Publications

On the basis of a literature review, this paper outlines the main mitigation options for agricultural activities and the broader food system on the supply and the demand side. Economic, policy/legal barriers, technical barriers, socio-cultural barriers, institutional barriers as well as biophysical or environmental barriers hinder the implementation of these options.

Plant protection products, human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, biocides and other chemicals can reach surface waters during their life cycles, by direct or diffuse entry routes or because they are in completely removed during waste water treatment.

The following text elaborates on the necessities of a future sustainability and climate protection policy which goes beyond solution-finding due to the current crisis in Ukraine. In a first step, the interrelationships of the Ukraine crisis and global and national sustainability policies are analysed. Policy recommendations are developed on basis of the analysis in a second step.

The European Soil Strategy for 2030 by the European Commission has set the foundations for an overarching approach to the protection of soils in Europe. In this scientific opinion paper, the German Environment Agency (UBA) lays down its key recommendations for the upcoming Soil Health Law.

Assessing the persistency of chemicals in general involves a stepwise approach. This includes cost effective and easy to conduct screening tests, that may lead to a need for more complex, lengthy and expensive tests which try to simulate conditions being more representative for the environmental compartments water, sediment and soil.

The research project explores how Germany can increase ambition by using carbon market approaches under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement. This paper explores possible uses of Article 6.2 by Germany beyond the attainment of the EU-NDCs. The paper explores different options to use Art. 6.2 for compliance as well as voluntary purposes.

This is a EU-wide study on the detection of money laundering risks in the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). It is based on a survey of companies active in the Union Registry and their authorized representatives.

The repair of for energy-related products is linked to several ecological, social and economic benefits. However, defective products are hardly ever repaired in practice. The project aims to make the repairability of energy-related products assessable in order to better inform consumers about the repairability of products at the time of purchase.

Trophic magnification factors (TMFs) have been derived in a variety of different aquatic eco-systems worldwide to investigate accumulation patterns of environmentally relevant chemicals. Not only is the TMF interesting for chemicals’ risk assessment related questions, but also for monitoring aspects under the European Water Framework Directive (WFD).

This report describes activities by the Coordination Centre for Effects (CCE) since the CCE was transferred from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) to the German Environment Agency (UBA) in 2018.

A test concept for bioconcentration tests with the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca (HYBIT) was recently described. It was shown that the Hyalella bioconcentration factors (BCFs) derived for compounds with different hydrophobic characteristics (log Kow 2.4 – 7.8) show a strong correlation to those from fish tests.

In transformation tests with organic substances in soil non-extractable residues (NER) are formed which remain there as residues. Some can be released again into the environment in the long-term and should be considered in the persistent assessment. Besides substances properties and soil characteristics the proportion of NER strongly depends on the extraction procedure.