrogen in context of critical loads

Literature review and analysis of German, French and Swiss soil data

Estimating the nitrogen immobilisation under steady state condition is a crucial part of the critical load calculation. This report contains the results of a literature review focusing on this topic and the description of a new method to estimate the nitrogen immobilisation. For this approach, soil inventories from France, Switzerland and Germany were used to estimate nitrogen immobilisation on ba...read more

Nachhaltigkeit | Strategien | Internationales

Entwicklung von konsumbasierten Landnutzungsindikatoren

Mit unserem Bedarf für Nahrungs- und Futtermittel und für die energetische und stoffliche Nutzung von Biomasse ist eine umfangreiche Flächennutzung im In- und Ausland verbunden. Die damit verbundenen Umweltwirkungen sind beträchtlich. Daher sollte diese Flächennutzung genauer erfasst werden. In dem vorliegenden Forschungsprojekt wurden auf Basis von globalen Datensätzen Indikatoren für den Flächen...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Extending land footprints towards characterizing sustainability o...

Beyond area-based land footprint indicators, additional information is needed to assess the sustainability of land use. This report discusses extensions of area-based land footprints with meaningful impact-oriented indicators for the assessment of the effects of different consumption patterns on the ecosystems and sustainability of land use. It discusses: System indicators, which considers globall...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Quantifying the land footprint of Germany and the EU using a hybr...

Footprint analysis reveals the appropriation of land resources from a consumer’s perspective. This report presents a novel hybrid land-flow accounting method for the calculation of land footprints, employing a globally consistent top-down approach and combining physical with environmental-economic accounting. It delivers detailed results for cropland, grassland and forest land footprints for Germa...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Review of land flow accounting methods and recommendations for fu...

This report provides an in-depth review of the current state of the art in measuring land footprints. It identifies differences in available accounting methods and indicates their shortcomings. It offers options and gives clear recommendations for the further development of actual and virtual global biomass and land flow accounting methods.read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Development of consumption-based land use indicators

With our demand for food, feed, energetic and material use of biomass extensive land use is associated, both at home and abroad. This entails considerable environmental effects. Therefore, land use should be measured more in detail. In this research project, area based land footprint indicators of biomass consumption were further developed and calculated based on global data sets. The detailed res...read more

Climate | Energy

International Climate Initiatives – A way forward to close the em...

Final Report

In December 2015 Parties adopted the Paris Agreement at the 21st session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In its Article 2 governments agreed to limit global warming to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and to pursue to limit it to 1.5°C (UNFCCC 2015). The UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2016 showed that a gap of 14 GtCO2e exists for 2030 between the (unc...read more