The economic valuation of environmental damage makes it possible to estimate the economic benefit of environmental policy measures and to call attention to the costs of failure to protect the environment. The Methodological Convention 2.0 of the German Federal Environment Agency lays a sound foundation for this evaluation. It clearly identifies the normative judgments and measures underlying the valuation of environmental damage (and of avoided environmental damage).

The Methodological Convention 2.0 is an update of the Methodological Convention published in 2007 and incorporates scientific developments that took place since then. It consists of a main part and the separate annexes A (Methods of economic valuation) and B (Best-practice cost rates for air pollutants, transport, power generation and heat generation).