Publications

Many hope that the Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement can become a catalyst for increased mitigation ambition over time. Based on different theories of change, this paper outlines four governance functions for the Global Stocktake.

For the fourth time, the German Environment Agency asked its employees about their commuting behavior as well as their business travel arrangements. 68 percent of employees come to work on foot, by bike or with public transport.

An increasing number of people are changing their way of life to make a contribution to global climate protection. Only when greenhouse gases can no longer be avoided and reduced, offsetting is the last step for an environmental-friendly footprint. This guide summarises the most important aspects in a concise form to be taken into account in voluntary offsetting.

This report presents a comparison of several low-carbon roadmaps for the years until 2050 from major European industry associations and the European Commission, and also contrasts them to a selection of closely related research analyses. It addresses the identified abatement potentials, the assumptions made, and a first assessment on their impact on the results.

In many countries, the Alpine Convention’s Soil Conservation Protocol is a requirement “neglected” by public administration and by society, as accountability is spread across many fields of legislation. Especially in the Alps, soil conservation is of great significance, as soil is a limited, non-renewable and endangered resource.

Residues of medicinal products, pesticides, biozides and other chemicals can adversely affect the environment and human health already in low concentrations. These micropollutants are increasingly detected in our waters not least due to improved analytics. Precautionary measures are needed to prevent future stresses on our waterbodies.

A future-oriented environmental policy requires a comprehensive, balanced and scientifically sound presentation of regulatory impacts on both the national and European level.

Dental bridges, aircraft components, bodies and spare parts already come from the 3D printer. 3D printers are conquering more and more industries. Many people even think that 3D printing will usher in a new era of production.

Systems analysis could be an essential approach to shape resource efficiency policy in a sustainable long term perspective. Various actors and stakeholders with partly opposing interests form part of a highly interconnected system.

This paper structures and summarises some of the debates around carbon leakage: Carbon leakage as a problem for the effectiveness of unilateral (or non-harmonised) climate policy, for its economic efficiency in terms of reducing emissions at least cost, for the competitiveness of businesses, and as a possible contradiction for the emerging discussion on radical innovations and industrial restru

Targeted ammonia emission reductions can only be achieved through efficient measures in the political process. At an international expert workshop, problems arising in the derivation of emission factors for NH3 and nitrogen oxides after N-fertiliser application were discussed. An overview of this issue is given in the report.

As a Party to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), since 1994 Germany has been obliged to prepare, publish and regularly update national emission inventories of greenhouse gases.