Sustainche™ thinks about Germany’s National Strategy for Sustainable Development (I)
Sustainche during the past days was busy reading the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Germany, or – more precisely – the Progress Report 2008 on the National Strategy for Sustainable Development: For a Sustainable Germany. “Well, there can be no doubt that the Germans have thought about Sustainable Development !” So far, Sustainche is satisfied.
First of all, Sustainche is delighted to notice that both the political Coalition Agreement of 2005 and 2009 expressly professed support for sustainability as a political guiding principle and the further development of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development. Thus, it is clear that sustainability as a long-term approach is independent of particular legislative periods and is supported by a broad political consensus. This is already more than Sustainche saw in Macedonia ! Beyond this, Sustainche has the strange feeling that politicians enjoy using the word sustainable whenever it is possible … and even if it makes no sense at all. This might be due to the specifics of German language, which – in general – understands sustainable equal to long-lasting. Ok, long-lasting seems to be a word that German speaking human mammals like … 
On the other hand politicians are not necessarily the most important species on Planet Earth and sometimes normal citizens’ brains think more practical. It appears to Sustainche that specific aspects of Sustainable Development are extremely popular among German citizens, for example renewable energies. While looking around in his new neighbourhood and thanks to the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) legislation, it seems that private investments in solar, wind and biomass energies are something very normal in real daily life. Entire villages in Germany made themselves independent from global playing electricity suppliers. Isn’t this excellent civic commitment ! 
Since the Progress Report 2008 presents the state of the art as of July 2008 the State Secretaries’ Committee on Sustainable Development enjoys highlighting the ‘sound budgetary policy’ as a foundation stone of sustainable development. Having the target formulated that the federal budget shall be without net borrowing from 2011 at latest, consolidating the budget is defined as to be the key element in creating intergeneration equity and improving the quality of State expenditure. Sustainche can virtually smell the happiness of the State Secretaries that such a goal was indeed realistic in July 2008. However, – we all know – then September and October 2008 arrived and the so-called ‘Global Financial Crisis’ washed away everything like a tsunami … !
Sustainche asks himself what this means: Very simply speaking the key indicator in creating ‘intergeneration equity’ and ‘improving the quality of State expenditure’ turned from ‘sunshine’ to ‘thunderstorm’ ! Every year tremendous state debts are envisaged: A total of 243 Billion Euro between the year 2010 and 2016 ! And, by taking the sentence above literally: NO intergeneration equity and NO improvement of the quality of State expenditure will be possible for years to come, and, thus no sustainable development !
“Hmmm … ,” Sustainche’s Blog readers might think, “perhaps it wasn’t so wise to newly introduce the ‘national debt’ as a key indicator in 2008 … ?” “In fact, it was wise”, Sustainche is sure ! Yes, the indicator indeed shows that the development goes in the wrong direction and if the annual trend continues unaltered the distance to be covered to reach the goal would become even greater. The state is indeed not operational any more and this not only refers to Germany. Today, Banks, Investment Banks and General Motors dictate what they want and they simply play around with Governments and people. Complete states today are taken hostage by a handful of Anglo-Saxon style capitalists. This is the fact, which – of course – has nothing to do with Sustainable Development of the people, by the people and for the people !
To be concluded
Excellent comments my friend….
Some good news: the prime ministers of Greece, Albania and FYROM met informally in the Prespes Lakes region of northwestern Greece, following an initiative of Greek Premier George Papandreou, to discuss prospects of cooperation for the protection and sustainable development of the Prespes National Park region, which straddles the borders of all three countries. (ANA-MPA)