The German Sustainable Development Strategy

The Federal Government relied on dialogue and cooperation to compile the new version of the Strategy. The German Sustainable Development Strategy outlines the importance of sustainable development for the Federal Government’s policies and defines concrete targets and measures over the entire range of political issues. It thus provides a benchmark for the required long-term perspective. All federal institutions are called upon to contribute to achieving the targets with activities in their own fields. Between autumn 2015 and spring 2016, there were five public conferences with high-level attendees including representatives of the Federal Government, Länder governments and local authorities, a large number of non-governmental groups and members of the public. At the end of May 2016, the German Chancellor gave the go-ahead for the second phase of the dialogue regarding the draft Strategy published online. Representatives from more than 40 associations participated in a subsequent central consultation event in the Federal Chancellery, and lots of opinions were expressed. The suggestions that emerged from the dialogue process proved valuable. The Länder, the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development in the German Bundestag, the Sustainable Development Council and the municipal umbrella organisations have once again made their own contributions to the Strategy. The Sustainable Development Strategy is based on a holistic, integrated approach: long-term, viable solutions can only be achieved if interdependencies between the three dimensions of sustainability are taken into account. The Strategy aims at economically efficient, socially balanced and environmentally sustainable development, whereby the planetary boundaries of our Earth together with the objective of a life in dignity for everyone form the ultimate constraints for political decisions. The Strategy bundles the contributions of the various policy areas to sustainability and works towards greater coherence and the resolution of conflicting goals in light of the large number of systemic interdependencies. It thus directs globally responsible, intergenerationally equitable and socially integrative policy. The Sustainable Development Strategy presents Germany’s measures to implement the 17 SDGs at three levels. Alongside measures with effects in Germany, there are also measures by Germany with a global impact. In addition, there is also the support of other countries in the form of bilateral cooperation (measures with Germany). Germany thereby shows that it is committed to the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs and is taking on this challenge comprehensively as its own.