Focus on Germany London Office June 2011 Ecological Industrial Policy for Ecological Structural Change In 2006, the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nu­clear Safety published a first memorandum for a ‘ New Deal ’ for the economy, the environment and employment. Given the subsequent advent of the financial and economic crisis, which at that time was not generally foreseen, the fact that the memorandum laid down a number of benchmarks, taking in a wide range of issues and adopting a clear Keynesian stance with regard to state intervention, means that it is high time to take another look at the concept, five years after its publication, in light of the debate on a ‘ Green New Deal ’ . Ecological industrial policy should not be seen as an end in itself, but rather as an instrument for achieving ecological structural change. Dr. Philipp Schepelmann* Ecological Industrial Policy: The Establish­ment of More ‘Pioneering Markets’ The concept of ecological industrial policy stands in the tradition of ideas about sustainable development which link the economic goal of growth with the ecological requirements of cli­mate protection and resource conservation: “ It is essential that the model for sustainable devel­opment revolves around a „ third industrial revo­lution ‟ with energy and resource efficiency at its centre. Instead of playing economy and ecology off against each other, we need to finally under­stand the economic potential inherent in the *Dr Philipp Schepelmann is project leader at the Wup­pertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie, researching European environmental and regional policy. Besides the author‟s own rese arch results this contribution is based on the results of the Workshop „ Instruments for an envi ronmental industrial policy‟ of 8 July 2010 held by the working group „ Sustain able structural policy‟ of the Economic and Social Policy department. necessary ecological structural change: new growth, new value creation, new products and processes and new jobs are all possible. To make it happen we need an ecological industrial policy that will adapt our industrial structures to the ecological and economic challenges. ” i Introducing the notion of ecological industrial policy first of all raises the question of what it involves. But perhaps even more important is the question of what it no longer involves. If there is an ecological industrial policy, in other words, is there also an unecological industrial policy? Industry of any kind – but especially manufac­turing – involves the consumption of materials. The use of cheap energy sources is even a constitutive condition for industrialisation. There­Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung London Office 66 Great Russell Street London WC1B 3BN Phone:+44(0)20 7025 0990 Fax:+44(0)20 7242 9973 e-mail: info@feslondon.net website: www.feslondon.org.uk