Sustainable Germany

Sustainable Germany is the title of two studies on sustainability in Germany.

The study on Sustainable Germany, which was commissioned by the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) and Misereor at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy , was published in 1996 . A contribution to global sustainable development had a decisive influence on the sustainability discourse that unfolded in German society in the mid-1990s and was called the “Green Bible”.

Twelve years later, in October 2008 , the follow-up study Sustainable Germany in a Globalized World was published. An impetus for the social debate , which was also created by the Wuppertal Institute and which BUND, Bread for the World and the Evangelical Development Service (EED) were responsible for.

Sustainable Germany in a globalized world (2008)

Twelve years after the first trend-setting study, a turn towards a policy of sustainability had not succeeded either nationally or internationally. The discussions about sustainability are often characterized by arbitrariness and trivialization. Increased pressure to act on political, economic and social actors would be the reason to commission a new study on Germany's future viability. Its aim is to stimulate a broad social discussion about Germany's future viability and concrete actions for sustainable changes.

Its editors are the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) and the evangelical development organizations Bread for the World and Evangelical Development Service (EED). The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy developed the new study.

Results

Problem situation

The authors of the new study state that fundamental changes in the way we deal with nature, despite political efforts such as B. the national sustainability strategy were not achieved. By and large, Germany did not move far enough towards sustainability compared to 1996. The biodiversity would decrease dramatically not only in Germany, but worldwide. The CO ₂ content in the atmosphere continues to rise. In most developing countries (→ developing country ) the poverty of the population grows and becomes a cross-border political issue. The economic upturn in the emerging countries (→ emerging country ) goes hand in hand with severe environmental degradation and leads to increasing social inequality. The catching-up development of the emerging and developing countries increased the pressure on the environment. Cooperation between the countries of the north with those of the south in environmental policy fails because “the north continues to use its structural power in financial, trade and development policy to the detriment of the south” (BUND et al. 2008). The causes of the climate chaos and the loss of biodiversity are primarily the countries of the north, while the countries of the south are hit hardest by their consequences. One cause would be the market, which is neither able to keep natural consumption at an appropriate level nor to produce a fair distribution of goods among market participants and beyond. He is "blind to the cause of ecology as well as justice" (BUND et al. 2008).

The authors ask: “What changes are necessary so that Germany becomes fit for the future and can make its contribution to the future of the world?” (BUND et al. 2008). In the new study you are calling for a change in our civilization. A new social contract is needed that protects not only the relationship between people and people, but also that between people and nature. Respecting human rights as well as ecological limits is the core program of sustainability.

Action goals

According to the study, energy consumption should fall from 6,500 to 2,000 watts on an annual average per person. Instead of relying on nuclear energy, coal-fired power plants and agrofuels from overseas, the authors of the study recommend switching to renewable energies and decentralized energy production. In the transport sector, it is important to rely less on the performance and speed of motor vehicles, but rather to give priority to public transport systems over individual transport and to implement a substantial kerosene tax for air transport and a cap on the number of take-offs. Sustainable agriculture has made the transition from intensive farming to regenerative agriculture and livestock farming. Consumers who act in a sustainable way chose a moderate lifestyle, producers bore their social and ecological responsibility, political actors provided institutional guard rails and systemic barriers and thus became sustainable.

In order to deal with the biosphere in a sustainable manner, everyone is required to show consideration for future generations and distant fellow citizens. In the next two decades, the decision was made on "whether a climate chaos that can no longer be controlled and with unforeseeable effects on the biosphere and global society can still be avoided" (BUND et al. 2008).

Structure of the study

“Starting points” of the study describe the global problems and crises and how closely environmental problems are related to justice deficits. Then the authors draw “balance sheets” and review the goals that were set twelve years ago in the first study Sustainable Germany - A Contribution to Globally Sustainable Development (see Section 2.2 Reduction Targets). Using “models”, the study develops concrete proposals for action and visions for the future viability of an industrialized country. The “change of course in Germany and Europe” shows the scope of these models: The required changes should not stop at national borders. The chapter "Global Agreements" describes the international dimension of the environmental and justice problems. It is also important to work together more closely worldwide and to create binding rules. After all, “local engagement” is given a key role. With the demand for civil society participation and responsibility, the authors draw the link to the individual's own actions. “Success stories” show real examples of sustainable developments in the present. In addition, the “Time Window 2022” gives an outlook on a sustainable Germany in the year 2022 and shows which path these changes could take.

Authors and editors

As a German environmental research institute, the Wuppertal Institute, whose scientists developed the study, researches and develops models, strategies and instruments for sustainable development on a regional, national and international level. BUND, one of three editors of the study, is the largest German environmental association. He has been campaigning for nature and environmental protection in Germany for over thirty years and is also internationally active as a member of Friends of the Earth. The development agency of the Protestant churches in Germany, the EED, supports around 300 projects a year and supports development education work in Germany as well as partner organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe in overcoming poverty and injustice. Bread for the World, the fundraising campaign of the Protestant regional and free churches in the field of development cooperation, was founded in 1959 and is an editor of the new study.

background

A characteristic feature of the study by the Wuppertal Institute is the systematic link between environmental and development policy discourses. In doing so, the study implements what was called for at the World Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992: Environment and development must be brought together. This coupling of environmental issues to global and intertemporal justice in the study “Sustainable Germany in a Globalized World” can be traced back to the orientation of the actors involved in the study. The association of the editors and co-creators BUND, EED and Bread for the World brings the still not integrated discourses closer together with this study. On the other hand, thinking together environmental and development policy issues is already anchored in the environmental space concept (see section 2.2 Basic assumptions) on which both studies on sustainable Germany are based.

The study plays an important role in both the political and scientific sustainability debate. On the one hand, it is supported by scientific concepts and new statistics. On the other hand, its authors bring together existing and new options for action in the study. It is also aimed at politicians, scientists, non-governmental organizations, companies and civil society.

Sustainable Germany - A Contribution to Global Sustainable Development (1996)

Sustainable Germany - A contribution to global sustainable development is the title of a joint study by Misereor and BUND from 1996, carried out by the Wuppertal Institute . It led to an intensive socio-political and church discussion about sustainable development .

This study, commissioned by the environmental organization BUND and the episcopal aid organization Misereor at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, aroused great attention, interest and criticism. The study was Germany's first scientifically based sustainability strategy .

target

The aim of the study was to show what life could look like in a sustainable Germany that makes a contribution to preserving the natural foundations of life for future generations and to give the South the scope for socially just and ecologically compatible development (BUND / MISEREOR 1996).

Basic assumptions

The environmental space available to Germany is calculated based on the normative basic assumption that all people have the same rights to use the globally available resources .

"The environmental space is the amount of natural resources that can be used without impairing the sustainability and regenerative capacity of the ecosystem, ie the environment is irreversibly damaged."

This is compared with the current German environmental consumption.

Not only is the consumption of materials, energy, land, water and pollutant emissions in Germany balanced, but also the resources used by Germany in the countries of the south and on a global level.

The study confirms that Germany, like the other industrialized countries, is disproportionately responsible for emissions of greenhouse gases and chlorofluorocarbons.

The same applies to the overfishing of the oceans and their pollution by poisons , oil and nutrients . Using the examples of agricultural, forestry and mineral imported goods, it is described that Germany takes up enormous areas outside of its own territory and thus relocates considerable environmental pollution in the form of excavated soil, erosion , fertilizer and pesticide inputs as well as water consumption and pollution to countries in the south.

Reduction targets

By comparing the load limits of the environmental space available in Germany and actual environmental consumption , reduction targets and periods for material, land and energy consumption as well as for individual pollutant emissions (→ Emission (Environment) ) are derived. On the basis of the global reduction requirements and taking into account the principle of equality, the study comes to the conclusion that Germany should reduce its energy and material consumption by an average of 80 to 90 percent by 2050. A reduction of 10 percent by 2010 is named as the medium-term target stage (Madleine Brocke 1995).

Mission statements

The study is not limited to a numerical representation, but transfers the reduction targets into qualitative objectives. To this end, she creates models and turnaround scenarios, which can be seen as a vision for a reorientation of society as a whole and as practical design drafts for various social actors, such as B. Understand entrepreneurs, consumers, public utilities, town planners, legislators, politicians, etc.

Three principles run through the guiding principles: efficiency , sufficiency and structural change . The call for sufficiency results from the realization that the necessary reduction targets can be achieved in part through improved processes and techniques, but savings in environmental consumption are often eaten up by volume effects. Therefore, in addition to increasing efficiency, there is also a need for a more economical use of resources and more moderate consumer behavior (Madleine Brocke 1995).

Opposition to the study

There was massive criticism and resistance of the study from the chemical industry and the farmers' association in particular. The stumbling block was the sustainability goal of 100 percent conversion to organic farming by 2010. The focus of criticism was the chief executive of Misereor Prelate Norbert Herkenrath , who fully supported the results of the study - in contrast to the German Bishops' Conference, which took a passive position here represented. The Bavarian Farmers' Association called on its members to boycott the annual Misereor collection, which is one of the most important sources of income for the Misereor aid organization. In contrast, the study was received positively in church lay circles, such as diocesan councils and associations and also in the ecumenical movement, and was also discussed at the European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz .

The results of the discussion were incorporated into the development of the national sustainability strategy.

However, criticism also came from groups active in development policy: The Federal Congress of Development Action Groups (BUKO) criticized the fact that the report Sustainable Germany assumes that it is sufficient to reform the existing structures and institutions in order to make society (s) fit for the future. On the other hand, u. a. BUKO assumes that in order to make society (s) fit for the future, the goal of economic growth must be questioned and the restructuring of the capitalist economy is indispensable. Because this is not mentioned in the study, it serves the modernization of an economic system in crisis rather than the future viability of life on earth. “Ecology and sustainability”, according to the BUKO, “(have) today become a discourse of power and part of a strategy to purify industrial capitalism and to make it more effective without affecting the nature-destroying core of the industrial-capitalist program. (...) If you follow the sustainability debate, a 'sustainable society' may well be patriarchal, racist and capitalist ”. (BUKO, 1996)

literature

expenditure

BUND & Misereor (Ed.): Sustainable Germany. A contribution to global sustainable development. Study by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy GmbH. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel / Boston / Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7643-5278-7 ; 4th revised and expanded edition ibid. 1997, ISBN 3-7643-5711-8
Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation, Bread for the World & Evangelical Development Service (Ed.): Sustainable Germany in a globalized world. An impetus for social debate. A study by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-596-17892-6 (short version as PDF on the homepage of the study)

Secondary literature

BUND & Misereor (Hrsg.): Guide to a sustainable Germany. Riemann Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-570-50033-0
Madeleine Brocke & Reinhard Hermle: “Sustainable Germany. A contribution to global sustainable development ”. A study. In: ZEP - Journal for International Educational Research and Developmental Education. 18/4, December 1995, pp. 23-25
Helga Eblinghaus & Armin Stickler: Sustainability and Power. To the criticism of Sustainable Development. IKO - Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Frankfurt 1996, ISBN 3-88939-196-6 (there also: Federal Congress of Development Action Groups (BUKO): Technomairy. Fit, slim and with a clear conscience into the 21st century. Pp. 207–219)