Publications

Germany is obligated to report its national emissions of greenhouse gases, annually, to the European Union and the United Nations. Over 80 % of the greenhouse-gas emissions reported by Germany occur via combustion of fossil fuels. The great majority of the emissions consist of carbon dioxide.

In a comprehensive literature review measured environmental concentrations of human and veterinary pharmaceutical substances reported worldwide were compiled in a systematic database. Pharmaceuticals or their transformation products have been detected in the environment of 71 countries covering all five UN regions.

Pharmaceutical substances are biologically highly active chemicals which can unintentionally but regularly be released into the environment. More than 600 different pharmaceuticals can be found worldwide in soils, sediments, surface waters and some of them even in groundwater.

In a long-term research strategy, the German higher federal authorities responsible for human and environmental safety – the German Environment Agency (UBA), the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and the National Metrology Institute (PTB) – are accompanying

The European Water Framework Directive requires that rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters, and groundwater achieve “good status” by the year 2027 at the latest. The European Union has provided a clear timetable as well as three six-year management cycles for Member States to achieve that goal.

Particulate matter (PM10) is one of the air pollutants, which pose a major risk to public health. This is why EU legislation has set limit values for PM10.

Power to gas (PtG) is a technology for producing hydrogen and methane using electricity, while power to liquids (PtL) is an electricity-based process for the generation of liquid fuels. Jointly with other so-called power-to-x technologies PtG and PtL make it possible to provide renewable energies for all applications.

The German Environment Agency (UBA) is in favour of a revision of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy in order to implement the Sustainable Devel¬opment Goals at European Level. The position paper of the German Environment Agency identifies objectives and required actions for sustainable development in the EU.

The guideline for sustainable building provides an extensive description of environmental protection objectives for sustainable building. In addition to the aforementioned objective it also envisages to minimize i.a. the following environmental effects caused by building:

This project analyses the contributions of the chemicals sector to a Green Economy (GE). For this purpose, it analyses existing national, European, and international legislations, programmes and voluntary initiatives in the topic areas of environment and health (E&H), chemical safety (CS), and sustainable chemistry (SC) and their contribution to a GE.

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. In February 2005, the Kyoto Protocol entered into force.

Der jüngste Bericht des Weltklimarats (IPCC) legt nahe, dass im Jahr 2050 die globalen Treibhausgasemissionen um 40% bis 70% unter dem Niveau von 2010 liegen müssen um einen globalen Temperaturanstieg von mehr als 2°C gegenüber dem vorindustriellen Niveau zu verhindern. Laut der 3.