German Advisory Council on the Environment

Press Release: Promoting transformations, resolving conflicts: Environmental Council calls for an integrative environmental policy in Germany

Date 2016.05.10

In its Environmental Report 2016, presented on Tuesday to the Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks, the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) calls for an ambitious integrative environmental policy in Germany. Developments such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity are generating such a pressure to act that conventional approaches are no longer sufficient. Structural changes are needed in areas like agriculture, the energy sector, and housing.

Germany is excellently placed to play a leading role in the sustainable restructuring of industrial society”, emphasises SRU Chair Professor Martin Faulstich. “Among other things we have a strong innovation system, a powerful economy and broad public support for active environmental policies.”

However, while ambitious environmental protection policies offer considerable opportunities, they can also lead to conflicts of interest. These must be defused so that the urgently needed environmental transformations can proceed without impairing social cohesion and economic development. In its report, the SRU shows for various fields how such an integrative environmental policy can succeed.

One example is Germany’s energy transition, where the tension between climate protection and industrial competitiveness can be largely resolved by realising the considerable potential for increasing energy efficiency. Relief from energy levies should be carefully targeted, and linked to efficiency improvements.

Rent increases after energetic refurbishment hit lower income households particularly hard. In future legal possibilites for rent increases should be linked to energy cost reductions for tenants. Social rent subsidies and comparative rent tables should take into consideration the energy status of the residential buildings.

The high demand for housing in some regions in Germany is advanced as a reason for accepting increased land consumption. But affordable rental accommodation in conurbations can be provided in the form of multi-storey buildings that use less land. Regionally adapted solutions offer the opportunity to protect land in rural areas and to reduce the infrastructural costs of demographic change.

Greater political awareness is needed about the protection of biodiversity. One important cause for the continuing decline in biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is the use of plant protection products. Areas should be set aside where no plant protection products are applied. In addition, the SRU recommends introducing a levy on plant protection products in order to generate urgently needed funds for monitoring and consultancy.

An innovative approach to nature conservation is the provision of wilderness areas in which nature can develop without human intervention. However, there are hardly any of these in densely populated Germany. Such areas offer important habitats for flora and fauna and can contribute to climate and flood protection. They are also extremely important for research, because very little is known about the undisturbed development of ecosystems. The SRU urges the German federal and laender governments to provide such areas in sufficient quantities.

With its Environmental Report 2016, the SRU encourages the German federal government to proceed with ambitious environmental policies. “Effective policy strategies will have to be developed in close cooperation between the various government departments”, says Professor Martin Faulstich.

The SRU has been advising the German Federal Government on environmental policy issues for nearly 45 years. The composition of the Council – seven university professors drawn from a variety of disciplines – ensures a comprehensive and scientifically independent appraisal that takes account not only of scientific and technical, but also of economic, legal, and political considerations.

The Council currently has the following members:

Prof. Dr. Martin Faulstich (Chair), Clausthal University of Technology

Prof. Dr. Karin Holm-Müller (Deputy Chair), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Prof. Dr. Harald Bradke, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI in Karlsruhe

Prof. Dr. Christian Calliess, Freie Universität Berlin

Prof. Dr. Heidi Foth, Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg

Prof. Dr. Manfred Niekisch, Goethe University of Frankfurt and Director of Frankfurt Zoo

Prof. Dr. Miranda Schreurs, Freie Universität Berlin

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