Realigning the Strategy for Sustainable Development

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Construction and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and the coordination of the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), adelphi and the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT) are working on the political model for sustainable development. Together with other actors, the project will work towards updating the political model for sustainability, amending it conceptually, and, where necessary, introducing it into relevant political and societal discourses. The goal of the project is to develop conceptual and strategic proposals on the subject of how to effectively design and expand the political scope of sustainability policy.

The first working stage will be to present the status and development of the political model for sustainable development and its conceptual implementation in the policies of the German Federal Government. Using case studies, specific federal ministries will be analysed in order to ascertain to what extent their development and implementation of political strategies and their daily administrative procedures are oriented around the political model for sustainable development or other (competing) models.

Furthermore, the project will identify different conceptual discourses beyond the immediate sustainability debate and summarise their potential for innovation. The project team will analyse if and in what form the political model for sustainable development is compatible with these discourses (and vice versa).

In the context of a series of technical dialogues between relevant representatives of specific discourses and other political actors, the various results and proposals will then be evaluated, discussed and conceptually developed into an updated political model. Finally, adelphi and the IZT will develop recommendations for the conceptual application of the updated model for sustainable development and for the process of updating the national sustainability strategy and its institutional implementation.