5 reasons why forests are the most important climate protector

High costs due to failure to protect the environment - Federal Environment Agency presents updated cost rates

Too many greenhouse gases, air pollutants and other environmental burdens damage our health, destroy ecosystems and cause animals and plants to die out. They also lead to economic losses through, for example, production stoppages, crop losses or damage to buildings and infrastructure. For many of these damages, there are established scientific methods for expressing them in monetary terms. In its recently published Methodological Convention 3.0, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has updated its recommendations for determining such damages and recalculated the costs of environmental pollution. According to this, for example, the emission of one ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) causes damages of around 180 euros. Converted to Germany's greenhouse gas emissions in 2016, this corresponds to total costs of around 164 billion euros. Maria Krautzberger, President of the Federal Environment Agency: "Measures for environmental and climate protection save us and future generations many billions of euros through reduced environmental and health damage. We should not forget this when discussing air pollution control or the coal phase-out."

In the "Methodological Convention 3.0 for Determining Environmental Costs", numerous parameters were used to calculate the costs of environmental pollution. These include the cost of restoring damaged buildings and infrastructure, the market value of crop losses and lost production, and the amount people would be willing to pay to avoid damage to their health. The "Methodological Convention 3.0" helps to make the damage caused by environmental pollution clear and to compare it with the costs of environmental protection.

The cost rates of the "Methodological Convention 3.0" can be used, among other things, to determine the costs incurred by environmental pollution in the generation of electricity and heat or in passenger and freight transport. For example, one kilowatt hour (kWh) of lignite-based electricity causes environmental damage costs of 20.81 cents on average. Accordingly, the lignite-based electricity generated in Germany in 2016 resulted in environmental damage costs of €31.2 billion. By comparison, one kilowatt-hour of electricity from wind power only leads to environmental damage of 0.28 cents.

The emission of one tonne of particulate matter (PM2.5) in traffic causes average environmental damage of 59,700 euros, the emission of one tonne of nitrogen oxides (NOx) 15,000 euros. Extrapolated to the total emissions of traffic in Germany in 2016, this results in environmental damage of 1.49 billion euros for particulate matter and 7.29 billion euros for nitrogen oxides per year.

Maria Krautzberger: "These examples show the huge scale of the damage caused by environmental pollution in Germany every year. Even if they are not immediately reflected as a financial burden, for example in the public budget: this damage is real and causes enormous economic costs."

Publications

Methodological convention 3.0 for the determination of environmental costs

• Cost rates
• Methodical basics

Keywords:
DE-News, Climate protection, New books and studies, Environmental policy, Ecology