Press | Umweltbundesamt

The extensive use of plant protection products in agriculture is causing increasing harm to birds on fields. This is the conclusion reached in a study done on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency The partridge and skylark in particular are finding less food because, besides killing pests, the chemicals used also kill prey such as butterfly caterpillars and other insects. In addition, herbicide... read more

Regulations on the use of biocides must become more specific and more binding. The risks of these substances, which are contained in products such as wood preservatives and insect repellents, were underestimated for a long time. The existing EU Biocides Directive has only concerned the placing of biocidal products on the market but not how they may be used. New regulations governing their use coul... read more

Climate change will augment global risks such as poverty, pollution and the extinction of species which already exist and will slow down economic development. These are the facts reported in Part II of the current World Climate Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change which was published today in Yokohama, Japan. read more

More than half of the deep, oligotrophic lakes in Northern Germany have ‘good’ ecological status and therefore already achieve the objectives of the EU Water Framework Directive. These good reviews are cause for the Federal Environment Agency to declare them as “Water Type of the Year 2014” on the occasion of World Water Day. read more

Antibiotics are used on a large scale in industrialised farming, especially in pork and poultry production, but also for beef. The animals excrete most of these drugs unchanged. When such contaminated slurry is spread on fields, the drugs are also introduced into the environment. There is no conclusive data on how they affect the environment. Exactly how great is the danger that the drugs spread o... read more

The newly appointed Sustainable Building Commission at the Federal Environment Agency (KNB) will consult the Agency (UBA) on expert issues of sustainable building. In addition, the fourteen experts of the KNB from science and specialist authorities will serve as UBA's platform for scientific debate. The interdisciplinarity of the members of the ecologically focussed KNB reflects the status of the... read more

Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany rose again slightly in 2013, by 1.2 per cent compared to the previous year. These are the preliminary results of first estimates by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). A total of nearly 951 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents were emitted in 2013, almost 12 million tonnes more than in 2012. CO2 emissions account for most of the increase, with a rise o... read more

The Federal Environment Agency is recommending a further reduction in the use of disposable plastic carrier bags and an expansion of the fee on shopping bags which is already in place in the retail food trade. This will help to use resources efficiently, avoid waste and to reduce the input of waste to the oceans and seas. read more