How sustainable is the German energy system? Introducing the Indicator for Sustainable Development (ISD) as a new measuring concept

For around 20 years, the sustainability concept and its implementation have been discussed by society at large (Kobiowu et al., 2005; Goldblatt, 2005; Marechal et al., 2005; Backstrand, 2006; Spangenberg, 2005) and, among others, by the green economics community (Lunn, 2006; Kennet and Heinemann, 2006b; Dobson and Bell, 2005a; Barry, 2005). Sustainability is regarded as a solution to society's present and future problems. Energy already plays an important role for sustainable development in the Brundtland Commission's report. We developed a new Indicator for Sustainable Development (ISD) in order to analyse the German energy system and a quantitative sustainable development pathway on the basis of scientific work by the German Federal Government. Our analysis shows that developments in the energy sector can be described with the help of measurable sustainability indicators and that the indicators identify the need for political action in the energy sector and thus provide a starting point for political measures.