Overline: Call for Researchers

Headline: Scientific Online Consultation on the German Sustainability Strategy

In the period from 31 May to 31 July, researchers can bring their insights and ideas to bear in the process of refining the Strategy by responding to the following seven guiding questions:

1. Why is Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy not on target in certain areas?
2. Does the Sustainable Development Strategy measure the changes we want (to measure)?
3. What trade-offs can be addressed, and what synergies can we exploit?
4. Does Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy support sustainable development at local and global levels?
5. How could Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy be more effective?
6. Is Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy viable in the longer term?
7. How can science play a more constructive role in shaping Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy?

Based on the responses to these questions, the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 will derive recommendations for the further development of the Sustainable Development Strategy, which it will present to the Federal Government at its annual conference in December 2019.

We want to hear your views: www.wpn2030.de/konsultation

Background

Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy

Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy was launched by the Federal Government in 2002 and revised in 2016 to align it with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Strategy describes how the government intends to contribute to achieving the SDGs in, with and through Germany. The latest version of the Strategy is from 2018, and the next comprehensive revision is planned for 2020.

To ensure that revisions to the Strategy are informed by as many perspectives and expert opinions as possible, the government initiates a broad consultation process in advance of every planned refinement. In order to systematically integrate scientists’ views into this process, the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 is coordinating the online scientific consultation “A Question of Science: Putting Germany’s Sustainability Strategy to the Test”.

Scientific Consultation

A critical appraisal of Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy by the scientific community is vital to developing it further. In addition to the perspectives of other parts of society – the private sector and civil society, for example – evidence-based scientific analysis of the Strategy will highlight deficits, question underlying assumptions, and identify solutions for more effective implementation.

Knowledge from all disciplines has a role to play here, since each of the SDGs raises complex questions and involves conflicts of interest and other challenges that touch on many different scientific disciplines.

Researchers are invited to express their views in responses to seven guiding questions. The Science Platform will then collate those responses and publish them online in the form of recommendations for the political process of refining Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy. In some cases, researchers will be involved in this phase of the process, which will culminate in the presentation to the Federal Government of an official statement by the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 at its annual conference in December 2019. The views on which this statement is based will also be submitted along with the names of the researchers who expressed them, provided they have given their consent for this publication.

The Science Platform Sustainability 2030

The Science Platform Sustainability 2030 is a central hub where scientists and partners from politics, the economy and civil society jointly reflect on pressing sustainability policy issues. It gathers and communicates knowledge for sustainability, in particular with a view to implementing Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy.

The platform operates independently and is systematically integrated into the political process of implementing the 2030 Agenda in Germany. It is open to anybody who wants to contribute their expertise to advancing sustainability policy.

Further information: www.wpn2030.de