Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Economy | Consumption

Prevention of food waste in the catering sector

Guideline

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. This guide gives practical, easy-to-follow advice on how to avoid food waste in the...read more

Waste | Resources

Options under public international law to increase resource efficiency (Flyer)

Assessment of the impact of the international legal framework on resource consumption and elaboration of options to anchor resource efficiency at the international level

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. The project includes a...read more

Climate | Energy

Instruments to increase climate policy ambition before 2020 - economic and political implications in selected industry and emerging countries

Final Report

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). Given that the INDCs only commit countries to mitigation actions beyond 2020, there is an opportunity to further re...read more

Water

Water Framework Directive

The status of German waters 2015

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. This brochure presents the results from the first management period, shows the development sinc...read more

Soil | Land

The Use of Natural Resources

Report for Germany 2016

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. The themes covered range from raw material extraction and trade to the use of raw materials in the German economic system and ra...read more

Climate | Energy

CO2 Emission Factors for Fossil Fuels

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. To calculate carbon dioxide emissions, one needs both the relevant activity data and suitable emission fac...read more

Chemikalien

Pharmaceuticals in the environment: Global occurrence and potential cooperative action under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)

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. 631 different pharmaceuticals have been found above the detection limits of the ana...read more