What matters 2015 - Annual Report of the German Environment Agency

Abstract

Nitrogen. Too much of a good thing?Useful or harmful? A substance with many facetsThe element nitrogen is essential for all life on earth. In order to act as a building block of life however, it must form chemical compounds with other elements and thus be converted into its reactive state. Despite being the principle component of our atmosphere, molecular atmospheric nitrogen cannot be used directly by most living organisms.Waste not, want notHow the modern circular economy worksThe growing level of global consumption requires us to rethink how we deal with natural resources. A circular economy – one which fully integrates all aspects ranging from product design, sustainable production methods and patterns of consumption to recycling – makes significant contributions to resource conservation.Mobility of the futureThe (energy) transition in the transport sectorThe transport sector, especially road transport, is responsible for around 18 percent of German greenhouse gases – and is, unfortunately, the only area that has not been able to reduce its emissions since 1990. To change this situation, a large part of the traffic must be avoided in the first place and low-emission modes must become more widely implemented. In addition, we need a significantly more climate-friendly energy supply for the traffic.