The German Environment Agency recorded some 739 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions for Germany in 2020, which is around 8.7 percent less than in the previous year. For the first time, the German Environment Agency has presented its emissions data to the German government in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Climate Change Act.

Climate change? It has always existed. In order to understand what the near future might already hold in store for us, scientists are researching what factors have been affecting this complex dynamic system for millions of years and how.

Quality education, gender equality, no poverty, climate action—these are four of the 17 total Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. Helping achieving these goals is a key objective of the German government, and Germany’s National Sustainable Development Strategy provides the blueprint for this undertaking.

One third of the forest area in Germany is covered in forest. This adds up to more than 28,2 million acres. But our “green lung” is in bad shape. As the recent Forest Condition Survey of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture shows. Andreas Huth and Friedrich Bohn from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research research how climate change is affecting forests and what the conseque are.

The European Climate Research Alliance (ECRA) will be celebrating its tenth anniversary on March 10. In this interview, we talk to climate researcher and ECRA Chair Peter Braesicke about the idea behind the founding of the climate research network and about future challenges.

A new Helmholtz Climate Initiative factsheet spotlights the link between air pollutants and health. Meanwhile, the latest figures from the German Environment Agency offer hope: nitrogen levels in German cities decreased significantly last year.

The year 2021 could be a good one for climate policy, says Prof. Reimund Schwarze of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ. With Joe Biden, for example, the USA will embark on a new path. But international climate efforts could also get a breath of fresh air in other places.

We can still emit about 420 gigatonnes of CO₂ if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2100. If we continue to act too slowly, we will exceed our budget within a few years. To compensate for this, we would have to actively remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. Nadine Mengis from GEOMAR explains what options we have in Germany.

Five years ago, on December 12, 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement was signed - a milestone in global climate policy. 195 countries agreed to limit global warming - if possible to well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era. But where are we today? Are we on the right track? This is what our experts have to say.