Publications

Environmental and sustainability-related data is becoming increasingly important for corporate success, not least because of rising regulatory requirements. The use of software solutions and digital technologies offers numerous potentials for process optimisation, decision support and improvement of environmental performance.

The intensity of heat islands in urban areas with many sealed surfaces and little vegetation is increasing due to climate change. This study investigated both how to mitigate this effect on affected neighbourhoods and how to provide agreeable indoor temperature, if possible without air conditioning.

A robust climate risk and vulnerability assessment is required for companies wishing to achieve taxonomy compliance under the EU Taxonomy Regulation with respect to significant contributions to climate adaptation for certain economic activities. The relevant legal requirements are defined in Annex 1, Appendix A of Delegated Regulation 2021/2139.

In 2021 UBA commissioned workshops to discuss how research outputs on climate resilient infrastructure systems could be more consistently transferred into practice of infrastructure operation. This paper presents barriers for successful transfer and provides recommendations to overcome them.

The aim of the study was to conduct an initial analytical survey of a small number of samples analyze the proportion of fossil carbon in sewage sludge and digester gas and to correlate it with other data collected in a sewage treatment plant.

100 large mining sites for copper, iron ore and bauxite worldwide were examined for their environmental hazard potentials. An assessment method developed in the preceding projects OekoRess I and II was applied. The 100 environmental hazard profiles are presented in the form of an interactive map.

The land-use sector plays a critical role for achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. This report discusses key environmental integrity challenges for using carbon market mechanisms to implement mitigation activities in the land-use sector.

In Germany, the whereabouts of several 100,000 deregistered vehicles are unknown every year. There is some evidence, that a part of these end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) are illegally dismantled or exported. In this study, the environmental impacts and environmental costs were quantified as well as the economic impacts and market distortions caused by the illegal dismantlers.

The report provides an overview of environmentally harmful subsidies in Germany and makes proposals for their reform or reduction. It focuses on subsidies that have a negative impact on the environmental goods climate, air, soil, water, biodiversity and landscape, as well as on health and the consumption of raw materials.

Germany made a commitment to the conservation of natural resources through the Resource Efficiency Programme (ProgRess). The German Environment Agency supports the implementation of ProgRess through a range of measures, including the production of this report on the use of natural resources in Germany, which is being published for the third time after 2016 and 2018.

The coronavirus pandemic and the increased use of digital formats that it has triggered is resulting in changes in public transport. Fear of infection and changed work conditions caused demand to drop in 2020/2021 in Germany. Measures such as the 9-euro ticket have proven that it takes innovative approaches to make public transport more attractive.

This discussion paper analyses potential synergies between climate clubs and CBAMs. It presents a case study of the concrete proposals currently debated for implementation: 1) the EU CBAM which looks set to be adopted by the EU Council and Parliament later this year and 2) the proposal for a climate club that was adopted by the G7 at their summit in June 2022.