Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Climate | Energy, Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Raising the EU 2030 GHG Emission Reduction Target

Implications for ETS and non ETS sectoral targets

The political debate on raising EU’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction target for 2030 from at least 40 percent up to 55 percent or even higher is in full swing. While the European Commission has proposed to reduce emissions by at least 55 percent below 1990 levels, the European Parliament went a step further and adopted a target of 60 percent emissions reductions. This paper intends to enri...read more

Economy | Consumption, Waste | Resources

9 principles for a circular economy

Sustainable development is hardly imaginable without a consistent circular economy. However, turning away from a predominantly linear economy requires many political, economic and social decisions.The German Environment Agency has now developed principles for politics, business and society, which systematically outline the objectives, scope, maxims for action, requirements and success factors of a...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Planetary boundaries: Challenges for science, civil society and politics

The planetary boundaries concept was formulated in 2009 by a research group led by J. Rockström and revised by W. Steffen et al. in 2015. The most important challenges for the further processing of the concept include the translation, operationalization, utilization, downscaling and application of the concept. This was the starting point of the project “Planetary Boundaries: Challenges for science...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Lessons from the Corona Crisis: New guiding principles required for environmental and sustainability policy? – a discussion paper

The position paper reflects, which guiding principles for future environmental and sustainability policy might be necessary in addition to the existing ones in order to achieve firstly effective crisis management of current and possibly future pandemics and secondly the kick-off into socio-ecological transformations needed to reduce long-term environmental risks. The proposals are based on a caref...read more

Climate | Energy

Presentation and Comparison of Site Investigation Methods for Offshore Wind Energy in the European North Seas Countries in the Context of the EU North Seas Energy Cooperation

As part of the Energy Cooperation between the North Seas Countries to facilitate the further environment friendly, sustainable and effective deployment of offshore renewable energy, this report provides an overview on the site investigation procedures that are applied. The differences and similarities of the procedures are outlined with special consideration of regulatory and technical aspects as...read more

Waste | Resources

ILESA - Smart steering of waste streams containing precious and minor metals: pooling, temporary storage, recovery rate

Final Report (Brief version)

The ILESA project investigated magnetic materials containing rare earth metals, vehicle electronics and other waste streams containing precious and minor metals with the objective to enhance the recovery of these metals. In order to increase recycling, dismantling and recycling obligations, labelling obligations, consolidation/ pooling workshops and other measures were developed and assessed using...read more

Transport

Let’s go!

Framework for a National Walking Strategy

Walking is the healthiest, cheapest and most environmentally friendly means of transport. Furthermore, active mobility, such as walking and cycling, is an essential element in successfully transforming the transport sector and achieving sustainable urban mobility. Despite this walking is still a niche topic in Germany. Cities, towns and communities who are responsible for walking are calling for a...read more

Nachhaltigkeit | Strategien | Internationales

European Green Recovery – Building back better based on the Green Deal

This position paper is the result of the work of the EPA Network’s group on Green Stimulus and reflects the inputs of all participants of the group. It emphasizes the urgent need to use the EU’s Covid-19 recovery efforts to also address the climate and biodiversity crises. Applying ambitious sustainability criteria to the economic recovery programmes of the EU will not only contribute to meeting t...read more