Publications

This report aims at quantifying, within ranges as small as possible, external costs from environmental impacts of aviation. Benefits of aviation are important too, but they are generally, in contrast to the negative impacts, well captured by the market.

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the current GATS negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) require special attention from an environmental policy perspective. The GATS - which is both a trade and an investment agreement – may have potentially far reaching implications, amongst others for domestic policy choices relating to social and environmental objectives.

For preparing this report, the concerned available knowledge in Germany in this field has been collected and documented as far as possible.

There is a world wide consensus among organic farmers not to use genetically engineered organism (GMO). Initially implemented through the guidelines of organic farming associations, this rule has now gained accession to consumer protection legislation in the USA, Japan and the European Union.

On behalf of the Federal Environmental Agency

The development of transgenic farm animals and transgenic fish is lagging markedly behind the development of transgenic crops. Several reasons account for this phenomenon - above all the complex physiology and reproduction biology of more highly developed animals. However, since the 1980s intensive research has been carried out worldwide in the field of transgenic modifications in vertebrates.

With the completion of this project a quantification of heavy metal and lindane emissions into surface waters is provided for the first time for Germany and for the years 1985, 1995 and 2000.

The objectives of this study are the determination of an annual load of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for the seven selected rivers and the development of a harmonised methodology for the estimation of these riverine loads into the North Sea and the North-east Atlantic.

Council Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control aims at the EU-wide harmonisation of licensing procedures of certain industrial installations. In this context the "Best Available Techniques" (BAT) are of special importance.

By the end of 1999 there were almost 120 regional free trade agreements registered with the WTO. Approximately one third of these had been concluded in the last ten to twelve years. Only a small number of the integration agreements between developing countries had been able to keep to their time schedules. Some have been revived by newer initiatives.

Nutrient concentrations during winter from the starting conditions for the annual phytoplankton development beginning in spring and reaching its maximum during summer. For this reason nutrient data were collected from the central north Sea during winter and summer, to calculate long-time means, interannual variability and local trends.

In the last decade environmental monitoring is of increasing interest to provide politicians, stakeholders, decision-makers and the general public with information needed to design an adequate environment policy. Some experience is already gained in the field of technical and chemical based surveillance of environmental impacts and levels of pollutants.