Strategic Environmental Dialogues

The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change call for the global transformation of economies and lifestyles, providing new impetus for sustainable development. The accompanying international commitments pose complex challenges for many countries and generate demand for practicable approaches for coherent implementation. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), the project supports dialogue and exchange formats with political decision-makers and key actors from business, science, and civil society in emerging and developing countries. Within the framework of the cooperation, innovative cross-sectoral concepts and formats are developed and initiatives on selected thematic focal points are supported to contribute to the international alignment of interests and exchange of experience as well as to development in the partner countries.

Project data

Countries: Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia
IKI funding: 13,850,000.00 €
Duration: 01/2014 till 06/2027
Status: open
Implementing organisation: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Political Partner: Diverse climate change relevant institutions in the respective partner countries/Diverse klimarelevante Institutionen in den entsprechenden Partnerländern

Ministry of Ecology and Environment - China

Ministry of Economy - Argentina

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) - India

Ministry of Environment (KLH) - Indonesia*

Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA) - Brazil

National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) - China

State Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS) - Indonesia*

Undersecretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development - Argentina
Implementing Partner: Frankfurt School of Finance & Management gGmbH

Stockholm Environment Institute

United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC)

Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy GmbH - Germany
Online: https://www.giz.de/en/projects/strategic-environmental-dialogues

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State of implementation/results

In 2023, the socio-ecological transformation partnership between Germany and Brazil was established, serving as the foundation for further bilateral environmental initiatives.
An action plan for a strategic dialogue on the topics of the circular economy and resource efficiency was established with China.
With India, a wide range of bilateral formats are supported, particularly on the topics of the circular economy, waste management, climate, and biodiversity.
Bilateral Environmental Forums:
- The project implements high-level environmental forums organised by the BMUKN with emerging economies. These are complemented by regular planning and strategy workshops at various hierarchical levels. To date, 15 environmental forums have been held with six countries.
- These include the 7th German-Chinese Environmental Forum in 2023, held under the motto “Together for green and sustainable development – synergy between tackling pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change.”
- The 4th German-Indian Environmental Forum, titled “Together for More Resilience,” took place in September 2026.
Dialogue Events and Technical Publications:
- The project organised 28 events featuring high-level stakeholders from politics, academia, and business in eight countries.
- For example, a networking event in 2024 with German and Chinese stakeholders, a delegation visit from India to Berlin on the topic of the circular economy, and an Indonesian delegation focusing on green recovery and renewable energy.
- The German-Chinese Track 2 Dialogue, which supports a working group on biodiversity and climate, involves regular exchanges between experts from both countries. The results were presented in 2025 at a high-level side event during the COP 30 climate conference (german-climate-pavilion.de/…).
- In total, the project produced 35 specialised publications to support the environmental dialogues, including on sustainable financial systems in China (cooperacaobrasil-alemanha.com/…) and Brazil (cooperacaobrasil-alemanha.com/…), Bogotá’s circular economy strategy (www.sei.org/… advancing-circular-economy-latin-american-caribbean-cities-sei2025-012.pdf) and on marine plastic pollution and extended producer responsibility (www.sei.org/… marine-plastic-pollution-epr-sei2025-036.pdf).
Learning Formats
- Since 2023, 532 participants from the fields of politics, academia, and business have benefited from professional development programs, enabling them to strengthen their organisations’ capacity to implement climate and environmental protection measures.
- For example, in 2025, 41 Brazilian government employees received training on sustainability topics as part of the Sustainable Leadership Academy.