3rd German-Japanese Environmental Dialogue Forum opened
Ursula Heinen-Esser, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry, opened the 3rd German-Japanese Environmental Dialogue Forum in Berlin today. The focus of the meeting is on electric mobility. "Electric mobility offers great ecological and economic potential. The traditional manufacturers and suppliers as we know them in Germany and Japan will have to undertake great efforts in future. Dialogue and joint research can be of use for developing electrical drives", said Ms Heinen-Esser.
Germany and Japan face similar challenges in the transport sector: although the automotive industry is strong in both countries, neither has many domestic raw materials. In addition, both countries are dependent on the import of oil, which delivers almost 100% of the energy needed in road transport. At the same time, transport has to contribute to reaching the climate protection goals as well. The gradual introduction of electric vehicles offers great potential to make mobility more sustainable in future. This applies not only to energy efficiency but also to emissions of greenhouse gases, pollutants and noise.
Smart grid integration, feeding in electricity from renewable energies and battery technology are important topics at the 3rd German-Japanese Environmental Dialogue Forum. Both countries have their specific strengths in these areas and can learn a lot from each other. This is one of the reasons why the Dialogue Forum also aims to give incentives for cooperation between industry and research in Japan and Germany.
The international conference of experts is organised by the Federal Environment Ministry in cooperation with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), a subordinate authority of the Japanese Ministry of Economy and the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt.