Environment
The quality of our local living environment has a direct impact on our health and well-being. Outdoor air pollution is one important environmental issue that directly affects the quality of people's lives. The health impacts of urban air pollution continue to worsen, with air pollution set to become the top environmental cause of premature mortality globally by 2050.
Air pollution in urban centres, often caused by transport and the use of small-scale burning of wood or coal, is linked to a range of health problems, from minor eye irritation to upper respiratory symptoms in the short-term and chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer in the long-term. Children and the elderly may be particularly vulnerable.
Access to clean water is fundamental to human well-being. In Germany, 94% of people say they are satisfied with water quality.
Regulating air pollution
Small heating units using solid fuel such as woodburning stoves and wood-fired heating in households and small companies are a major source of emissions of harmful substances such as fine particles and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. In 2010, the government extended rules on such products to cover smaller units. It requires all existing stoves and boilers to be retrofitted with particulate filters or decommissioned by 2024 if emission standards cannot be met.
The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) estimated that the 2010 ordinance would reduce particulate emissions to 16 000 tonnes by 2025 from some 24 000 in 2005, equivalent to about a 50% decline compared with the scenario without the revision.