Sustainable Development, Innovation and Climate Protection: A German Perspective

In June 2008, the German Advisory Council on the Environment (Sachverständigenrat für Umweltfragen, SRU) published the Environmental Report 2008: Environmental Protection in the Shadow of Climate Change.

The report provides a comprehensive evaluation of national and European environmental policies covering 2004 to 2008. Key sections of the SRU report dealing with German national environmental policy approaches are being made available in English in a series of volumes.

Volume 1 covers the German Sustainable Development Strategy, the benefits of innovation-oriented environmental policies and the new challenges of climate change.

The translation of the first volume will be of interest to policy makers and practitioners interested in the policies, strategies and programs of an international environmental leader. Volume 1 covers the German Sustainable Development Strategy, the benefits of innovation-oriented environmental policies and the new challenges of climate change.

The report examines and assesses German climate policies, an area where Germany has strived to be an international leader. It considers Germany's Sustainable Development Strategy, a field where Germany was a late comer, but in the meantime has developed an ambitious governance strategy. Also of interest will be the discussion of the changing views of the relationship between economic and environmental policy. Whereas in the past, the dominant understanding was one of a trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth, now in Germany, the political mainstream sees innovation-oriented environmental policy making as a strategic aspect of an economic growth strategy and the environmental sector as a dynamic growth area.

Today, Germany's sustainable development strategies and ecological industrial policies are central aspects of what has become one of the world's most ambitious national climate programs. Germany has set a unilateral national carbon dioxide emission reduction target of 40% relative to 1990 levels by 2020 and has backed this with a comprehensive, integrated Climate and Energy Programme.

Volume 1 can be downloaded at:
www.umweltrat.de/cae/servlet/contentblob/731660/publicationFile/39280/2008_
Environmental_Report_Vol_1_selected_chapters.pdf
The German Advisory Council on the Environment was founded in 1971. It
is an independent, official scientific advisory body of the German Federal Government.

The Council has currently the following members:

Prof. Dr. Martin Faulstich (Chair), Technische Universität München; Prof. Dr. Heidi Foth (Vice Chair), Universität Halle-Wittenberg; Prof. Dr. Christian Calliess, Freie Universität Berlin; Prof. Dr. Olav Hohmeyer, Universität Flensburg; Prof. Dr. Karin Holm-Müller, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn; Prof. Dr. Manfred Niekisch, Zoologischer Garten Frankfurt; Prof. Dr. Miranda Schreurs, Freie Universität Berlin

For further information about the SRU, please consult: www.umweltrat.de (the english website will be available starting in October).