German Bundestag – 18th electoral term – 1 – Printed paper 18/12511 German Bundestag Printed paper 18/12511 18th electoral term 26 May 2017 Notification by the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development Report from the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development (Activity report for the 18th electoral term) Contents Page I. Basis of the reporting obligation 2 II. Mission, working methods and organisational structure 4 III. Proposal for enshrinement of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development in the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag 5 IV. Activities 5 1. Parliamentary monitoring and support of the National Sustainability Strategy 5 (a) Opinion of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development on the report of the 2013 Peer Review, entitled Sustainability – Made in Germany, of the National Sustainability Strategy 6 (b) 2014 indicator report on the state of the National Sustainability Strategy 6 (c) New 2016 edition of the German Sustainability Strategy – discussion paper on the draft of the German Sustainability Strategy 7 2. Parliamentary monitoring and support of the sustainability process in the EU framework 7 (a) Opinion on the public consultation process of the European Union on the Europe 2020 strategy 7 (b) Talks on the sustainability policy of the European Union 8 (c) Visit to Brussels 8 (d) Discussion paper – a long way to a sustainable future for the European Union 8 3. Parliamentary monitoring and support of the sustainability process in the United Nations framework 8 (a) Opinion on the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 9 (b) Moving resolutely forward, leaving no one behind – discussion paper for the meeting of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 9 (c) Participation in the HLPF meeting 9 Printed paper 18/12511 – 2 – German Bundestag – 18th electoral term 4. Evaluation of sustainability assessments in legislative impact assessments 10 5. Parliamentary monitoring and support of the institutions dedicated to sustainable development created by the Federal Government 10 (a) Cooperation with the State Secretaries’ Committee for Sustainable Development 10 (b) Cooperation with the Council for Sustainable Development 12 6. Other related matters handled by the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development 12 (a) Motion on education for sustainable development – into the future with the Global Action Programme 12 (b) Fair supply chains – the example of cocoa 13 (c) Discussion paper on product responsibility in the context of collection and recycling 13 (d) Resolution on the Bundestag car pool as a beacon of sustainable mobility 14 (e) Enshrining sustainability in the Basic Law 14 (f) Sustainable agriculture – is a national plant-breeding strategy needed? 14 (g) Sustainability in film and media production 15 (h) The TTIP 15 (i) Sustainable consumption 15 7. Conclusion and proposals for the next electoral term 15 German Bundestag – 18th electoral term – 3 – Printed paper 18/12511 I. Basis of the reporting obligation By means of a decision on an appointment motion (Bundestag printed paper 18/559), the Bundestag, at its 17th sitting, held on 20 February 2014, appointed the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Sustainable Development (Parlamentarischer Beirat für nachhaltige Entwicklung) for the duration of the 18th electoral term. Under the terms of that decision, the Parliamentary Advisory Council presents the Bundestag on a regular basis with reports on its activities. In the 18th electoral term it has presented a total of three such reports. Besides the present activity report for the 18th legislative term, these reports are: 18/3214 Opinion of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development on the 2013 Peer Review of the National Sustainability Strategy, entitled Sustainability – Made in Germany 18/7082 Opinion of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development on the 2014 Indicator Report from the Federal Statistical Office entitled Nachhaltige Entwicklung in Deutschland (Sustainable Development in Germany) and on its expectations for the 2016 progress report on the National Sustainability Strategy. In the present report, the Parliamentary Advisory Council describes its mission, its working methods and organisational structure, its activities and its achievements in the 18th electoral term up to and including March 2017 as well as projects that are still pending. In this context, it recommends that the 19th Bundestag take steps to ensure the seamless continuation of the work of Parliament in the realm of sustainable development. At the United Nations Conference of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, the international community committed itself to the ideal of sustainable development and to Agenda 21, the global action programme for the 21st century that it adopted there. In Agenda 21, the signatory states undertook to develop a strategy for the pursuit of environment- friendly, socially just and economically efficient development. In September 2015, the international community committed itself to global sustainable development in the 2030 Agenda. In this new sustainability agenda, the world set itself 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets. Unlike the MDGs – the Millennium Development Goals – the SDGs apply to all countries in equal measure, be they newly industrialised, developing or industrialised, which means that they apply to Germany too. In response to the Rio process, the Federal Government established the Council for Sustainable Development (Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung) in 2001 and presented the first German national strategy for sustainable development, entitled Perspektiven für Deutschland (‘Prospects for Germany’), in April 2002. The strategy mapped out the direction in which Germany was to develop and the choices it had to make in order to pursue that course. It set priorities for the coming years, defined specific targets and identified measures and indicators that would help to realise the ideal of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development. In 2012, Germany’s National Sustainability Strategy was updated for the third time in the 2012 progress report. The most recent update was published on 11 January 2017. This new edition of the German Sustainability Strategy has comprehensively revised the existing strategy. It incorporates all 17 of the SDGs and announces structural improvements to the sustainability architecture. In the 13th legislative term, the Bundestag appointed a Study Commission on the Protection of Humanity and the Environment, subtitled Objectives and Framework for Sustainable Development, through which it laid important foundations for the institutionalisation of sustainability in Parliament. In the most recent legislative term, the Bundestag, through its Study Commission on Growth, Well-being and Quality of Life – Paths to Sustainable Economic Activity and Social Progress in the Social Market Economy, has been dealing, among other things, with ways of severing the link between economic growth and resource consumption and the quest for a potential new gauge of well-being. The initial appointment of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development in the 15th legislative term institutionalised the sustainability drive in the parliamentary framework. Unlike the Parliamentary Advisory Council, study commissions of the Bundestag avail themselves of extraparliamentary expertise, drawing half of their members from non-elected experts designated by the parliamentary groups, have a clearly demarcated remit and, in their final report, present the Bundestag with a basis for parliamentary decisions. The Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development, by contrast, has a long-term task, involving permanent parliamentary monitoring of the German Sustainability Strategy, known until January 2017 as the National Sustainability Strategy. The Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development is striving to ensure the continuity of its work. This continuity has hitherto been hampered by the fact that the Advisory Council is not Printed paper 18/12511 – 4 – German Bundestag – 18th electoral term appointed until after the appointment of the parliamentary committees. In order to eliminate this problem, the Advisory Council is seeking the enshrinement of its appointment in the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag. II. Mission, working methods and organisational structure By reappointing the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development in March 2014, the Bundestag further reinforced its role in the sustainability debate. The constituent meeting of the Advisory Council took place on 12 March 2014; the body comprises 17 full members. In the 18th electoral term, the chair of the Advisory Council has been Bundestag Member Andreas Jung (CDU/CSU), and his deputy is Dr Lars Castellucci (SPD). The current list of members of the Advisory Council on Sustainable Development – in alphabetical order – is as follows: Mr Steffen Bilger (CDU/CSU), Dr Lars Castellucci (SPD), Ms Saskia Esken (SPD), Mr Mark Helfrich (CDU/CSU), Mr Andreas Jung (CDU/CSU), Mr Rüdiger Kruse (CDU/CSU), Ms Sabine Leidig (The Left Party), Dr Andreas Lenz (CDU/CSU), Mr Matern von Marschall (CDU/CSU), Ms Birgit Menz (The Left Party), Ms Jeannine Pflugradt (SPD), Ms Kerstin Radomski (CDU/CSU), Mr Peter Stein (CDU/CSU), Mr Carsten Träger (SPD), Ms Beate Walter-Rosenheimer (Alliance 90/The Greens), Mr Bernd Westphal (SPD) and Dr Valerie