Newsletter-Archive | Umweltbundesamt

Dear Reader,This summer, like last year, you don’t need to worry about quenching your thirst with tap water or cooling down in bathing waters almost anywhere in Germany. This is reflected by the current consumer tips in this newsletter. Despite this, there is no reason to rest easy on the results. Not only are the considerable levels of nitrate infiltrations from agriculture into our groundwater a... read more

Dear Reader,There is a need to improve the quality of the air in many towns and cities in Germany. In this respect, bringing measurement processes that are specified throughout Europe into doubt doesn't help – emissions of airborne pollutants must be reduced. The topic of this newsletter is the importance of this for our health. Road traffic was also the focus of our 2017 greenhouse gas balance: e... read more

Dear Reader,If bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and infections are therefore harder to treat, a serious risk to our health arises. Exactly this can happen when bacteria come into contact with antibiotic residues in soils, groundwater, rivers or lakes. Please, read in this newsletter edition what can be done about it. We would also like to present the current data on air quality in Germany:... read more

Dear Reader,How will Germany achieve its climate objectives for the years 2020 and 2030? With the measures that have been agreed on so far, it won’t be possible. There is still a chance to bridge the gap, however: by using less power from coal-fired plants more quickly. A new UBA position paper shows how.A new topic in this newsletter: pesticides. In recent weeks, declining insect populations and... read more

Dear reader,It is time for the air quality in every German city to be good enough to comply with the nitrogen dioxide limit value which applies in the EU. Concentrations over the limit are a health hazard, in particular for people who suffer asthma. UBA has taken a closer look at what the decisions reached at the Diesel Summit on 2 August 2017 can do to help the situation. Read about it here in th... read more

Dear reader,Summertime is just the right time to quench your thirst with healthy, eco-friendly, and inexpensive tap water. To ensure it stays that way, UBA is drawing attention to a pressing problem – the contamination of our groundwater with nitrate from intensive agricultural practices. Read more about the matter in this newsletter.We would also like to recommend – hot off the press – our annual... read more

Dear reader, It is not a matter of just a few vehicle types and their emissions. In fact, Euro 6 diesel cars in general exceed the limit for nitrogen oxide emissions by multiple times. And yet, they still benefit from subsidies for diesel fuel worth billions. And from our perspective, it is also wrong in terms of climate protection. Read more about this in the latest issue of “UBA aktuell”.Ou... read more

Dear reader, Germany has accomplished quite a bit when it comes to protecting the climate – something which unfortunately cannot be said about the transport sector. The sector is at a standstill, its 2016 emissions even 2 million tons higher than in 1990. So what is the remedy? A phase-out of environmentally harmful subsidies for the transport sector, which currently benefits from 28 billion... read more