Publications

After agriculture in Germany has become more intensive over the past decades, many populations of farmland birds and mammals are in an unfavourable conservation status. For 27 farmland bird species and 22 farmland mammal species we compile trends, habitat (crop) selection, threats and risk management measures.

Under the European Chemicals legislation REACH the release of a substance into the environment is estimated on the basis of emission factors. For this purpose industry can deduce realistic emission factors by developing specific Environmental Release Categories (spERCs) and documenting them in a corresponding fact sheet.

The implementation of a nanoproduct register as an instrument to increase the transparency on the use of nanomaterials in the EU and to ensure the regulatory oversight on nanomaterials has been discussed for quite a time.

This report was inspired by the work we did on a project funded by the EEA that ran between June 2011 and March 2012. One of the main aims of the EEA project was to provide examples of how the evaluation of global mega trends presented in the SOER 2010 could be applied to regional topics, like resource scarcity or environmental goals.

This report first describes the two processes for the development of SDGs and the post-2015 development agenda, and the options to integrate the results of both processes in order to arrive at one set of goals. It goes on to discuss the possible structure of a set of SDGs, and discusses a number of topic clusters, as an illustration of what possible SDGs could look like.

Annex B to the Methodological Convention 2.0 for Estimates of Environmental Damage contains UBA’s recommendations for best-practice cost rates for greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants and, based on this, estimates of the environmental costs of transport and of power and heat generation.

The background paper presents an overview of key contents of the Methodological Convention 2.0 for Estimates of Environmental Costs and its annexes.

The current exposure assessment for pesticide entries into water bodies considers a water body model which represents a realistic worst case for water bodies in the agricultural landscape.

Nitrogen emissions in the form of nitrogen oxides (NOX) or ammonia (NH3) contribute to the formation of groundlevel ozone and secondary fine particulates, which, together with nitrogen dioxide, are major air pollutants with significant impacts on human health. In addition, ammonia and ground-level ozone cause damage to crops and natural ecosystems.

The aim of the study was to fill knowledge gaps regarding the estimation of adaptation costs and to develop a concept towards comparing costs between developing countries. In the first part a conceptual approach is presented to estimate adaptation costs of various sectors.

The criteria for the sustainable selection and use of chemicals were developed by the Umweltbundesamt between 2008 and 2010 and reflect the current state of the expert discussion. They were compiled in a guide for small and medium sized enterprises (SME).

With its reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU Commission strives for not only a fairer distribution of agricultural funds but, in particular, for a more environmentally friendly, a “greener” CAP.