Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Climate | Energy, Economy | Consumption

Economic Opportunities of Climate Action

Climate protection pays off! This is the central statement of the study "Economic opportunities through climate protection". The study examined which economic effects climate protection policy has had so far and which potentials will arise in the future. The results show: Climate protection goes hand in hand with innovation. Together with the necessary investments in renewable energies, energy eff...read more

Climate | Energy

Global greenhouse gas emission pathways until 2050

The project „Global greenhouse gas emission pathways until 2050“ assesses the requirements for limiting future global temperature rise to well below 2°C. It then explores to what extent current climate policies, and especially the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) support or endanger the achievement of the non-climate specific UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) and from here specific...read more

Chemicals

Method development for analysis of pharmaceuticals in environmental samples

Since the last decades the increasing currency of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment and their risk potential for the aquatic life has become an urgent issue. The number of pharmaceuticals detectable in the low μg/L range in the environment is rising each day. Against this background the aim of this project was the development, optimization, validation and comparison of analytical methods...read more

Chemicals

Environmental risks from mixtures of antibiotic pharmaceuticals in soils – a literature review

The report summarizes the current knowledge on antibiotic contaminations in soils. The study raises concerns regarding the contamination of manure, anaerobic digestate and sewage sludge with antibiotic mixtures and discusses their ecotoxicological effects and spread of antimicrobial resistance in soils. Overall aims were mainly to identify antibiotic mixtures typically applied in veterinary and hu...read more

Climate | Energy

How can existing national climate policy instruments contribute to ETS development?

Before introducing an emissions trading system, jurisdictions have to consider the ex-isting energy and climate policy framework. This report seeks to analyse and evaluate non-ETS climate policy instruments, such as carbon taxes or green certificate trading schemes, regarding their suitability to serve as a basis for establishing emission trading systems. There is a general assessment of prototypi...read more

Chemicals

Expert Report on the Usability of Data from the POP Database in the Field of ‘Technosphere’

The report provides a quality-assured database for the technosphere compartment as part of the further development of the POP/dioxin database into a knowledge-based system that can be used as a flexible evaluation instrument.To this end, the existing database inventory of technosphere samples was classified according to primary and secondary sources with further subclassification in a tree structu...read more

Air

Air Quality 2018

Preliminary Evaluation

This evaluation of air quality in Germany in the year 2018 is based on preliminary data which has not yet been conclusively audited from the air monitoring networks of the federal states and the UBA, valid on 18rd January 2019. Due to the comprehensive quality assurance within the monitoring networks, the final data will only be available in mid-2019. The currently available data allows for a gene...read more

Climate | Energy

Assessment of bio-CCS in 2°C compatible scenarios

Since the adoption of the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC (AR5), there has been a growing discussion of methods for Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) from the atmosphere. With CDR as a supplement to GHG-emission reductions it would be possible to stabilize the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere more quickly or perhaps even to reduce it. Bioenergy combined with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is t...read more