The Federal government has adopted two strategies, the supply of raw materials to ensure. She works strictly in accordance with departmental boundaries.

A electric car at a charging column raises from a raw material point of view, questions on photo: Reuters

BERLIN taz | What we build in the future, cars or houses? What are there are clothes, furniture and medicines – and we will come in competition with China for raw materials for future technologies such as Lithium and cobalt, in the process? Questions on this answer tries to provide the Federal government with two strategies that it has adopted on Wednesday in the Cabinet.

The raw materials strategy of the Ministry of economy deals with metals, ores, stones, and energy commodities such as coal; the Bioeconomy strategy of the Agriculture and the Federal Ministry of research, however, takes on renewable raw materials in the wood and hemp, bacteria and fungi. Minister of research, Anja Karliczek and Minister of agriculture, Julia Klöckner (both CDU), presented at the launch of their strategy shoes made of spider silk produced by genetically modified bacteria, and a Bicycle helmet made of wood.

The Minister of the interior put on such innovative products and procedures and urge openness to new genetic engineering techniques such as Crispr/CAS. The Bioeconomy and the raw materials strategy handles together, said agriculture Minister Klöckner on Wednesday in Berlin, but left open, and where. In the texts, in any case, no remuneration are set out.

after ten years of revised raw materials strategy of the Federal Economics Minister, Peter Altmaier, to ensure a reliable supply of raw materials for industry. It deals with domestic raw materials such as brown coal, or sand, secondary raw materials from Recycling, as well as raw material imports. The Federal government acknowledges a special significance.

Clearly in the new tasks assigned to the paper of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and natural resources: Among other things, you should watch in your for the industry of the important raw material monitoring in the future also processed raw materials, such steels, powder, or alloys, but also secondary raw materials include, for example, scrap.

The recycling industry, which sees itself as a key industry for the supply of raw materials, criticised fundamentally the paper, however. "In order to secure raw materials for sustainable and for as long as possible to re-use, would need to promote the commodity strategy, the Recycling significantly," says Gerd cocks, managing Director of Scholz Recycling from the baden-württemberg Essingen. "Unfortunately, the policy has been omitted from this design option for a greener future, apparently."

Jörg Lacher from the German Federal Association for secondary raw materials and disposal (bvse) says: "We see no convincing strategic approach, not for the near future, but not in the medium or long term." We hope that, particularly in the areas of recycling, use of recycled products and sustainable public procurement measures in the amendment of the circular economy will be regulated act of binding than in the past.

environmental and development organisations have joined in the "working group resources" together, criticize the focus of the strategy on access to primary raw materials as well. The organizations demand to take the consumption of a stronger view: "in Order to reduce the high demand for raw materials of German industry, it comes to prolonged use, repair, re-use and Recycling on the way to the European Green Deal announced in the circular economy", says Cornelia Heydenreich, team head of corporate responsibility, Germanwatch. Germany should not steal the questions in the extraction of raw materials from the responsibility, says Tobias child, programme leader for mining and metals in the WWF, "but must halt the continuing loss of biological diversity as a result of the mining and processing of iron ore, bauxite, and Co stop".

That would be for the purposes of the Bioeconomy strategy: For a bio-based economy is dependent on biological diversity necessarily.