Political Environment
Political Environment

Political Environment

Within Europe and Germany, Hessen occupies a leading position in terms of both economic power and sustainability. As early as the year 2000, the state government established an alliance for sustainable location policy: the Hessen Environmental Alliance - This currently has more than 900 Hessian companies as members. The aim is to secure the high environmental standard in Hessen and further improve conditions for environmentally sustainable economic development in Hessen. In 2008, the state government had initiated the Hessian Sustainability Strategy, taking on a pioneering role within Germany. And ten years later, in 2018, Hessen was the first German state to include the principle of sustainability in the constitution as a state goal, which was passed by referendum.

As part of the Hessian Sustainability Strategy, the Sustainable Economy Initiative has been formed. This is intended to embed sustainable activities in companies in Hessen and serves as a platform for discourse, offerings and initiatives.

Hessen´s Roadmap Energy, introduced also in 2018, outlines the short-medium term framework for Hessen’s energy policies. The current focus is on expanding renewable energy sources, supporting a significant increase in energy efficiency and infrastructure and working on the overarching topics of sector coupling and digitization.

Currently, more than half of the electricity volume in Hessen is generated from renewable energy sources – representing a tenfold increase since 2000. But even this outstanding success is only another step on the way to become climate-neutral by 2045.

“Our mission is to transform our fossil-fuel-based, resource-intensive and nature-consuming economy into a climate-neutral, social, crisis-proof and future-proof economy.”

Tarek Al-WazirMinister for Economic Affairs

In 2022, Hessen’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Tarek Al-Wazir, announced the state-wide initiative known as ‘WirtschaftsWandel Hessen’ (Hessen Economic Transformation).

The ‘WirtschaftsWandel Hessen’ service point is a central point of contact for companies implemented at Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH (HTAI) on behalf of the Hessian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport and Housing. It supports innovation projects on resource efficiency and recycling and coordinates the expansion of the start-up and transfer network to strengthen collaboration between research and industry. In the future, it will run special programs to support companies that are making their production processes energy- and resource-efficient.

With the Hessen Hydrogen Strategy (German Only) presented at the Hessen Fuel Cell Forum in Frankfurt at the end of 2021, the state has shown how the potential of hydrogen can be tapped for the economy and climate protection. This is not only about theoretical planning – specific projects are being supported and implemented throughout the state. Further sustainability-related strategies in Hessen are the “Integrierte Klimaschutzplan Hessen 2025” (Integrated Climate Protection Plan Hessen 2025) (German Only), the „Hessenstrategie Mobilität 2035“ (Hessen Mobility Strategy 2035) (German Only) and the „Hessische Innovationsstrategie 2021-2027“ (Hessian Innovation Strategy 2021-2027) (German Only).

Hessen is also a Germany-wide pioneer in sustainable agriculture. Since 2021, Hessen has been the only federal state to support a state-wide organic model region in order to advance organic farming.


Your Consultants

You would like to know more about your opportunities in Hessen? Speak to us!

Dr. David Eckensberger

Dr. David Eckensberger

Head of Department International Affairs

Division

International Affairs

+49 611 95017 8326

Jonas Winkler

Jonas Winkler

Director Location Marketing & Investor Services

Division

International Affairs

+49 611 95017 8641

Andreas Damrau

Andreas Damrau

Director Investor Services | RCEP Area

Division

International Affairs

+49 611 95017 8346