The Environmental and Energy Study Institute sponsored two roundtables on Wednesday, June 28th, at 4:00 p.m., and on Thursday, June 29th, at 3:30 p.m. These roundtables featured Kai Schlegelmilch of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and an expert on environmentally-related fiscal policies in Europe. The roundtables provided an excellent opportunity to learn about Germany's "ecological tax reform" and other market-based European environmental initiatives, including their role in German and European Union climate change policy.

European countries increasingly are looking to market-based approaches, including both taxes and emissions trading, to address climate change, air pollution and other environmental concerns. Germany's ecological tax reform, currently in its second phase, has made cuts in Germany's employer and employee social insurance contributions, financed through tax increases on petroleum products and electricity, with the intent of increasing employment as well as energy efficiency, use of renewable energy sources, and technological innovation. The roundtable discussions highlighted some of the interesting issues raised by this integrated approach to fiscal and environmental policymaking.

The featured speaker at the roundtables, Kai Schlegelmilch, currently advises the German government on environmental taxes and energy/climate issues. He made the roundtable presentations in his personal capacity, not as a representative of the German government. Mr. Schlegelmilch previously has worked as a research fellow with the European Environment Agency and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Energy, and Environment and has written extensively on environmental taxes. He came to Washington after making a presentation at the Canadian National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

These roundtables were made possible through the generous support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, an independent U.S. foundation created to deepen understanding, promote collaboration and stimulate exchanges of practical experience between Americans and Europeans.