The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (german: Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz, ), abbreviated BMUV, is a cabinet-level ministry of the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

. It has branches in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. The ministry was established on 6 June 1986 in response to the Chernobyl disaster. The then Federal Government wanted to combine environmental authority under a new minister in order to face new environmental challenges more effectively. Furthermore

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

had been formed a few years prior in part as an anti-nuclear

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

party and had achieved federal representation in 1983 and

Joschka Fischer Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German retired politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice-chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fi ...

had been appointed minister of the environment for

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

the previous year, marking the first state level red-green coalition in Germany. Thus the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...

intended to project a message of taking the environment seriously in an era in which the Greens were widely perceived as the only party with a policy focus on environmental issues, notwithstanding the fact that CSU-led Bavaria had had a state environment minister since 1971 and the FDP was the first to pass an environment-related plank in the party platform in 1971. Prior to the establishment of the ministry of the environment, responsibilities for environmental issues were distributed among the ministries of the Interior,

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

and

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

Functions

The ministry's primary functions include:Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety - primary functions
retrieved 25-May-2012 * Fundamental national environmental policy * Informing and educating the public about environmental issues * Environmental remediation and development in Eastern Germany * Climate protection and energy *

Air quality Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

control *

Noise abatement Noise control or noise mitigation is a set of strategies to reduce noise pollution or to reduce the impact of that noise, whether outdoors or indoors. Overview The main areas of noise mitigation or abatement are: transportation noise control, ...

* Conservation of groundwater, rivers, lakes and seas *

Soil conservation Soil conservation is the prevention of loss of the topmost layer of the soil from erosion or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination. Slash-and-burn and other uns ...

and remediation of contaminated sites * Waste management and recycling policy * Chemicals safety, environment and health * Precautions against emergencies in industrial plants * Protection, maintenance and sustainable utilization of biodiversity * Safety of nuclear facilities * Nuclear supply and disposal * Radiological protection

Organization

The ministry is led by the Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The current Minister is

Svenja Schulze Svenja Schulze (born 29 September 1968) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She serves as Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in the cabinet of Olaf Scholz. Schulze has been serving as member of the German ...

, appointed by Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

. The minister is supported by two parliamentary state secretaries (members of the cabinet and federal government, "deputy ministers") and two career state secretaries (public servants) who manage the ministry's nine directorates: *"Z" directorate (''Abteilung Z'') is the central office responsible for internal affairs * "G" directorate (''Abteilung G'') is the central office responsible for policy and collaboration *"KI" directorate (''Abteilung KI''):

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

and international cooperation *"S" directorate (''Abteilung S''):

radiation protection Radiation protection, also known as radiological protection, is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "The protection of people from harmful effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, and the means for achieving this". Expos ...

, nuclear safety, nuclear supply and

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

*"WR" directorate (''Abteilung WR''):

water management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitorin ...

soil conservation Soil conservation is the prevention of loss of the topmost layer of the soil from erosion or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination. Slash-and-burn and other uns ...

and

contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination ...

*"IG" directorate (''Abteilung IG''):

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different typ ...

, health impacts, environment and traffic, hazardous locations and materials *"N" directorate (''Abteilung N''):

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

und

species richness Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the abundances of the species or their relative ab ...

, genetic engineering, environmental impacts of agriculture and forestry

Federal Environment Ministers

Political Party:

References

External links

Official Web site (German)Official Web site (English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Federal Ministry For Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Environment of Germany Germany, Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Germany, Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Germany, Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Germany, Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection 1986 establishments in West Germany Radiation protection organizations

Functions

Organization

Federal Environment Ministers

See also

References

External links