UK Environment Minister Miliband promises his support
During its presidency in the European Council and in the group of G-8 Germany will put forward an ecological innovations and industrial policy. At the opening of a conference of European Environment and Nature Conservation Associations Minister Gabriel stated in Berlin today: "We need environmental technologies and renewable energies to achieve the highest possible degree of environmental protection, sustainable economic development and, not least, employment." At the conference Environment Minister Gabriel also met with his British counterpart David Miliband. In their discussions he listed the five areas which Germany will focus on during its presidency in the European Council: an ecological industrial policy, climate protection, energy efficiency and renewable energies, biodiversity and sustainable means of transport.
Miliband promised Germany his full support during the dual presidency.
At the conference Minister Gabriel stressed the prominent role of environmental organisations who presented him with a set of wide-ranging demands. He noted "Much remains to be done in European and international environmental policy. I am convinced that environmental and nature conservation associations will continue to play an active and constructive role in this process."
The German League for Nature and Environment (Deutscher Naturschutzring, DNR) organised the two-day conference in Berlin together with the European environmental networks under the motto "A responsibility for the future". Not only representatives of the EU Commission took part in the conference but also European industrial associations and companies.
"We want to develop an integrated and reliable energy strategy which links the objectives security of supply, competitiveness and environmental and climate protection right from the beginning", noted Minister Gabriel. He added that it would be necessary to bring about a revolutionary efficiency increase in the use of natural and energy resources combined with an unswerving development of renewable energy sources to achieve the necessary ecological and economic volte-face.