Archive press releases

The export of used lithium-ion batteries for second-life applications from Europe to Africa must follow clear rules and be better controlled. This is what Researchers and environmentalists from Oeko-Institut (Germany), PAN-Ethiopia (Ethiopia), the…

In order to reach climate targets in the building sector, a large-scale expansion of district heating, based on renewable energies, is required. To that end, all the European Union member states should set targets for the expansion of district…

When companies reduce their consumption of energy or raw materials, a frequent outcome is that the money or materials saved in this way are employed to manufacture more products or new ones. In such situations there is no overall reduction of…

The Carbon Credit Quality Initiative (CCQI) today unveiled a new online scoring tool that allows users to evaluate the quality of carbon credits. This will allow them to make more informed decisions when purchasing carbon credits. Ultimately, the…

If wood is removed from the forest and used for the production of wood products, construction materials or paper, a carbon footprint is created because less carbon is stored in the forest than if the trees had not been felled. This means that…

An increase in working from home (WFH) has the potential to save up to 3.7 million tonnes of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions per year in Germany – even if private cars are used for most commutes, as in 2021. However, if more people switch…

In order to meet Germany’s climate targets, lignite should ideally be phased out by 2030, as stated by the new Federal Government in its coalition agreement. A new study by the Oeko-Institut on behalf of Agora Energiewende now brings together all…

How can a reform of taxes and surcharges guide the transport sector towards a sustainable future? Higher CO2 prices in combination with the abolition of the surcharge introduced by the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG levy), appropriate…

The foundations of the emerging data economy that are currently being laid must be aligned with environmental and climate protection goals. Yet environmental aspects have not featured substantially in proposals for the regulation of artificial…

The network of independent institutes for environmental and sustainability research marks its tenth anniversary. In 2011, eight non-profit scientific institutions – including Ecologic Institute – joined forces to form the Ecological Research…

The taxation of company cars is increasingly causing a social and environmental misalignment in German transport policy, according to a study by think tank Agora Verkehrswende and the Oeko-Institut. The tax benefits provided for the private use of…

From an environmental perspective, milk that is produced on organic farms is better than conventionally produced milk. The extensive avoidance of pesticides and mineral fertilisers in feed production results in a significantly lower burden on the…

The regulatory requirements on the energy consumption and performance of electrical appliances can be circumvented by manipulating the laboratory tests. This can be done not only by using hidden software that recognises the test situation and…

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) report, produced on behalf of the European Commission to assess whether nuclear energy can cause “significant harm” to human health and the environment, fails to consider in sufficient depth key risks such as the…

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a massive and unprecedented downturn in the aviation sector. Until February 2020, however, there was only one direction of travel in international aviation: upwards. Will the industry bounce back to its…

Germany should campaign for EU-wide taxation of aviation kerosene and increase the aviation tax so that it offsets the absence of VAT on international flights. These and other proposals could end the present preferential treatment of air transport…

With the currently adopted climate protection measures, Germany will neither achieve its previous, nor the more stringent European, climate protection targets in the building sector by 2050. Two roadmaps from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar…

Today sees the release of the first episode of the Oeko-Institut podcast: “All change, please! The science and sustainable transformations podcast”. Listeners can expect in-depth information on a variety of issues relating to the energy, transport…

The ZNU – Center for Sustainable Leadership at Witten/Herdecke University and the Oeko-Institut have devised a method to measure the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals for companies, products and product policy. It includes an…

The management of forests, cropland and grassland impacts on the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These activities must therefore be taken into account in the EU's Climate Target Plan. The EU Parliament and the European Council are…