Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Chemicals, Water

Guidance for a harmonized Emission Scenario Document (ESD) on Ballast Water discharge

With ballast water in ships, marine organisms are transported around the globe and to environments on which they may have adverse effects (e.g. displacement or even elimination of indigenous species). In order to prevent this world-wide distribution, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) approved the ‘International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' ballast water and sedim...read more

Climate | Energy

Geoengineering - effective climate protection or megalomania?

Methods – statutory framework – environment policy demands

Climate protection strategies today basically pursue two approaches: Firstly, measures should be taken to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emisssions. Secondly, measures should be implemented that enable humans and the environment to adapt to unavoidable climate change. For some time, proposals for counteracting climate change through large-scale intervention in global ecological processes have...read more

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Consideration of natural attenuation in remediating contaminated sites

Position paper of the Ad hoc Subcommittee “Natural Attenuation” of the Contaminated Site Committee (ALA) of the Federal/State Working Group on Soil Protection (LABO), translation by order of the Federal Environment Agency. Upon the proposal submitted by its Standing Committee 5 (Contaminated Sites Committee – ALA) the Federal / State Working Group on Soil Protection (LABO) employed an ad hoc subco...read more

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Sustainable Prevention of Resource Conflicts

Case Study and Scenarios on Copper and Cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo has enormous economic potential thanks to its raw material wealth. However, since 1996 (if not before) DR Congo has been seen as a classic example of the linkage between the exploitation of raw materials and the financing of war. The UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources in DR Congo points out that the history of Congo since colonial...read more

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Sustainable Prevention of Resource Conflicts

Risky Raw Materials for the Future? Case study and scenarios: Lithium in Bolivia

In Bolivia's western highlands, at an altitude of some 3,600 metres, lie the largest identified reserves of lithium in the world. According to the latest estimates by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), beneath the 10,000 square kilometres of what are the world's most extensive salt flats, the Salar de Uyuni, there are some 6 to 9 million tonnes of lithium (Roskill 2008 nach Angerer, Marsc...read more

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Sustainable Prevention of Resource Conflicts

New Risks from Raw Materials for the Future? Case Study and Scenarios for China and Rare Earths

"Rare earths are to China what oil is to the Middle East," stated Deng Xiaoping in 1992 (Wang 2007). China accounts for 97 percent of global rare earth production, and as such the world is more dependent on it than it is on oil from the Middle East. That situation is significant because rare earths, although usually used only in small amounts, are of great strategic relevance. They are not only ke...read more

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Sustainable Prevention of Resource Conflicts

Policy and Research Recommendations

Raw material conflict occurs in various forms: in the form of supply bottlenecks and crises, violent disputes, or even war; as well as due to the effects of environmental destruction, whereby the sources of people's livelihoods are lost. Raw material conflict is a reality in many instances, but in others is merely postulated. On the one hand, the nature, strategic importance and price of raw mater...read more

Climate | Energy

Quantifying emission reduction contributions by emerging economies

Further action is needed that goes far beyond what has been agreed so far under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol to ‘prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’, the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC. It is out of question that developed countries (Annex I countries) will have to take a leading role. They will have t...read more