How can we switch our economy to a modus operandi that will not emit additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? How can we feed most resources back into a circular economy? What changes to key sectors of our economy are necessary to achieve this? A green transformation of industry and economy is one of the greatest challenges facing us in the 21st century. Even Günter Verheugen, former EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, says that a “green industrial revolution” will be necessary to overcome these challenges.
Yet, it is exactly the EU’s industrial policies, as defined in the Lisbon Strategy, that have so far largely failed to promote change. On the contrary, as shown in the case of coal subsidies, the EU’s policies are the root cause for delaying a green transformation.
The current financial and economic crisis has done little to change this, although the huge stimulus packages will certainly have a sizable impact on further industrial policy. Measures, such as Germany’s scrapping incentive are, in their current form, inadequate, though their aim was to pull the economy out of crisis and transform it by means of a Green New Deal. As the stimulus packages in many other countries have shown, it is not possible to by-pass industrial policy – the chaotic processes of the market will create structural realities!
Against the background of progressing globalisation, the limited financial scope of governments, and the ever-narrowing room for manoeuvre caused by the climate crisis, the scarcity of resources, and the dramatic dwindling of biodiversity, we will have to fundamentally revise our industrial policies.
Based on these premises, the Öko-Institut, at the behalf of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, is currently working on a memorandum for a sustainable industrial policy with the aim to ecologically transform key sectors of the economy in Germany and in Europe. The memorandum will put up for discussion aims, guidelines, and possible structural instruments of economic policy that may effect a green transformation. In order to achieve this, it will be necessary to put industrial policies on a whole new foundation and to closely co-ordinate different policies – something that goes far beyond the current subsidies for environmentally friendly technologies.
The memorandum will be published in 2010. It will be the basis of a series of public debates on how to change the political frameworks governing individual key sectors of the German economy – sectors that are crucial for a desperately needed “green industrial revolution”.
Green New Deal / Great Transformation
- Dossier Conference "The Great Transformation" (english/german)
- Böll.Thema: Green New Deal (english)
- Böll.Thema: Going green (english)
- Böll.Thema: Going green (german)