News

Latvia will assume the two-year rotational chairmanship of the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) on 1 July 2022. Germany’s Chair focused on biodiversity and climate, sought solutions for unexploded ordnance and underwater noise and extended measures to combat pollution of the Baltic Sea through eutrophication, hazardous substances and marine litter.

On 30th June 2022, the OECD published the Test Guideline No. 125, which harmonises the determination of particle size distribution specifically for nanomaterials. It is an important building block for the implementation of nano-specific requirements within the framework of legislation on chemical safety, for example for the REACH Regulation.

On 25 May, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan met with German Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Steffi Lemke and President of the German Environment Agency Prof. Dirk Messner, in the realms of the meeting of the G7 environment, climate and energy ministers in Berlin.

Under the current legal situation, pesticides are authorised in Germany even though scientific findings show that they are harmful to the environment. The German authorities are currently unable to effectively protect the environment from harmful pesticides. This should be re-regulated under European law.

About 500 German undertakings are obliged to include sustainability-related information in their annual reports. According to the plans of the EU Commission more undertakings shall report in the future and apply uniform reporting standards. A study on behalf of UBA recommends precise requirements for reporting on targets, actions and performance indicators and corporate greenhouse gas neutrality.

The European Commission’s draft delegated act to include fossil gas and nuclear power in the EU Taxonomy would prevent the Taxonomy from being an effective transparency tool for the financial markets, the German Environment Agency says. The draft labels as “sustainable” a large amount of GHG emissions from fossil gas, and nuclear power producing high-level nuclear waste.

In a joint recommendation, three German higher federal authorities paint draw a picture of how the development of safe and sustainable novel advanced materials can be controlled and regulated. The paper deals with the aspects of risk assessment, sustainaability and control with regard to good governance and outlines relevant fields of action.

The Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030 are only achievable if chemicals are used in the right extent, says the German Environment Agency (UBA). The risks for health and the environment need to be globally minimized. At the same time, the opportunities for the societies by chemicals need to be maximized worldwide. Read more in our Thought Starter.

“Public administrations must pioneer and be a role model in climate protection”, said Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency (UBA) at an online meeting of the Network of Heads of European Environmental Administrations (EPA Network) on November 25th. He presented UBA’s guide on greenhouse gas neutral administrations, now also available in English.

The greenhouse gas-neutral economic system of the future will continue to rely on hydrocarbons, for example in the chemical industry for the production of plastics or in aviation and maritime transport for the production of synthetic fuels. The carbon will be sourced from a new carbon circular economy but mainly from the atmosphere. The energy needs to come from fully renewable sources.

In order to achieve the EU's 2030 climate target, a reform of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is necessary. The amount of issued certificates is to be reduced and the financial support for climate protection measures expanded. In addition, maritime transport is to be covered by the EU ETS in future and a new emissions trading scheme for buildings and road transport is to be created.

In autumn 2021, the new European research project "ZeroPM: Zero Pollution of Persistent, Mobile substances" will start. The German Environment Agency (UBA) is involved as a project partner. ZeroPM will develop political, technological and market-based tools that aim to reduce the use and emissions of persistent and mobile substances as well as contamination from such substances.