Germany has committed itself to an ambitious resource policy. The National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Federal Government formulates the aim of doubling the resource productivity until 2020 (compared to 1994). Following the European resource strategy, the German government has adopted the German resource efficiency strategy in 2012.
The research project aims at developing specific suggestions for the use of economic instruments or combinations of economic instruments for the improvement of resource efficiency in Germany and the EU.
The project aims at supporting and stimulating the emerging political and social debate on resource policies from a political science, legal and economic perspective. For this purpose the discussion on targets and indicators will be analyzed and options identified for selecting, operationalizing and prioritizing targets on resource policy.
Schools@University is an innovative inter- and transdisciplinary educational format at the Freie Universität of Berlin that builds bridges between academia and civil society. Fifth and sixth graders and their teachers are invited to the FUB twice a year to gain in-depth knowledge on sustainability issues and critical thinking skills empowering them to effect changes within their everyday world and in society at large. The format is based on two pillars:
A one-week program for 10 -13 years-olds featuring 75 interactive and participatory workshops.
A half-day practical teacher training to encourage application of lessons learnt in their respective schools.
We develop the workshop designs together with 100 partners from academia (students, scientists and administration staff), the state of Berlin, local businesses/companies, art and culture institutions, as well as NGOs.
Currently, an environmentally recyclable concept of a socio-ecological, sustainable growth and social model is missing, which would be a reference point for future economic and social prosperity and corresponding transformation processes. With this background, the main point of this study is the technical analysis and discussion of the following aspects:
1) theoretical and practical approaches of ecological and sustainable-oriented social and economic models – based on a national or macro-economic view.
2) conceptual and empirical reform efforts for the measurement of social welfare and economic prosperity.
The aim of the project is to improve the operational relevance and use of IA tools by uniting the multi-disciplinary competences of large European institutes in the field of IA tools.
The effects of environmental tax reforms on economic growth, economic competitiveness, employment, environmental quality and quality of life are at the heart of this programme.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety gave reason to renew the answers to questions of German environmental politics on federal level.
The SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN project aims at establishing a more sustainable and integrated research and innovation cooperation between the EU and the ASEAN region in the areas of climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials. It will also improve the uptake and exploitation of respective research results by different user groups. The project's approach is to achieve this through:
- Creating a knowledge base on the strategic environment for sustainable cooperation, uptake and implementation of results of joint EU-ASEAN environment research
- Developing and testing tools for increased synergies, uptake, exposure and visibility of joint EU-ASEAN research
- Developing a roadmap and concrete proposals for upgrading joint research and innovation, for more sustainable and strategic future cooperation
- Identifying and cluster EU funded and relevant bilateral projects in the area of climate action, raw materials and resource efficiency