Federal Government adopts Environmental Report 2006
On 16 January 2007 the Federal Cabinet adopted the Environmental Report 2006 tabled by Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel. The report, entitled "Environment – Innovation – Employment" gives a positive appraisal of the environment policy decisions of the past four years. At the same time it presents strategies on how the most urgent environmental problems could be solved. "Environmental protection is a prerequisite for a high quality of life and social justice and, above all, it is a driving force for innovation and employment in Germany. Environmental policies geared towards innovation yield a double dividend for the environmental and the economic sector in that they create new jobs and decreases our dependency on mineral oil", Gabriel noted.
The Federal Government tables its environmental report every four years. It consists of the chapters "Pursuing an ambitious climate policy", "Continuing sustainable energy policy", "Conserving resources", "Conserving and using nature", "Designing mobility to meet environmental needs" and "Healthy environment – healthy people".
The report provides a summary of the new course set after the change of government in 2005 towards an ecological industrial policy in Germany. The introduction states "If through innovation we succeed in increasing the energy and resource efficiency of products and services in an economically efficient manner, we save money for raw materials, increase the security of our supplies and reduce our dependence on imported raw materials. At the same time we create new, future-oriented domestic and export markets for our economy and thereby safeguard jobs."
Renewable energy sources have an increasing share in Germany’s energy supply. With a share of 4.6 per cent in primary energy consumption renewables have been able to exceed the target of 4 per cent set by the Federal Government for the year 2010. Energy productivity has also seen a considerable rise. "The link between the energy consumption trend and economic growth has to a large extent been broken in Germany." the report goes on to state. The Federal Government strongly advocates an increased use of renewable energy sources. This becomes apparent in the fact that financial support for renewable energies will see a twofold increase– reaching a total of 83 million euros for 2007. To increase the energy efficiency of buildings, financial support for energy-saving modernisations of buildings was increased fourfold from 360 million euros to 1.4 billion euros per year. Everyone modernising his home to save energy receives state subsidies. This helps to protect the climate, saves energy costs, creates jobs in the building sector and generates local economic growth. “Every billion euro spent on energy-saving modernisation of existing buildings secures or creates some 25,000 jobs in the building crafts and trades.” states the report. A marked increase is planned for the share of renewable energy sources in energy production and in the fuel sector.
Nature conservation has not undergone a reversal in trend in the past for years: In Germany but also globally there is a continuous decline in both the diversity of species and habitats and the genetic diversity within the individual animal and plant species. The existence of about 40% of indigenous species is endangered in Germany. A further 3% are already extinct.During this term in office the Federal Government will present a comprehensive national biodiversity strategy to halt the decline in biological diversity in Germany and to make it possible at the same time to make use of the biological diversity in a sustainable manner. Moreover the Federal Government will hand over free of charge all representative nature conservation areas it owns in the whole of Germany – including the approximately 125,000 ha belonging to the "green belt", the area along the former border between East and West Germany – to a Federal Foundation or to the Federal States. Twenty-two individual areas will preserve large unfragmented spaces on a total of around 52,000 ha. This will be a major prerequisite for the preservation of biological diversity.
Under the heading "Healthy environment – healthy people" the report illustrates how environmental policy successes in Germany have directly lead to better quality in life. Lead and sulphur dioxide loads have been considerably decreased and have put other risk factors centre stage, e.g. particulate matter, ozone, chemicals, noise and radiation exposure. Human health benefits directly from ambitious environmental protection measures. Therefore the Federal Government supports the clean air strategy of the European Commission with its even more stringent emission standards for passenger cars (EURO 5) and for heavy goods vehicles and buses (EURO VI). This would considerably reduce not only particulate emissions but also pollution with nitrogen oxides. The Federal Government has taken an important step forward by granting tax incentives for the retrofitting of diesel vehicles with particle filters.
Federal Environment Minister Gabriel noted: "Environmental policies are giving the right incentives. The reorientation towards an ecological industrial policy has started. This new ecological industrial policy is much more geared towards a sparing and efficient use of raw materials, towards energy efficiency and conserving the natural basis of life. This has a positive impact on the environment, on the job and employment situation and on Germany’s long term competitive position on the international market – because efficient economic activity will be the call of the future."