ABSTRACT
The issue of climate change is characterized by three main dimensions which must be borne in mind when analysing the development of climate change politics. Reunification of Germany in October 1990 led to changes in policy style in Germany. These changes resulted internally from the attempts to reintegrate the Lander of the former German Democratic Republic and externally from the need to adjust the role of a larger Germany within the European context. In principle, all German federal ministries and the Office of the Chancellor have had some interest in environmental policy since the development of the first environmental policy programme at the beginning of the 1970s. Initially the main responsibility for the development of environmental policy was with the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety is one of the small ministries that will remain in Bonn after the majority of the administration and the government has moved to Berlin.
