The Umweltbundesamt (German pronunciation: [ˈʊmvɛltˌbʊndəsʔamt] ^ⓘ; UBA, German: [uːbeːˈʔaː] ^ⓘ) is the environment agency of the German government. Together with the Bundesamt für Naturschutz ("federal agency for nature conservation"), the Bundesamt für kerntechnische Entsorgungssicherheit ("federal office for the safety of nuclear waste management"), and the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz ("federal office for nuclear radiation protection"), it operates under the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety.^[1] The tasks of the office are primarily "the scientific support of the federal government (including the Federal Ministries for the Environment, Health, Economy and Climate Protection, Education and Research, Transport and Digital Infrastructure), the implementation of environmental laws (e.g., emission rights trade, admission of chemicals, medicinal and pesticides), and public information on environmental protection",^[2] based on independent research. With around 1,600 employees, the agency is the largest environmental authority in Europe.^[3][4]

In the early 1970s, the FDP politician and then-interior minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher called for the creation of an environmental authority to match similar bodies in the US and Sweden. Against resistance, especially by the Ministry of Health, which feared a loss of competence in the field of environmental protection, the Federal Office of Environmental Affairs was created in 1973, and on 22 July 1974, became the Federal Environment Agency, as an independent federal authority, based in Berlin.^[5][6] The decision of the Bundestag, on 19 June 1974, which established West Berlin as the seat of the office, led to official protests by the GDR state department the following day.^[7]