Publications

Summarized documentation of the international conference "Measuring Sustainability in Tourism - Opportunities and Limitations. International and national experts will gave an insight into current efforts to quantify sustainability in German tourism and put it in an international context.

In 2018, the European Commission published its Communication “A clean planet for all”, which calls for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Under the Paris Agreement (PA), Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to limit global warming to "well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels" and to make efforts to "limit the temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels". Achieving these temperature objectives depends imperatively on sufficient national climate action in the mid-term.

In Germany, rodent control in the non-agricultural area relies heavily on the use of anticoagulant rodenticides, i.e. baits containing active substances that inhibit blood coagulation. Although these compounds have unacceptable effects on the environment, they were authorised under the European Biocidal Products Regulation.

Due to various international agreements, Germany is obliged to report emissions of air pollutants annually. Emission inventories are calculated using the fuel inputs known from the statistics and the associated fuel-specific emission factors. For large combustion plants comprehensive data on air pollutants are available on the basis of numerous measurements.

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.