Publications

The regulations for backfilling of mining cavities and for landfilling contain concentration limits for the recovery of certain metals. The research project examined whether the applicable concentration limits could be reduced, whether further types of metal should be examined and limited, and whether the regulations should also be applied to the waste to be disposed of at landfills.

In December 2015 Parties adopted the Paris Agreement at the 21st session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In its Article 2 governments agreed to limit global warming to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and to pursue to limit it to 1.5°C (UNFCCC 2015).

The prize of beauty: Every year, there are up to twelve new collections in the clothing stores on Germany's high streets. But this fast fashion is having a huge impact on the environment and on the people who live in manufacturing countries. /

Foods carry a significant ecological backpack. Their production requires land area, consumes water and generates greenhouse gas emissions. Sadly, private households in Germany alone incur some 6.7 million tonnes of food waste every year. About one third of all the food eaten away from home ends up being discarded.

The research project’s objective is to provide a legal and political science perspective to the Federal Government’s efforts to anchor the protection of resources more strongly at the international level. It analyses how public international law and other international governance mechanisms could be used more effectively to increase resource efficiency along the value chain.

Currently there exists a gap between the emissions projected in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by countries to the UNFCCC and the emissions that are consistent with limiting global warming to below 2°C (Climate Action Tracker, 2015a; UNFCCC, 2015).

The European Commission plans a common strategy for plastics in its Action Plan for the Circular Economy. This strategy for plastics is going to address marine litter as one priority issue, with three-quarters of all marine litter being plastic materials.

The European Water Framework Directive requires that rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters, and groundwater achieve “good status” by the year 2027 at the latest. The European Union has provided a clear timetable as well as three six-year management cycles for Member States to achieve that goal.

With the report on “The Use of Natural Resources - Report for Germany 2016”, the German Environment Agency (UBA) sheds light upon the current situation regarding resource use in Germany. The first UBA resources report focuses on renewable and non-renewable raw materials.

Germany is obligated to report its national emissions of greenhouse gases, annually, to the European Union and the United Nations. Over 80 % of the greenhouse-gas emissions reported by Germany occur via combustion of fossil fuels. The great majority of the emissions consist of carbon dioxide.

In a comprehensive literature review measured environmental concentrations of human and veterinary pharmaceutical substances reported worldwide were compiled in a systematic database. Pharmaceuticals or their transformation products have been detected in the environment of 71 countries covering all five UN regions.

Pharmaceutical substances are biologically highly active chemicals which can unintentionally but regularly be released into the environment. More than 600 different pharmaceuticals can be found worldwide in soils, sediments, surface waters and some of them even in groundwater.