Michael Muller, State Secretary in the German Environment Ministry, talks about the environment and social policy.

By Michael Muller

Editor's Note: One of the goals of New Social Democrats is to tie concern for the earth with concern for social justice. Both are critical in our day. Environment and energy issues cannot be solved without changing social patterns, without adjusting basic notions of what it means to be a human being in relation to others. The meaning of social life within modern industrialization is now undergoing tremendous change in an information economy. The social dislocations of this change are leaving many bewildered and open to negative conservative rhetoric of social breakdown. Below is one effort to begin thinking about this issue.

It took place at a Party of European Socialists (PES) Activist's Forum in Vienna, Austria, July 4-6, 2008, on the theme: "A strong voice for European Social Democracy". Over 300 activists from all Europe participated this weekend in workshops on the PES manifesto consultation and on campaigning.

In the panel on “Save our Planet”, keynote speaker Michael Mueller, State Secretary in the German Environment Ministry, explained that a social-environmental policy could potentially garner support of 55-58 percent of voters. When social democrats and greens in Europe achieve less than this result, this is due to the outdatedness of the majority of the programmes of the political left. According to him, the current environmental challenges need to be combined with the legacy of left-wing policies. We must take the lead in designing new strategies, following long-term tendencies.

The classical welfare state was linked to the national state and to an immense exploitation of nature. Now, we have to construct a new vision on how a better life is possible. The Greens are focusing on how to combine ecology and economy, but the real challenge is of a social nature. In an increasingly unequal world, the richest fifth of the population spends only 2.5% of their income on energy; the poorest fifth spends 9%. Given these facts, Europe should not orient itself towards an American or Asian model.

Louis Lemkow, director of the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, suggested that we must combine solidarity, sustainability and social justice when it comes to saving our planet. Commentary from activists included many statements on energy production, consumption and efficiency. More specifically; access to energy as a social problem, emissions trading, technology transfers to poor countries and the possibility of a European institute to coordinate environmental research. After one activist asked whether nuclear energy might be an option, concerns were raised about nuclear energy being neither emissions nor risk free. A Dutch activist wanted the Manifesto to be more politicised. “Save our Planet” should be a priority as such – not only in order to create new jobs, another Dutch activist claimed.

In concluding the session on “Save our Planet”, Michael Mueller insisted that sustainability is a social problem: it is against short-termism, it is against unilateralism, it is against the primacy of economy. On the contrary, it is about decentralisation and proximity. We should not focus that much on comparing traditional and renewable energy sources, but rather on how we can boost energy efficiency.

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