| |
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Introduction: Constitutional Background The state of the environment determines our quality of life as well as influences our health and our general well-being. The protection of the environment is therefore equally important as, for example, economic policy. In order to stress the great importance of environmental protection the German Bundestag decided in 1994 to ammend the Basic Law. The new section anchors the protection of the environment within basic institutional principles. It states that being aware of the Federal State?s ?responsibility toward future generations, it shall protect the natural basis of life? whenever a state organ takes up action.
Responsibilities Within Germany Since the mid 1980s the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety has been responsible for federal environmental matters. Within its purview are the Federal Environment Agency in Berlin, the Federal Office for Nature Conservation in Bonn and the Federal Office for Radiation Protection in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony. As the Federal Parliament only has the power to issue framework legislation , most German states have their own ministries for the environment. Their main task is to execute the Federal framework laws. Local authorities also influence environmental issues as they are responsible for the outlines of town and landscape planning. The European Level The range of environmental topics exclusively decided by German authorities has narrowed significantly after a shift of powers to the European level through the newly passed EU treaty in 1992. Because the reach of environmental problems, especially in the field of climate, air and water, is not determined by national borders, this shift to the European level is a great progress in general environmental policy. The EU usually acts by adopting directives which merely set out a frame for national lawmaking. The EU Member States then have to implement the contents through national laws within a fixed time slot. The national legislation may vary within the margin set out by the directive. International Cooperation Germany participates in a large variety of bilateral and international cooperations on environmental matters above the European level. On the level of the United Nations Germany took part in the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. At this conference, representatives of more than 170 countries met for the first time to consult on cooperation to sustain the basis of life for the common future of mankind. A whole series of follow-ups has been held since then. Several of these conferences took place in Germany. The next UN Environmental Conference will be the World Summit on Sustainable Development. This summit will be held in Johannesburg in September 2002. Germany?s commitment to the United Nations? efforts in environmental policy goes beyond this. For example, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme , responsible for the Kyoto Protocol, is the German Klaus T?pfer. The UN Secretariat of the Convention on Climate Changeis based in Bonn. As a member of the G 8 countries, Germany also contributes to this alliance?s work on environmental policy. The responsible ministers of the G 8 states hold annual meetings to work on their common language towards the environmental questions of the north-south dialogue. On the level of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Germany participates in its regular consultations on environmental issues. Finally, Germany has been cooperating for several years with Eastern and Central European countries on the basis of bilateral environmental protection and reactor safety agreements. As a member state of the EU Germany also takes part in the Asian-European Technology Center, a think tank that has been founded in 1999. Among other issues, this center covers the problem areas environmental waste management and environmental training. The Development of German Environmental Protection and Policy The starting point of public interest in environmental issues in Germany dates to the early 1970s. Bavaria became the first state to create a ministry for the environment in 1970. The Federal Government introduced its first Environmental Programme in 1971. This programme laid down that the general responsibility for the protection of the environment would be within the Ministry of the Interior. It wasn?t until 1986 that the Federal Ministry for the Environment took up its work as an independent institution. The first steps in establishing a system of protecting the environment were taken on a purely technical level. The main aim in this strategy was to prevent man-made pollutants from entering the environment. This goal was mainly achieved by setting up limits for the output of those substances. The next step aimed at the creation of closed circuits to keep pollutants from being released into the enviroment from production or? manufacturing procedures. At the same time the substitution of polluting substances with less harmful substances was promoted. The effort to repair already existing damage always went alongside these measures. Next to the protection of the environment against pollution, two key issues of German environmental policy are the conservation of nature and the protection of biological diversity. Today, Germany has reached a high level of environmental protection. According to an OECD survey report in 2001, Germany holds a top position in environmental protection worldwide. 
The Principle of Sustainability The principle of sustainability has become one of the leading principles across every field of general governmental action over the last ten years. Its goal is to reach compatibility between economic growth and prosperity on the one hand and preservation of the environment and of natural resources on the other hand. This principle was first formulated in the 1989 book ?Erdpolitik? (Earth Policy) by the German physicist and environmental thinker Ernst Ulrich von Weizs?cker. It became a global model for responsible economic and environmental development at the 1992 UN Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Sustainable development is defined as a development which corresponds to the needs of the present generation without possibly endangering future generations in satisfying their own needs and choosing their lifestyle. Thus, the key to worldwide sustainable development lies in achieving a balanced proportion of ecological, economical, and social circumstances. An important part of the goal is to encourage a dialogue with various groups in society, for example religious groups, business representatives and ecological NGOs. In the summer of 2000, the German government formed the National Council on Sustainability (the Nachhaltigkeitsrat). Its sixteen members represent a wide range of different social groups, and their task is to create a national sustainability strategy in preparation for the 2002 Johannesburg UN Summit on Sustainability. 
Today?s Key Environmental Issues The following section gives a brief summary of today?s most important environmental issues in Germany. In general, it can be said that protection of the environment can only be truly successful if it places equal importance on air, water and soil. Since 1998, the German government has been working consequently on the phaseout of nuclear energy . The main reasons to do so are the still unresolved issue of the final disposal of radioactive waste on the one hand and the unforeseeable consequences of reactor meltdowns on the other hand. At present, 19 nuclear power station blocks at 14 locations are in operation in Germany. In mid 2001, the federal government reached an agreement with all the German energy suppliers using nuclear power plants. Based on an agreed maximum operating period and after deduction of running time to date, each nuclear power station was allocated a fixed amount of electricity which it was allowed to produce in the future. Once this amount is reached, the plant must be shut down. According to this agreement the last power-station will presumably go out of service in 2021. The challenge that comes alongside with the phaseout of nuclear energy is the search for alternative energy sources. Therefore, the federal government is promoting research on and use of renewable energy sources Promoting renewable energy sources. As a result of this policy the energy produced by wind energy facilities has quadrupled over the last four years up to 10.000 megawatts.This is enough electricity to supply the daily need of the German capital Berlin. Another key question in this context is how to reach a more efficient use of energy. In order to promote this, the federal government has imposed the ?ecological tax?. Roughly said, this tax applies to the consumption of energy. Climate protection is one of the key areas of global environmental policy. In the 1997 Kyoto Protocol the industrialized nations committed themselves to drastic reductions of their greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming. Germany is determined to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 21 percent in the period between 2008 and 2012 compared to 1990 levels. A reduction of 18.7 percent is already accomplished today. The key areas of the German National Climate Protection Strategy are efficient energy supply, economic and rational use of energy, and greater use of renewable energy sources <link: backgroundpaper Germany?s National Climate Protection Programme.. Therefore, measures in the field of climate protection and in the field of promoting the energy turnaround are strongly connected to each other. Germany has introduced a comprehensive clean air programme over the last decades. The first steps were taken when the so-called Waldsterben (dying of the forests as a result of acid rain) came to light in the 1970s. The main causes of the pollution responsible for Waldsterben are industrial plants and traffic. Measures to reduce the general output of harmful emissions as well as to eliminate certain components have been successful. For example, the industrial output of sulphur dioxide has dropped by more than 60 percent in the western States and by 90 percent in the eastern States within the last decade. As far as traffic is concerned, emission levels have been tightened continually. Leaded gasoline was banned completely in 2000. The next challenge will be the EU-wide introduction of sulphur-free fuels, which allow a significant reduction - as much as 20 percent - of a car?s fuel consumption. Just recently, the German government has introduced a programme promoting agricultural turnaround. In brief, ?agricultural turnaround? means that agricultural development has to turn away from industrialized production methods towards a more ecological way of farming. After a series of scandals related to conventional agriculture, a change in agricultural policy seemed to be indispensable both for the benefits of the environment and for consumer protection. Noise, especially from traffic, has become a serious threat to health in densely populated areas. Noise abatement measures are therefore urgently needed. In Germany, the planning and construction of residential areas, traffic networks and industrial installations are subject to legal provisions mandating measures to protect the public from unreasonably loud noise. In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to conserving nature areas. After a long period of rather thoughtless use of land for building development and agriculture this issue became urgent as the habitats of many native flora and fauna were increasingly restricted. Many areas have been ?re-naturalized? by now. Nature reserves cover roughly 2.3 percent of Germany?s total area; a quarter of Germany consists of landscape protection areas. Today?s major goal is to create a nationwide network of ecologically valuable areas. This network would encompass about ten percent of the country and promote the exchange of genetic material between the different protected areas. Another approach for securing diversity of species is the adoption of ecological agricultural and forestry methods which renounce the use of artificial fertilizer and pesticides as much as possible and therefore cause less interference with local ecosystems. The quality of German rivers, lakes and seas has reached major improvements over the past years. Wild animals and plant species have returned to areas where they haven?t been seen for a long time. Even formerly highly polluted rivers like the Rhine, Main and Elbe have improved visibly. In the summer of 2002, the entire course of the river Elbe, once known as Europe?s dirtiest river, was declared clean enough for people to swim in. Many communities on the German and Czech banks of the Elbe celebrated the International Elbe Swim Day on July 14th 2002 . The disposal of industrial and domestic waste holds the danger of massive damage to soils and ground water. Therefore, since 1996 German waste-management laws have focused on the concept of recycling waste and developing low-waste products. In the long term the consumption and production cycle is supposed to develop into a closed-circuit that produces no waste. The general principle in today?s waste management can best be described as ?the polluter pays?. Whoever manufactures or sells products that generate waste must also take them back and recycle them. For example, the "Dual System" is a system of collecting recyclable packaging material from the households. A "Green Dot" logo tells the consumer that the packaging should be disposed via the "Dual System". 
Environmental Technology as an Economic Factor Environmental protection regulations have led to the development of new products and technologies, which in turn has promoted the creation of new jobs. Thus, the original strong fears that strict environmental protection regulations would hamper economic activities and weaken the international competitiveness of businesses have been proven wrong. By now, environmental technology has become a German export earner. Beyond that, Germany is one of the leading nations providing technical solutions in the environmental sector.
|
|
 Newsletters
 Printer-Friendly
Page
Email This Article |
||
|
|||||
|
|||||
