Annika Lindblom,

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are currently facing particular challenges both internationally and nationally. At the heart of these are our common efforts to overcome the COVID‑19 pandemic and its wide‑ranging impacts. In Europe, COVID‑19 has already claimed more than 200,000 lives. Our economy finds itself in an extremely difficult situation. A large number of jobs have been lost, and the pandemic will continue to make itself felt in our lives and work for the foreseeable future. We are witnessing this again in almost all of Europe’s countries at the moment. However, we must not lose sight of other important issues. With this in mind, sustainability in general and climate and environmental protection in particular are and remain the major tasks of our age.

The Heads of State and Government met for a sustainable development summit in New York in September of last year. The stock‑taking that we did four years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda yielded sobering results. Unfortunately, these findings, which were for the most part negative, albeit not entirely across the board, haven’t changed today. Instead, the situation in terms of climate protection, biodiversity and social inequality has even become more serious since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda. In order to speed up its implementation, the United Nations has declared a Decade of Action, which I expressly support. The pressure to act has intensified in the face of the COVID‑19 pandemic – be it in the eradication of poverty and the promotion of food security or education, or, it goes without saying, with respect to healthcare. It will only be possible to make progress on all of these issues if we think of this as a joint project. Allow me therefore to thank the European Sustainable Development Network and the Federal Environment Ministry for hosting this conference. And I would like to thank everyone taking part in this.

How can we make progress in Europe on the path towards a climate‑neutral and sustainable continent? – The Green Deal offers us an answer to this question. It shows us how to achieve climate neutrality and greater sustainability, without – and this is very important to me – reducing our capacity for innovation or our competitiveness. On the contrary, the European Green Deal brings together environmental necessity and a robust economy. After all, protecting the natural resources is an essential prerequisite for economic success. While this may sound like a statement of the obvious, we must become much more aware of this and then actually apply this insight in our daily lives.

We Europeans therefore have a leading role to play in this regard. We must prove that economic growth can be decoupled from emissions and the consumption of resources. We must learn from the mistakes of the past. This means that European industrialised countries have to step up to the plate also in the transfer of innovations and technologies. They must play a pioneering role here. This is a form of development cooperation that reflects our responsibility for less industrialised countries. These are the countries that are suffering as a result of climate change, which can be laid at the door of industrialised countries in particular. It goes without saying that we Europeans are not solely responsible for climate protection. But close attention is being paid in many parts of the world as to how we approach our responsibility. Our example is therefore crucial to whether other countries join us in advancing solutions for carbon‑neutral growth.

This challenge hasn’t necessarily become any easier during the pandemic. We have our work cut out in fighting to curb the spread of the virus and in overcoming its economic and social impact. However, as we know, every crisis is also an opportunity; this is also true of this crisis. The COVID‑19 pandemic has the potential to sharpen our awareness of the need for greater sustainability, particularly in terms of general resilience to crises. This isn’t just about returning to pre‑crisis levels as quickly as possible, but is also about emerging from this crisis in a more sustainable and therefore more robust way, thus being better prepared for future crises. Short‑term crisis management and long‑term investments in the future – we must think of these as two sides of the same coin and bring these two aspects together.

That is why, for example, digital sovereignty, Europe’s competitiveness and a climate‑friendly innovation policy are among the priorities of Germany’s current Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Germany supports the Commission’s proposal to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 55 percent compared to 1990 levels by the end of the decade. This is highly ambitious. However, the Green Deal is a signpost that points us in the direction of a low‑carbon and therefore competitive economy. Ahead of us lies the path towards a truly comprehensive transformation that will impact climate protection, the circular economy, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, sustainable mobility and other issues in equal measure.

This should not be underestimated. Such a comprehensive transformation entails far‑reaching structural adjustments in national economies. For all the new opportunities this promises, such change can also be painful, for example if jobs are lost in certain industries. I think I know what I’m talking about here. In Germany, for example, the intensive expansion of renewable energies may offer new job prospects in this sector, but we also want to phase out coal by 2038 at the latest. Creating alternatives when jobs or sources of income are lost involves a great deal of effort. We must not abandon the affected regions and the people there; and we’re not abandoning them.

Whether in Germany or elsewhere, mitigating the economic and social hardships of climate‑friendly structural change is a challenge that we must face. If we don’t do this, progress towards greater sustainability, which can only be achieved with broad‑based support in society, is at risk. In my view, the essential, perhaps even the most important question in the context of sustainable development, is this: how can we resolve or cushion conflicts of interest or shape processes of transformation in such a way that no one is left behind? “Leave no one behind” – that is what we pledged to do in the 2030 Agenda. The European Green Deal also takes its lead from this guiding principle. The Green Deal aspires to make this transition fair and inclusive for everyone. This is crucial for the success of sustainability “made in Europe”. It is crucial for our cohesion – within our societies and also between individual countries.

As important as the Green Deal is, we also need a framework that allows us to take a European approach to the 2030 Agenda across the board. And so I’m delighted that the European Commission has announced a concept for the comprehensive implementation of the 2030 Agenda. I look forward with great interest to the proposals, especially on issues that aren’t directly linked to the Green Deal. The concept should then be dovetailed by regular progress reports from the Commission. This would enable us to better identify the sustainability areas in which we need additional measures.

I can also only welcome the fact that strategic foresight is to play a more prominent role in EU policy in the future. This is a further point of departure for making the EU fit for the future. After all, crises can never be ruled out, and if we aren’t sufficiently prepared, they can set us back a long way on the road to achieving our sustainability goals.

Sustainability must be advanced at all levels. In Germany, we are guided in this by a Sustainability Strategy that we launched 18 years ago and which we have kept on developing since then. Since 2016, the strategy has been the framework for implementing the 2030 Agenda in Germany. For each sustainability goal, we define what exactly we want to achieve and by when. We regularly assess how far we have come in each case so that we can make adjustments in good time if necessary. With a view to further developing our strategy, we rely on broad‑based participation on the part of the business and science community and within society. Only recently, I invited the German public to have their say on the new draft strategy.

There are so many good ideas that are worth considering. We can also see this in the context of the European Sustainable Development Week, which is organised annually by the European Sustainable Development Network. The fact that, despite the COVID‑19 pandemic, almost 4000 activities have taken place in 25 countries this year shows that sustainability is not a fair‑weather issue but is dear to many people’s hearts. I find this most encouraging. After all, sustainability cannot simply be decreed or prescribed by law, but rather each and every one of us is called upon to internalise the guiding principle of sustainability. Sustainability must therefore become a matter of course in our daily lives so that we can ask ourselves in all honesty: are we consuming sustainably? Are we producing sustainably? Are we building sustainably? Is our mobility sustainable?

The European Sustainability Development Network is doing a great deal to enshrine the idea of sustainability in the public consciousness and to disseminate good ideas for sustainable action, including government action. Indeed, sustainable development can only succeed as a joint project. And we bear responsibility for this today. What the world will look like in the future and how future generations will judge us is up to us today. That is why we must not stop encouraging, informing, inspiring and also criticising each other time and again when it comes to pursuing the most sustainable way of living and working possible.

With the European Green Deal, we have an important starting point for advancing the joint project that is sustainability in Europe. As we move forward, we will have to resolve conflicts of interest time and again. We will, time and again, have to find practicable and widely acceptable solutions. This is precisely what makes the European Sustainable Development Network so valuable. All of you who contribute your knowledge and experience here will help to breathe life into the model of sustainability in Europe. With this in mind, let me wish you a successful conference. Thank you very much for your dedication.

- - -