Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Development of strategies and sustainability standards for the certification of biomass for international trade

Sustainable Bioenergy: Current Status and Outlook

Since Summer 2007, Öko-Institut (Institute for Applied Ecology) and IFEU (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, a non-profit limited liability company, Heidelberg) are carrying out the project “Development of Strategies and Sustainability Standards for the Certification of Biomass for International Trade (Bio-global)” on behalf of Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environmental Agency) . The stu...read more

Climate | Energy, Economy | Consumption

HFC-containing Propellants in Canned PU Foam (OCF)

Estimation of the reduction potential of emissions from OCF with regard to a clarification of the provisions given in §9(1) of Regulation (EC) 842/2006

The propellant gases of OCF – first CFCs, then HCFCs, finally HFCs – have been subject to environmental legislation. In1998, the application of OCF still constituted the major source of HFC emissions at that time by causing global warming emissions of 1.5 million t CO2 equivalents in Germany.The study shows that a lot of time was required before the European manufacturers were able to produce cann...read more

Economy | Consumption, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Border Tax Adjustments for Additional Costs Engendered by Internal and EU Environmental Protection Measures: Implementation Options and WTO Admissibility

In fact, the WTO admissibility of introducing environmentally motivated border tax adjustments (BTAs) via import taxes has not yet been definitively clarified neither by the WTO Panel and the Appellate Body nor in the jurisprudential literature. In our view, however, a BTA for almost all additional costs attributable to internal environmental protection measures is admissible under WTO regulations...read more

Economy | Consumption, Health

Testing of Emissions from Office Devices during the Printing Phase for the Advancement of the Blue Angel Environmental Award for Laser Printers and Multi-function Devices with Special Consideration of Ensuring Good Indoor Air Quality

The investigations performed on laser printers essentially served as a revision of the test method for the determination of emissions from hardcopy devices for the environmental awar 'Blue Angel' for office devices according to RAL-UZ 62, 85 and 114 of Juni 2003. The resulting test procedure according to RAL.UZ 122 was prviously published in Juni 2006.read more

Climate | Energy

Methodological design and institutional arrangements for auctions in the EU Emission Trading System (EU-ETS)

In Germany, emission allowances (European Union Allowances, EUAs) for the first trading period (2005-2007) were allocated completely free of charge. In the second trading period (2008-2012) annual volumes of 40 million EUAs will be sold (Article 19 ZuG (Zuteilungsgesetz – The German Allocation Act) 2012). After an initial phase during which EUAs have been sold by the state-owned bank KfW Bankengru...read more