Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Soil | Land

Legal Instruments to implement the objective “Land Degradation Neutral World” in International Law

The protection of fertile soils is a precondition for sustainable development. In the final document of the conference of the United Nations on sustainable development in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20 Conference), the international community thus agreed to strive for a “land degradation neutral world”. The legal study by Ecologic Institute, Berlin, firstly scrutinizes some national legislati...read more

Water

The impact of shale gas on the costs of climate policy

This report investigates the effects of an increased exploitation of shale gas reserves around the globe and the extent to which it can serve as a low-cost GHG mitigation option. We compare a scenario of global shale gas exploitation with a scenario in which shale gas use is very limited. Both scenarios are modelled with the global techno-economic POLES model and rely on a high regional disaggrega...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Guidelines for the Sustainable Organisation of Events

Event organisers are probably already familiar with many of the measures presented in these Guidelines. Some organisers may have tried them out in practice themselves. However, a number of factors determine which specific measures can actually be considered (e.g. character of the proposed event, conditions at the venue, available budget). These Guidelines aim to give organisers some ideas and supp...read more

Transport

Electric bikes get things rolling

The environmental impact of pedelecs and their potential

Common questions regarding pedelecs involve their potential for sustainable mobility, and, above all, their environmental impacts. This paper provides answers to these queries. A pedelec puts more stress on the environment than a conventional bicycle without an electric motor, but the relatively low environmental impact level of pedelecs is certainly offset when pedelecs are used in lieu of cars f...read more

Chemicals, Health

Environmental risk of veterinary medicines

A discussion paper on the proposal for a regulation of the european parliament and of the council on veterinary medicinal products.read more

Climate | Energy

Implications of Standardized CDM Baselines for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and their Use in National ‘Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)‘-Systems

To support the development of CDM Standardized Baselines, the German Environmental Agency commissioned the Wuppertal Institute and GFA Consulting Group in 2012 to investigate implications of Standardised Baselines on least developed countries and their utilization in national MRV systems. A case study was conducted to make the case for the utilization of standardised baselines to promote rural ele...read more

Climate | Energy

Sectoral Targets as a Means to Reduce Global Carbon Emissions.

Final report of the UFO-Plan Project “Emissionsminderung in Industriestaaten und Entwicklungsländern – Kosten, Potenziale und ökologische Wirksamkeit”

This paper explores the effects of sectoral targets in international climate policy in a macroeconomic frame-work, their interaction with the EU emissions Trading System (EU ETS), and to which extent sectoral targets can address the concerns of competitiveness. We assume that a global binding agreement exists between the steel sector and governments. The steel sector seems particularly suited for...read more