Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Sustainable Prevention of Resource Conflicts

Risky Raw Materials for the Future? Case study and scenarios: Lithium in Bolivia

In Bolivia's western highlands, at an altitude of some 3,600 metres, lie the largest identified reserves of lithium in the world. According to the latest estimates by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), beneath the 10,000 square kilometres of what are the world's most extensive salt flats, the Salar de Uyuni, there are some 6 to 9 million tonnes of lithium (Roskill 2008 nach Angerer, Marsc...read more

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Sustainable Prevention of Resource Conflicts

New Risks from Raw Materials for the Future? Case Study and Scenarios for China and Rare Earths

"Rare earths are to China what oil is to the Middle East," stated Deng Xiaoping in 1992 (Wang 2007). China accounts for 97 percent of global rare earth production, and as such the world is more dependent on it than it is on oil from the Middle East. That situation is significant because rare earths, although usually used only in small amounts, are of great strategic relevance. They are not only ke...read more

Waste | Resources, Soil | Land

Sustainable Prevention of Resource Conflicts

Policy and Research Recommendations

Raw material conflict occurs in various forms: in the form of supply bottlenecks and crises, violent disputes, or even war; as well as due to the effects of environmental destruction, whereby the sources of people's livelihoods are lost. Raw material conflict is a reality in many instances, but in others is merely postulated. On the one hand, the nature, strategic importance and price of raw mater...read more

Climate | Energy

Quantifying emission reduction contributions by emerging economies

Further action is needed that goes far beyond what has been agreed so far under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol to ‘prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’, the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC. It is out of question that developed countries (Annex I countries) will have to take a leading role. They will have t...read more

Water

Water Framework Directive - The way towards healthy waters

short version

Official implementation of the Water Framework Directive on 22 December 2000 marked the beginning of a new era in the annals of water management. The Water Framework Directive sets the ambitious goal of attaining “good status” for Europe’s rivers, lakes, groundwater bodies and coastal waters by 2015 in accordance with a clearly defined timeline.read more

Chemicals

Standardisation of Emission Factors for the Exposure Assessment under REACH

The project analyzed the process of different industry associations of developing and documenting specific environmental release categories (spERCs). Issues regarding the information structure and type of justification provided in the fact sheets documenting the derivation of spERCs were described and analyzed at a general level. For selected spERCs, more in-depth analyses were conducted. In addit...read more

Chemicals

Comparative analysis of estimated and measured BCF data (OECD 305)

Literature study with a special focus on differential accumulation of (mixtures of) stereoisomers

Bioaccumulation potential of chemicals is frequently assessed from bioconcentration, conventionally measured according to OECD 305 (Bioaccumulation: Flow-through Fish Test) (OECD,1996) and expressed as Bioconcentration Factor (BCF). These studies deliberately reduce the manifold uptake and elimination mechanisms in aquatic organisms to respiratory absorption via gills and diffusion through the ski...read more

Transport

Noise action planning in agglomerations

Reduction potentials based on the example of Hamburg

According to the environmental noise directive 2002/49/EG noise maps had to be prepared for major roads, major railways, major airports and agglomerations with more the 250.000 persons until 06/30/2007. Based on this results action plans had to be developed. Numerous agglomerations hadn’t been able to deliver the noise maps in time, and had to interpret the term “strategic” also in the case of act...read more