Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Chemicals

Take EU biocides legislation to the next level

Recommendations for streamlining environmental risk assessments and for reducing environmental impacts

There is already more than a decade of experiences with environmental risk assessment under the Biocidal Products Regulation (EU) No 528/2012 (BPR). This paper compiles recommendations to improve BPR to ensure that it reaches its goals.Experiences have shown that the processes for environmental risk assessments need to be simplified to allow for faster decisions. Also, despite first BPR environmen...read more

Climate | Energy, Water, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

The Wild Wild West in our Oceans?

The role of start-ups in marine CDR

Global efforts to reduce emissions remain inadequate which resulted in an increasing need for negative emission technologies that actively remove and permanently sequester CO₂ from the atmosphere.We highlight the rapid growth of commercial mCDR start-ups, despite limited research and potential irreversible harm to marine ecosystems. These activities appear uncoordinated, lack oversight, and show n...read more

Climate | Energy, Air, Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Methane, the underestimated greenhouse gas

Sources, effects, mitigation options

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. On top of this, methane is a key precursor for the formation of ground-level ozone. Ozone is linked to negative health effects whilst also damaging ecosystems and crops. Reducing methane emissions thus contributes to climate protection and also helps protect public health and ecosystems.For several years now, there have been...read more

Chemicals, Water

Input of plant protection products into groundwater via bank filtration

Literature research and recommendations for action

Plant protection products (PPPs) can be transported from the target area to other environmental compartments, e.g. groundwater. To minimize potential negative impacts, their environmental fate is assessed as part of the PPPs authorization process. Bank filtration describes the process where surface water infiltrates into groundwater systems, transporting dissolved or particulate compounds through...read more

Climate | Energy

Effectiveness of EU Emissions Trading: What drives emission developments?

Analysis of selected sectors and countries

European emissions trading (EU ETS) is a central component of German and European climate policy. This final report summarises the results of a research project that investigated the causes of emissions trends in the most relevant sectors in terms of emissions (combustion, iron and steel industry, cement clinker production, refineries) of the EU ETS 1 in the period 2005 and, depending on the secto...read more

Climate | Energy, Soil | Land, Agriculture

Approaches to measure greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands

This publication compares different methodological approaches to accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands in Germany: national GHG reporting under the UN Climate Convention, corporate reporting based on the GHG Protocol, and standards for peatland climate protection projects. It analyses differences in objectives, spatial and temporal references, and methodological accuracy. The stud...read more

Climate | Energy

Shall the CBAM be expanded further downstream? Insights from assessing products along the automotive value chain

The EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) replaces the free allocation in the EU ETS 1 as the main carbon leakage instrument. The study discusses the potential expansion of the CBAM to downstream products. Using the example of products from the automotive value chain (wheels, brakes, crankshafts, forged and flat-rolled primary products), it shows that the CO₂ costs vary greatly depending...read more

Air, Transport

HBEFA Traffic Situations

Application guidelines

The HBEFA (Handbook for Emission Factors in Road Transport) is an IT application that provides emission factors (EF) for greenhouse gases, air pollutants, and final energy consumption factors for all relevant vehicle categories in road transport. The emission factors can be differentiated in the HBEFA according to "traffic situations" (VS). A primary goal of the HBEFA is to enable the standardizat...read more