ABSTRACT
In the 1980s, industrial installations in eastern parts of Germany were characterised by their inefficiency. The German government lists more than 100 measures for greenhouse gas reduction in its national climate policy programme. Germany is often held to be the paragon of successful climate policy. German climate policy started in the late 1980s with a declaration of an ambitious emissions reduction target based on a thousand-page report, 'Protection of the Earth's Atmosphere', by a parliamentary commission. At the national level, the 2002 flooding in the southern and eastern parts of Germany significantly raised public awareness of climate change and the need for effective climate policies. Policy-makers were thus faced with a dilemma during post-unification economic recession: imposing burdens on German industry was out of the question but somehow industry would have to publicly show action on greenhouse gas reduction. Industry thus thought it had nothing to fear from climate policy and remained on the sidelines.
