Digitalisation has a major impact on the environment, society and the economy. It can add to the burden on the climate or it can open up opportunities for more sustainability. We have the information on the risks of digitalisation and point out its potential to solve environmental problems. The one crucial question to be answered: How can the development and application of digital technologies be considered and shaped together with the development towards sustainability?
The German Environment Agency (UBA) has taken action against unfair business practices by the sales platform CopeCart. In a decision dated 4 June 2025, it prohibited the company from offering distance learning courses to consumers in Austria that are not properly approved.
Finding reliable information about environmental issues is not an easy task. While there is an abundance of facts and data on forests, soils and water bodies, their quality can vary.
Making everyday life more sustainable and inspiring friends and family – the German Environment Agency’s (UBA) mobile game “Little Impacts” (in German) shows how this can be achieved. In five interactive chapters, players experience how the main character Leah and her cousin Mailin inspire the people around them to embrace sustainability.
The first version of the umwelt.info internet portal is available to the public at https://mvp.umwelt.info. Lilian Busse, Vice President of the German Environment Agency, commented: “The online launch of umwelt.info is an important milestone for us. We are testing the portal under real conditions for the first time and are looking forward to the feedback from users.”
Driverless shuttles on the roads, assistance systems in passenger cars and route planning on your phone – these and other current and future developments in the digitalisation of transport, their opportunities and risks, and necessary constraints were analysed in two UBA research projects. The results have now been summarised and published in a brochure.
The European consumer protection network CPC (Consumer Protection Cooperation), co-led by the German Environment Agency (UBA), has succeeded in removing misleading environmental claims ("green claims") from Zalando's European websites.
Under European law, commercial content on social media must be labelled as advertising. The German Environment Agency (UBA) took part in an EU-wide study on this. The findings showed that advertising was only consistently labelled as such in around 20 percent of the influencer profiles examined.
The European consumer protection cooperation (CPC) Network, led by the German Environment Agency (UBA), has secured a consumer-friendly amendment to the terms and conditions of the online payment service PayPal.
The AI Lab is intended to lay the foundations for using artificial intelligence (AI) to make it easier to analyse large quantities of environmental data (Big Data).
UBA today officially opened the National Centre for Environmental and Nature Conservation Information in Merseburg, Saxony-Anhalt. The team, currently consisting of eleven people, will grow to 25 employees by the end of 2024. Their task will be to set up the umwelt.info internet portal. In future, the portal will bundle all relevant information on environmental protection and nature conservation.
The German Environment Agency (UBA) recommends measures to increase the lifespan of technological devices and gives advice on how consumers can protect themselves.
The European consumer protection network, with the first-ever participation of the German Environment Agency, revealed manipulative practices on 148 out of 399 online shops it screened.
