Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Climate | Energy, Chemicals, Economy | Consumption, Waste | Resources, Health, Transport, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Position Paper Advanced Materials

Cornerstones for a Safe and Sustainable Life Cycle

Advanced materials promise technical solutions to support sustainable transformation. They play an important role for a variety of environmental topics worked on at UBA, such as energy transition, circular economy and chemical safety. Various sectors can benefit from the use of advanced materials, but they can also face challenges. The UBA position paper describes the area of tension between the p...read more

Transport

Key factors for successfully transforming streetscapes

A look at German and European practice

How can projects for redistributing and repurposing public streets succeed? What can be learned from successful national and international examples? The brochure summarizes practical experiences of redesigning streets in favor of active mobility and the quality of life in cities. Good examples from Germany and Europe were examined using an evaluation matrix. Many show recurring success factors. Th...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Overview of possible funding sources for the sound management of chemicals and waste

Study commissioned by the German government, through its Federal Environment Agency (UBA) with the aim to identify and describe the entities that may provide financial support to developing countries and countries with economies in transition, in order to address their challenges with the sound management of chemicals and waste. The overview of the 47 entities identified by the study provides a fa...read more

Air, Health, Water

Nitrogen – Element with Impacts

An Integrated Target Value Sets a New Framework

Nitrogen emissions from almost all sectors of society lead to risks for humans and the environment. Sustainable management of nitrogen and its compounds therefore plays a major role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a milestone towards sustainable nitrogen management, the German Environment Agency proposes a upper limit of 1,000 kt nitrogen per year for Germany. The limi...read more

Air, Health

Air Quality 2022

Preliminary Evaluation

This evaluation of air quality in Germany in the year 2022 is based on preliminary data which has not yet been conclusively audited from the air monitoring networks of the federal states and the UBA, valid on 31th January 2023. Due to the comprehensive quality assurance within the monitoring networks, the final data will only be available in mid-2023. The currently available data allows for a gene...read more

Economy | Consumption

Methodological Convention 3.1 for the Assessment of Environmental Costs - Value Factors

Version 12/2020

A new version – the „Methodological Convention 3.2” – has been published and contains a partial update of the monetized environmental impacts, based on new value factors for greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions.The Methodological Convention 3.1 for the Assessment of Environmental Costs – Value Factors provides value factors for emissions of greenhouse gases, air pollutants, noise, nitrogen a...read more

Chemicals

Bioaccumulation assessment of superhydrophobic substances

Bioconcentration tests with the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca (HYBIT) have been proposed as alternatives to fish tests, and the respective experimental BCF values show promising correlations. It is still unclear whether the HYBIT test is also suitable for highly hydrophobic chemicals, such as the UV stabilizers UV-234 and UV-329. In order to estimate the range in which the uptake rate consta...read more

Climate | Energy, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Certification of Carbon Dioxide Removals

Evaluation of the Commission Proposal

On 30 November 2022, the Commission proposed an EU carbon removal certification framework (CRCF). The proposed framework could undermine the environmental integrity of EU climate policies. This risk is aggravated by the fact that the EU has not agreed on the role of removals for the time past the year 2030.This report assesses the Commission’s proposal for the CRCF and discusses interlinkages of t...read more