Publications

Chemicals with a specific combination of intrinsic substance properties pose a hazard to the sources of our drinking water, including substances that are very persistent (vP) in the environment and very mobile (vM) in the aquatic environment as well as substances that are persistent (P), mobile (M), and toxic (T).

Herein a review of substances detected in drinking water and groundwater found that 43 percent of them are registered under EU REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006. In addition, a PMT/vPvM assessment was applied to all REACH registered substances (as of May 2017).

This paper examines the connection between Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on the one hand and carbon leakage on the other. 

Which criteria and concepts for peatland projects are environmentally sound? This question is answered in a new study by the German Environment Agency. It considers standards for peatland projects in the voluntary market for emissions offsetting and in the future compliance markets.

The Paris Agreement combines collective goals with individual countries’ contributions. This hybrid approach does not guarantee that the individual contributions add up to what is required to meet the collective goals. 

Mould and fungi pose major problems in residential buildings and indoor environments. Not only in older buildings without any insulation improvements on the envelope/building shell, but also in new energy efficient buildings can mould and growth of fungi occure. Most important is the influence of water and dampness.

Given that the Paris Agreement has strengthened the long-term temperature goal and that it calls for a balance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and sinks within the 21st century, there is the urgent need to re-assess the long-term targets of the EU and to show how the target of GHG neutrality can be reached in the EU.

This report presents the concept for the evaluation and further development of the national German adaptation strategy (DAS), a description of the survey instruments that shall be used and a detailed description on how the concept was developed.

Interest in seabed mineral mining has renewed in recent years for various reasons and new offs-hore mining legislation is currently being developed for national and international waters. For this reason, agreement on the meaning of ‘effective protection of the marine environment from adverse effects arising from activities’ related to mining is needed.

The RESCUE study describes in six scenarios possible development paths towards a resource-efficient and greenhouse-gas (GHG) neutral Germany until 2050. For this, assumptions related to the level of ambition for reaching GHG-neutrality, the magnitude of materials- and energy-efficiency, and the implementation of sustainable life-styles are varied.

Today's railway air-conditioning systems cool primarily with fluorinated refrigerants, which have had to be scaled back step by step since 2016 due to their climate-damaging effect. Air-assisted air-conditioning systems, so-called air-cycle systems, use compressed outside air for cooling, so they do not require any fluorinated refrigerants.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is responsible for the implementation of REACH and CLP. This report describes the expenditure needed to sustain this work and the funding structure of the Agency. A number of new funding mechanisms which could be introduced into the discussions at EU level are proposed and fee levels estimated.