Publications

The German federal authorities responsible for human and environmental safety, and metrology – the German Environment Agency (UBA), the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), and the National Metrology Institute (Physikalisch-Technische Bu

Future civil supersonic aircraft (low-boom aircraft) are intended to produce significantly quieter sonic booms. The effects of these novel sonic booms on humans, especially on sleep, are still unclear. In one study, 37 people were examined in a sleep laboratory.

The report assesses nuclear energy’s role in the transformation to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It contrasts top-down net-zero pathways from five integrated assessment models with a comprehensive bottom-up review of national programmes, including newcomer countries, and benchmarks these against the COP28/29 pledge to triple nuclear capacity.

As a Party to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (⁠UNFCCC⁠), since 1994 Germany has been obliged to prepare, publish and regularly update national emission inventories of greenhouse gases.

The Horizon Scanning report presents nine emerging issues that could become relevant for environmental policy, environmental research and administration in the coming years. The 2022–2023 cycle aimed to identify new developments with high environmental relevance at an early stage and to provide knowledge for anticipatory environmental policymaking.

PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs (dl-PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants regulated under the EU POP Regulation. Due to their similar toxicological properties, both groups are subject to common, stricter limit values introduced in 2019. This report provides German data on their occurrence in ash from small-scale and biomass combustion plants.

This report compares three downstream policy options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the EU agrifood sector, all of which require regulated entities to cut farm-level emissions embedded in the products they handle or sell. It evaluates their design, efficiency, costs, and carbon leakage risks, highlighting key trade-offs.

This exploratory study assesses whether the potential integration of landfills into the EU-ETS 1 could be a viable strategy to prevent waste streams from being diverted from municipal waste incineration (MWI) to landfills. Such a diversion could result from the potential and currently discussed inclusion of MWI in the EU-ETS 1, leading to additional methane emissions.

The report examines the challenges and methodologies for verifying the origin and emissions of imported goods under the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

The EU taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) are central instruments in the EU Sustainable Finance Framework.

The European Union has introduced the EU Taxonomy and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) as key regulatory frameworks to enhance transparency and direct capital flows towards environmentally responsible investments.

This technical documentation is an annex to the final report „Überarbeitung des Luftqualitätsindex des Umweltbundesamtes nach der Herausgabe der Luftqualitätsleitlinien der WHO 2021", which is written in German. This present documentation explains the methodological derivation of the risk-based air quality index.