The Council submits on a regular basis reports to the Federal Government of Germany containing recommendations for research and further action to combat global problems in the field of environment and development. All WBGU publications are formally submitted to the federal government, and are presented at press conferences, parliamentary evenings, in Bundestag committees, at scientific conferences and at United Nations conferences. The flagship reports are published as regular books, while special reports and policy papers are available from the WBGU Secretariat. All of these publications are available for free download from the WBGU website www.wbgu.de.

There are three types of WBGU reports:

Flagship Reports
WBGU´s flagship reports provide in-depth scientific explorations of the overarching themes of global change and make recommendations for action and research. Comprising 200–400 pages, they are published in the "World in Transition" series. The federal government generally responds to these reports, and distributes them as official papers to the members of the German federal parliament (Bundestag) and council (Bundesrat).

Special Reports
Special reports address specific topics of global change. Comprising 50–100 pages, they are published as the need arises and can be commissioned by the federal government.

Policy Papers
Policy papers are short texts (approx. 20 pages) focussing on issues requiring current policy action. They tackle urgent aspects of global change and are usually produced in preparation for key conferences.