Press | Umweltbundesamt

The competition over land use is becoming stiffer, and one reason is the rising demand for biomass for food, energy or building materials. At the same time, the use of land worldwide is associated with serious ecological and social problems. Hunger and food insecurity are an unsolved problem, soil degradation is becoming widespread, water resources are becoming scarcer. The Federal Environment Age... read more

Germany is starting early auctions of emission allowances for the third trading period in 2013-2020 on 26 October 2012. In weekly auctions held every Friday, three million certificates will initially be available to stationary installations. By year’s end, some 23.5 million emission allowances in addition to those in the current second trading period will be auctioned on the European energy exchan... read more

Biodegradable plastics used in packaging, which are made from renewable biomass sources, do not prove to offer an overall ecological advantage. The farming and processing of the plants used in packaging cause more severe acidification of soil and eutrophication of water bodies than the production of common plastic packaging. Moreover, they cause higher levels of particulate emissions. The bioplast... read more

Do consumers consider environmental aspects when buying IT products? How significant are the individual steps of the value chain of IT products in terms of environmental protection? How can product design facilitate reuse and recycling? These questions were discussed at the 6th annual conference “Green IT Along the Value Chain” in Berlin, an event organised jointly by the Federal Environment Minis... read more

Climate research has shown that heat waves, floods and heavy rains will occur with increasing frequency in Germany and can incur enormous economic damage. The costs and benefits of countermeasures have been difficult to measure in a systematic way up to now. A new study by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has corrected this. It is a first-time cost-benefit analysis of concrete climate change a... read more

Three German companies have been nominated for the Blue Angel Prize: HELLER LEDER, hülsta-werke and paint manufacturer J. W. Ostendorf. The prize is awarded to businesses whose products are continuously developed with a view to environmental protection and thus act as role models in their respective industry. The prize will be awarded within the scope of the German Sustainability Award on 7 Decemb... read more

Some of the air pollutant emissions in Germany have sunk dramatically since 1990. Sulphur compounds (SO2) in 2010 showed a 91.5 per cent decline since 1990; 85.6 per cent for dust, and 73.1 per cent for carbon monoxide (in the same time period). Fewer heavy metals and persistent organic compounds are entering the environment. These are the results of a new survey by the Federal Environment Agency... read more

The rail transport sector steadily increased its environmental performance from 2000 to 2011. This is the conclusion reached by the latest data from the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), which are regularly updated by the Heidelberg IFEU Institute for the “Environment and Transport“ database and published in a user-friendly way on behalf of the German Railway Industry Association (VDB) and the Ass... read more