SUSTAINABLE GERMANY --
A VIEW FROM THE SOUTH

World Summit Paper #16; an assessment by Meena Menon, Bernardo Reyes, Jane Ngige, Batir Wardam, Ute Sprenger (Co-ordinator)

"So how is our perspective different? We see the same things that everyone else does and have access to the same material that is available to everyone. Yet our conclusions may be different due to cultural and political perspectives. We saw the growth in the number of cars exceeding population growth in developed countries and we have mixed feelings, exactly the way the developed countries react when they see our so-called bur-geoning populations. Yet, can we advocate birth control for cars? That is not in keeping with the democratic spirit we believe in. Yet, the situation is in many ways deplorable in the North, more so because developing countries see this as the model for growth and progress." From the foreword.

On the occasion of the World Summit the Heinrich Boell Foundation alongside with several partners has conducted a project entitled "Sustainable Germany - A Southern Perspective 10 years after Rio". A team of five experts from countries of the South were invited to take a critical view of the implementation of sustainable development in Germany.

For pragmatic reasons, the task was limited to three central themes which have an important place in Germany's national sustainability strategy: Energy and Climate Change; Mobility and Transport; and Agriculture and Nature Conservation. Although the authors describe themselves as "non-experts", they have yet displayed great expertise in this report. The report presents a discerning image tinged with neither uncritical admiration nor indiscriminate accusations: It is the image of a country that is addressing the challenge of sustainability, sometimes half-heartedly and often in the face of great resistance by powerful groups.

[ pdf; 94 pages ]