Public authorities

Whether coffee-to-go cups or cigarette butts, too much single-use plastic is landing on our streets and in parks. Cities and municipalities in particular incur costs of up to 434 million euros per year for collection and cleaning, says a study by the German Environment Agency (UBA). New EU regulation states that the manufacturers of single-use products will have to bear these costs.

Currently, only slightly less than ten percent of rivers, lakes and coastal waters are in good ecological condition. Although this is a slight improvement over 2015, Germany still faces major challenges. According to the EU Water Framework Directive, water bodies should be "good" in terms of chemistry, ecology and – in the case of groundwater – also in terms of available quantity by 2027.

According to the German expert group report published on September 30, 2022, the most probable cause of the fish die-off in the River Oder is the rapid rise in salinity, which together with other factors led to the mass proliferation of a brackish water alga that is poisonous to fish.

The new International Academy Transformation for Environment and Sustainability (TES Academy) has been launched in a pilot phase at UBA. The kick-off to the project is a virtual discussion series about the implications of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine on the sustainability transformation and how to respond to the situation.

On 30th June 2022, the OECD published the Test Guideline No. 125, which harmonises the determination of particle size distribution specifically for nanomaterials. It is an important building block for the implementation of nano-specific requirements within the framework of legislation on chemical safety, for example for the REACH Regulation.

The competition for the federal "Blauer Kompass" award for exemplary climate change adaptation projects has set a new record number of participants this year. Of the 240 entries received by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and German Environment Agency (UBA), 20 outstanding projects have now been nominated for the award.

About 500 German undertakings are obliged to include sustainability-related information in their annual reports. According to the plans of the EU Commission more undertakings shall report in the future and apply uniform reporting standards. A study on behalf of UBA recommends precise requirements for reporting on targets, actions and performance indicators and corporate greenhouse gas neutrality.

“Public administrations must pioneer and be a role model in climate protection”, said Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency (UBA) at an online meeting of the Network of Heads of European Environmental Administrations (EPA Network) on November 25th. He presented UBA’s guide on greenhouse gas neutral administrations, now also available in English.

Information on sustainability in the textile and fashion industry - this is what the new online platform www.sustainfashion.info by HEJSupport offers, funded by the UBA as part of an Associations project. Different aspects of the sector are highlighted, such as environmental pollution or human rights, and allows people to speak who share their visions for more sustainability.

Air pollution, climate change, land sealing, waste and water management are some of the greatest environmental challenges for urban areas. To tackle these challenges, cities need sufficient funds, staff, technical innovation, political commitment, and a national framework and incentives. An UBA study examined six urban areas in six countries.