How do we want to live today and in the future? How carefully is Germany really managing its natural resources? How is it shaping up to its national and international responsibiliites for ensuring the sustainable management of the natural resource base on which we all depend?
The German government has created a body specifically mandated to deal with sustainability policy - the State Secretaries' Committee on Sustainable Development. The decisions it makes are binding for the further development of Germany’s national sustainability strategy.
Sustainable development cannot be imposed from above. The state can, however, do much to support the change of course. To this end, the German government has drawn up a list of priority fields of action.
The national sustainability strategy is not intended to be a theoretical or academic paper. It seeks to provide practical guidelines to help politicians and society as a whole align their actions to the imperatives of sustainability.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is absolutely determined to push forward with international climate protection. "Copenhagen was a first step on the way to a new global climate regime. No more, but equally no less," she declared. Next year in Bonn and in Mexico the focus will be on laying down binding targets.
Just a few weeks ahead of the World Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have urged leaders to pave the way for a viable climate protection agreement.
Chancellor Angela Merkel will be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December in Copenhagen. Germany will thus be represented at the highest possible level in the moves to bring the climate change mitigation negotiations of recent years to a successful conclusion.
