In the first half of 2019 electricity produced from renewable energies made notable gains over the same period in the previous year. During the first six months of the year production was around 129 billion kilowatt hours, about 10 percent more than the same period in 2018 (+ 12 billion kWh). But the rate of new build of wind energy turbines has slowed in 2019.
More than 800.000 tonnes of refrigerators, dish washers and other appliances were collected in 2017.
The environmental administration in Germany is deeply rooted in the German tradition of federalism. Due to this specific tradition, German environmental administration might seem rather complex from an outside view. Therefore the German Environment Agency has developed a guide in English to provide a concise introduction to the German environmental administration for an international readership.
German Environment Agency publishes “Gesunde Luft“ magazine on air pollution
From 12 June to 16 July interested citizens can submit their ideas and suggestions for the German federal government's resource conservation policy. Their proposals will be taken into account in the update of the German Resource Efficiency Programme ("ProgRess") .
Personalised advertisement, instant delivery, virtual shopping assistants and contactless payment show that consumption and digitalisation have become closely linked. A new report from the German Environment Agency (UBA) says it is not yet known whether this link will lead to greater pollution. The current analysis is that digitalisation offers good opportunities to use resources more efficiently.
New UBA study: Numbers, background information, research needs, and measures to combat the plastic flood.
The 2018 emissions of the roughly 1,870 stationary installations in Germany recorded in the European Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) amounted to around 422 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq). This is a 3.5-percent decrease compared to the previous year. The decline in emissions is chiefly due to lower emissions in the energy industry.
Population expects more environmental and climate protection from all stakeholders
The FairCup start-up is the first company to be awarded the Blue Angel ecolabel for its reusable cup system. FairCup started out as a student project at a vocational training school in Göttingen. The company is now represented all over Germany. The aim of the Blue Angel for resource-saving reusable cup systems (DE-UZ 210) is to reduce the number of disposable cups that are used.
German consumers use 2.8 billion disposable cups per year for hot beverages, an equivalent of 34 cups per person.
Lesser use of fossile energy and favourable weather conditions helped with the decline.
