Modern strategies for sustainability: adelphi develops approaches for a good life for all

At present, Germany is concerned with numerous strategic action plans in the field of environmental and sustainability policy. adelphi, together with several partners, is helping the German government reorient its strategic focus and develop concrete proposals for updating central policy principles

Global environmental crises and wide-reaching social changes are presenting considerable societal challenges for Germany’s environmental and sustainability policies. To what extent is it still possible to respond to these diverse changes in accordance with the principles of a constitutive and enabling state?

adelphi is committed to answering this question in a new research project for the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). In cooperation with researchers from the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, adelphi will analyse to what extent the underlying ideas, principles and instruments of Germany’s environmental and sustainability polices need to be updated and expanded. In light of the current discussion about general quality of life in Germany, the project will draft initial approaches for a sustainability policy "for a good life for all". The goal of the project is to strengthen the connection between environmental and sociopolitical concerns in a strategic way and thereby to arrive at a clearly defined starting point for transformative environmental and sustainability policies. The project will therefore pay particular attention to processes of change in political structures, instruments and various configurations of actors.

This research project also directly supports the BMUB's work on developing an integrated environmental programme, provides input on developing the government strategy "Gut leben" and assists the government with the revised edition of the national sustainability strategy as well as with its positioning in international sustainability strategy processes.