Public authorities

High temperatures and heat waves are adding up to public health problems – and the impact of climate change is becoming more noticeable also in Germany. The federal states and local authorities can draft and implement heat wave action plans to protect public health. The German Environment Agency (UBA) has developed a master plan in collaboration with many experts from various disciplines. 

Drinking water could become markedly more expensive in many regions across Germany, and it is because of the high levels of nitrate groundwater contamination. A family of four could then expect to add another €134 per year to their water bill.

UBA's Daten zur Umwelt 2017 [Data on the Environment] publication offers a complete overview of all environmental sectors in Germany. It concludes that greater effort is required to achieve the national goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent until 2020; air quality in cities continues to be too heavily polluted. In contrast, drinking water quality remains good.

The “Recommendation on sewage sludge handling” as part of the Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area entered into force in March 2017. It defines the principles for the sustainable handling of sewage sludge in the Baltic Sea region.

The German Environment Agency wants better protection of drinking water against "mobile" contaminants, chemicals which have entered the water cycle because they do not bind to solids such as sand or activated carbon.

Diesel passenger cars exceed European limits for nitrogen dioxide (NOx) on roads at higher levels than previously thought. In 2016 emissions were assumed to be 575 mg NOx/km, but the diesel-fuelled passenger car fleet in Germany actually had average emissions of 767 mg NOx/km. These findings are based on new calculations done on behalf of the German Environment Agency (UBA).

Representative survey on environmental awareness by the Federal Ministry of Environment and UBA: 91 per cent said that life would be better if they did not have to depend on a car for mobility.

The roughly 1,900 fixed installations participating in emissions trading in 2016 had emissions worth 453 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents, or 0.6 per cent less than in 2015. The lower emissions in the emissions trading sector thus did not offset the 3.8-per cent increase over 2015 in Germany’s transport sector emissions which the UBA had calculated in its short-term forecast.

The service life of most electrical appliances and equipment is becoming ever shorter – at the expense of the environment. The production of new models requires the consumption of valuable precious metals and energy which are not compensated by innovations such as lower energy use. UBA has drafted policy recommendations that will be fed into the European debate about the Circular Economy Package.

Air pollution, noise, traffic jams, too few green spaces – these are the problems that plague many people living in cities. In a new publication UBA paints a picture of how the future-fit city might look.