The UBA celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2014. As an exception we took this occasion to take a look at the past in our annual "What Matters" publication, namely at the most important milestones in German environmental policy with which the UBA is closely associated. The publication also casts a spotlight on the most current topics in environmental protection. International climate protection policy must set more ambitious targets to reduce air pollution and ensure better protection of our soils. A separate chapter discusses how resource efficiency must become the order of the day for information and communication technologies.