Science Platform Sustainability 2030

Science Platform Sustainability 2030 (wpn20320) is commencing its second funding period as a complementary research project. An activity report (in German) covering its first funding period from 2017 to 2021 offers an overview of the platform’s objectives and outcomes as well as its various formats for dialogue and participation.

The draft proposal for Brandenburg’s future sustainable development strategy has met with a mixed response from Brandenburg's Sustainability Advisory Board and Sustainability Platform Brandenburg, two bodies coordinated by the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS). The strategy’s alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and commitment to adopting a whole-of-government approach to sustainability challenges were noted positively by both organisations. However, the strategy lacks "an overarching vision of where Brandenburg wants to go" and a clear roadmap and timeline for efforts to achieve the state’s goals.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has convened the new German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE). RIFS Scientific Director Mark Lawrence will serve a three-year term on the council. At the inaugural meeting held at the Federal Chancellery on 15 February 2023, the members unanimously elected Reiner Hoffmann, the former president of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), to chair the council.

Will changes in our routines and lifestyles during the pandemic translate into more sustainable behaviour over the longer term? A team of researchers from the Science Platform for Climate Protection (Wissenschaftsplattform Klimaschutz - WPKS) examined this question with the support of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and considered whether policy measures could help to consolidate gains.

Greater cooperation is needed to advance sustainability, urges Patrizia Nanz, co-chair of the Science Platform Sustainability 2030. Her statement supports a central finding of the “2018 Peer Review on the German Sustainability Strategy”, which was launched in Berlin at the 18th Annual Conference of the Council for Sustainable Development on 4 June.