Publications

Air pollutants inside schools present a hygiene problem. The indoor pollution observed inside school buildings can be traced back to a variety of causes, such as poor construction, failings in ventilation engineering, incorrect ventilation routines, and the use of particular building materials, fittings or cleaning products which release chemicals into the air.

The aim of the project „Identification of Organic Pollutants in the North and Baltic Seas” was to identify and quantify toxic organic substances in the marine environment of the North Sea and Baltic Sea for which environmental data are either insufficient or not available.

The recent IPCC assessment reports on climate change and the economic assessments made by the group headed by Lord Nicholas Stern have led to a new round of scientific discussion and political debate.

The resource consumption of modern industrial societies is characterised by manifold new challenges. It can be considered as an assured state of the discussion that numerous negative environmental effects are connected with the amount of resource consumption.

Recently, various press reports on waste management in Germany have drawn attention to a supposed contradiction between waste incineration and waste prevention. The main claim was that the current expansion of waste incineration in Germany would thwart further efforts at waste prevention and block further advances in recycling and waste management.

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.

Fildes Peninsula, logistical centre of King George Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica), has an airport and a high density of research stations (Chilean stations “Profesor Julio Escudero” and “Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva”, Chinese „Great Wall Station“, Russian station „Bellingshausen“ and Uruguayan station “Base Científica Antártica Artigas”) and several field huts.

Flame retardants delay the ignition of flammable materials such as plastic, textile and wood and retard the flame propagation. This either prevents a fire from breaking out in the first place, or gives people more time to escape. Materials treated with flame retardants will generally be destroyed in a full fledged fire, though. Numerous chemicals are used as flame retardants.

Based on the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) submitted in 2007 concerning the causes and impacts of global warming as well as options for mitigation, the scientific findings are unambiguous. In all likelihood, i.e.

The Federal Government was early in developing a comprehensive climate-protection strategy. By resolution of 13 June 1990, the "CO2-Reduction" Interministerial Working Group (IWG) was established, under the direction of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a research project aiming at establishing an international composite environment index. It is jointly implemented by two US-Universities (Yale/New Haven and Columbia/New York) and has been commissioned by the World Economic Forum/Davos.

On the national German and European Union level, the topic resource use is of central importance in the context of sustainable development. The „sixth environmental action programme“ accepted in 2002 points out the priorities of the European Union environmental policy for a period of ten years (2002-2012).