Environment - current issues: emissions from coal-burning utilities and industries contribute to air pollution; acid rain, resulting from sulfur dioxide emissions, is damaging forests; pollution in the Baltic Sea from raw sewage and industrial effluents from rivers in eastern Germany; hazardous waste disposal; government established a mechanism for ending the use of nuclear power over the next 15 years; government working to meet EU commitment to identify nature preservation areas in line with the EU's Flora, Fauna, and Habitat directive
Environment - international agreements: party to: Air Pollution, Air
Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur
94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental
Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed,
but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Climate
Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: strategic location on North European Plain and along the entrance to the Baltic Sea
People Germany
Population: 83,251,851 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 15.4% (male 6,568,699; female 6,227,148) 15-64 years: (male 5,546,140; female 8,607,361) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.26% (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 8.99 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 10.36 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate: 3.99 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)