Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Climate | Energy, Economy | Consumption, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Structural change in coal regions as a process of economic and social-ecological transition – Lessons learnt from structural change processes in Germany

Effective policies to mitigate climate change need to be accompanied by a socially just transition. Based on experiences of past and ongoing transition policies in coal regions in Europe and with indications to the specificity of framework conditions and challenges and to the potential effectiveness and transferability of approaches, this paper presents lessons learnt which can be inspirational fo...read more

Climate | Energy

Nature-based solutions and global climate protection

Assessment of their global mitigation potential and recommendations for international climate policy

This study examines the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) for global climate protection and in international climate policy. It provides a critical assessment of global mitigation potentials of NbS in forests, croplands, grasslands, terrestrial and coastal wetlands, and settlements and provides recommendations for international climate policy such as under UNFCCC. The results show that the pote...read more

Climate | Energy, Economy | Consumption, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Analysis of the historical structural change in the German lignite mining area of Lusatia

(case study)

This case study examined the structural change in Lusatia caused by the system change from a centrally planned economy to a market economy in the period 1990-2015. It analysed the structural change process and the structural policies implemented as a reaction to this process with the objective to make this knowledge available for future structural change processes in other (coal) regions by deploy...read more

Climate | Energy, Economy | Consumption, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Analysis of the historical structural change in the German hard coal mining Ruhr area

(case study)

This case study examined the structural change in the Ruhr area caused by the low international competitiveness of German hard coal mining over the period from the late 1950s to 2015. It analysed the structural change process and the structural policies implemented as a reaction to this process with the objective to make this knowledge available for future structural change processes in other (coa...read more

Climate | Energy, Transport

Power-to-Liquids

A scalable and sustainable fuel supply perspective for aviation

PtL fuels are broadly recognized as an important option to make aviation CO2 neutral, and the industrial production of PtL fuels has moved within reach. The updated version of the background paper reviews the basic principles of PtL production routes and draws a comparison with competing fuel options based on sustainability criteria. In order to produce sustainable PtL fuels in the required quanti...read more

Economy | Consumption, Health, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

The impact of COVID-19 on economies in the Alpine region

The COVID 19 pandemic hit Europe in 2020. Government restrictions and voluntary changes in consumption and mobility behaviour led to a sharp decline in mainly non-essential activities. Economic stimulus measures were taken to support the economy. The document delivers findings on the territorial impacts and drivers of the pandemic for the Alpine Space, as well as insights from the four pilot regio...read more

Climate | Energy

Support to the development of ambitious climate change scenarios in Europe

Considering the importance of national climate change mitigation scenarios for ambitious climate change mitigation policies, a profound understanding of national concepts for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and of the underlying measures is crucial. This report summarises the results of a research project which scrutinises climate change mitigation scenarios from six EU member states and elabora...read more

Chemicals, Water, Soil | Land

The database "Pharmaceuticals in the Environment"

Update for the period 2017-2020

Over the past decades, human consumption of pharmaceuticals has steadily increased. It is known that their growing use is leading to detectable levels in all environmental compartments, conceivably causing harm to ecosystems. To organize the huge amount of information caused by the global environmental exposure situation, UBA initiated this project to collect all these data within one publicly ava...read more