Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Climate | Energy

Updating the Emission Factors for Large Combustion Plants

Due to various international agreements, Germany is obliged to report emissions of air pollutants annually. Emission inventories are calculated using the fuel inputs known from the statistics and the associated fuel-specific emission factors. For large combustion plants comprehensive data on air pollutants are available on the basis of numerous measurements. These data were evaluated, calculated a...read more

Chemicals

Protecting the sources of our drinking water: The criteria for identifying persistent, mobile and toxic (PMT) substances and very persistent and very mobile (vPvM) substances under EU Regulation REACH (EC) No 1907/2006

Chemicals with a specific combination of intrinsic substance properties pose a hazard to the sources of our drinking water, including substances that are very persistent (vP) in the environment and very mobile (vM) in the aquatic environment as well as substances that are persistent (P), mobile (M), and toxic (T). This publication presents the result of the scientific and technical development of...read more

Chemicals

REACH: Improvement of guidance and methods for the identification and assessment of PMT/vPvM substances

Herein a review of substances detected in drinking water and groundwater found that 43 percent of them are registered under EU ⁠REACH⁠ Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006. In addition, a PMT/vPvM assessment was applied to all REACH registered substances (as of May 2017). Persistent, Mobile and Toxic (PMT) and very Persistent, very Mobile (vPvM) substances pose an intrinsic hazard to the sou...read more

Climate | Energy

Carbon Leakage Risks in the Post-Paris World

This paper examines the connection between Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on the one hand and carbon leakage on the other. Firstly, this is done by considering different types of emission targets in the NDCs. With an NDC in a carbon leakage receiving country, shifted emissions in many cases require increased mitigation efforts, so carbon leakage comes at a cos...read more

Climate | Energy

Designing an International Peatland Carbon Standard: Criteria, Best Practices and Opportunities

Which criteria and concepts for peatland projects are environmentally sound? This question is answered in a new study by the German Environment Agency. It considers standards for peatland projects in the voluntary market for emissions offsetting and in the future compliance markets.Key recommendations are standardization and simplification of the project cycle and timelines, the development of too...read more

Climate | Energy

Tackling the Challenges of Assessing Collective Progress for an Effective Global Stocktake

Executive Summary

The Paris Agreement combines collective goals with individual countries’ contributions. This hybrid approach does not guarantee that the individual contributions add up to what is required to meet the collective goals. The Paris Agreement therefore established the Global Stocktake. Its task is to “assess collective progress” towards achieving the long-term goals of the agreement as of 2023 and eve...read more

Air, Health

Guideline on the prevention, detection and remediation of mould in buildings

Mould and fungi pose major problems in residential buildings and indoor environments. Not only in older buildings without any insulation improvements on the envelope/building shell, but also in new energy efficient buildings can mould and growth of fungi occure. Most important is the influence of water and dampness. Mould on wall and furniture surfaces can be easily detected/recognizied, more diff...read more

Climate | Energy

GHG-neutral EU2050 – a scenario of an EU with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and its implications

Given that the Paris Agreement has strengthened the long-term temperature goal and that it calls for a balance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and sinks within the 21st century, there is the urgent need to re-assess the long-term targets of the EU and to show how the target of GHG neutrality can be reached in the EU. The aim of this study was to design one way to realize a European Union with ne...read more