Dear all, for the last eight years, i was a member of the German Advisory Council for the Environment (SRU), which advises the German government on environmental matters. In addition to shorter reports, every four years, an Envirnmental Report is prepared by the council. Earlier this year, the German version of the report was presented to the Environment Minister Barbara Hendriks.
Now an English version of some of the chapters of the report is available. I thought this might be interesting for some of you. (Every four years the membership of the council changes, and I am no longer a member). Environmental Council: Promoting transformations, reconciling climate protection with industrial competitiveness In its Environmental Report 2016 published in May, the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) calls for an ambitious integrative environmental policy in Germany. It emphasises that structural changes are needed in areas such as agriculture, the energy sector, and housing. Now, two chapters of the report have been published in English language: 1. Pioneering an ecological transformation Germany is excellently placed to play a leading role in the sustainable restructuring of industrial society. With the Energiewende, Germany is on an ambitious pathway towards a transformation of its electricity system. But in other domains, Germany is not a pioneer at all, or to only a limited extent. Germany should repudiate an agenda that seeks to prioritise business interests over public goods such as the environment. It should try to Europeanise its ambitious policies in fields like energy and waste, while also becoming a constructive force in greening the Common Agricultural Policy. The SRU report lays out the distinct roles that governments can play in the different stages of mainstreaming ecological innovations. Transformations require state action, because no other actor has comparable resources for bringing about structural change. But transformation processes play out at various political levels – from the local through the national to the global level. Hence it is vital to leverage the mechanisms that promote positive policy feedback between different governance levels. The SRU is thus critical of the government’s commitment to a one-to-one transposition of EU law. Germany should utilize the considerable leeway when transposing environmental EU requirements into national law for additional ambitiousness to create a multi-level reinforcement of transformative policies. Download chapter 1.<http://www.umweltrat.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/01_Environmental_Reports/2016_06_UG16_Chapter1.html> 2. Ambitious climate protection and industrial competitiveness It is often argued that ambitious domestic climate policies would jeopardize the competitiveness of German industry, possibly leading to industrial relocation and carbon leakage. Upon closer scrutiny, however, such fears are widely unsubstantiated. Instead, economic prosperity and climate protection can be reconciled and even unfold synergies. Being a pioneer in climate protection offers numerous opportunities to modernize the German economy. Nonetheless, concerns about the competitiveness of some particularly energy-intensive industries need to be taken seriously. For these industries, relief from energy- and climate policy-related burdens can be necessary unless a level playing field in terms of climate policy regulations is achieved. In order to prevent industrial relocations and carbon leakage in a targeted fashion, and to maintain incentives for emissions reductions, the SRU recommends that a critical review be undertaken of the various energy policies giving preferential treatment to the industrial sector in Germany and the EU. For the upcoming reform of the EU ETS, the SRU advocates a multi-tiered classification of carbon leakage risks to better determine the appropriate level of regulatory relief. Furthermore, an EU-wide consumption charge on particularly emissions-intensive materials should be considered as a complement to free allocation of allowances. Tapping the extensive energy efficiency potential that still remains in many industries is another important lever to cushion rising costs of energy consumption. The SRU recommends the implementation of integrated, long-term energy efficiency policies that are bolstered by mandatory energy efficiency targets. Download chapter 2.<http://www.umweltrat.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/01_Environmental_Reports/2016_07_UG16_Chapter2.html> With its Environmental Report 2016<http://www.umweltrat.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/01_Umweltgutachten/2016_Umweltgutachten_HD.html>, the SRU encourages the German federal government to proceed with ambitious environmental policies. An English summary<http://www.umweltrat.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/01_Environmental_Reports/2016_05_Environmental_Report_summary.html> of the report can be downloaded from www.umweltrat.de or ordered from the SRU secretariat. Best, Miranda Prof. Miranda Schreurs Director, Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU) Freie Universität Berlin Ihnestrasse 22 Berlin, 14195 Germany Tel +49 30 838 56654 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
