Export volume of environmental goods amounts to 56 billion euros
German companies occupy the lead position on the global market for environmental goods. With a share of 16 % in the international trade volume and an export volume of 56 billion euros, in 2006 Germany again ranked at the top of the international trade league, ahead of the United States (15%) and Japan (9%). This is the result of a research study which was carried out by the Institute for Economic Research of Lower Saxony (Niedersächsische Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung) on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt UBA). The highest international demand is for German measuring and control technologies, for example instruments to measure heat volumes. The fastest growing export sector over the past three years was the renewable energy sector with an annual growth rate of almost 25%.
Projections for the year 2007 indicate a continuation of this positive trend. In 2007 the export volume for potential environmental goods from Germany amounted to almost 60 billion euros and thus roughly corresponds to the exports of the electrical engineering industry. Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel explained: "Germany still takes the lead in environmental technology exports. This shows that there is a global need for high quality in the environmental and climate protection sector. However, our competitors are pushing ahead. We will have to set the right industrial policy course to be able to keep our position at the top".
Potential environmental goods such as pumps, cables and measuring and control technologies can be used for environmental purposes but can also fulfil other functions. The concept of potential environmental goods is based on an official accord developed in the 1990s by German research institutes and the Federal Statistical Office and which has since been used to study the performance of the German economy in the technology sector.
"The favourable developments in the environmental goods sector not only have a positive impact on environmental protection at a global scale, but they also have a beneficial effect on the domestic industry and on job security. This success would not have been possible without an ambitious and forward-looking environmental policy", Dr. Thomas Holzmann, vice president of UBA emphasised.