Exploring migration, habitability and climate change in the future – scenarios for Africa and Asia
Insight by Emily Wright O'Kelly, Tobias Bernstein
News publ. 22. Jun 2012
"A Green Economy limits ecological risks and strengthens competitiveness" was the title of a German side-event of the Rio+20 conference on Thursday, jointly convened by the German Environment Ministry (BMU) and the German Federation of Industries (BDI). Facilitated by adelphi's Managing Director Alexander Carius, Peter Altmaier, recently appointed German Minister for the Environment, Holger Loesch (Federation of German Industry, BDI), Caio Koch-Weser (Deutsche Bank) and Kersten-Karl Barth (Siemens) debated opportunities and challenges of the green economy development in Germany.
Minister Altmaier stated "we have reached the limits of global ecosystem resilience", and promoted the German energy transition as an essential step towards a Green Economy. At this side-event, he also presented the Memorandum of Understanding on Green Economy recently signed by BMU and BDI. Building stronger links with the industry is a key to foster a green economy in Germany. As the multilateral negotiations in Rio had brought only very limited results, Mr. Koch-Weser added to the minister’s assertion the need for more flexible alliances between groups of governments, industry and the public to create the dynamic necessary to achieve sustainable development. Currently, “board rooms are often ahead of cabinet rooms”, he said.
Deutsche Bank together with Siemens and Puma are founding members of the German initiative “Making it happen”, geared at scaling up the capacities of businesses in developing countries towards a green economy. Siemens Head of Corporate Sustainability Kersten-Karl Barth described the transformation of his multinational company in the past 20 years, turning from Germany’s largest producer of nuclear energy technology into today’s largest provider of renewable technologies.
The recognition of the importance of Green Economy by all countries was the most important achievement at the Rio-negotiations. Moving towards an innovative setting of new public and private partnerships on Green Economy was one of the few but vital signals sent from Rio.