“Bonn Perspectives – A fresh look at sustainability” is an initiative of the City of Bonn and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is conceived as an innovative dialogue and conference format, with the goal of opening up new ways of looking at and dealing with sustainability issues. The aim is for the “Bonn Perspectives” to strengthen the City of Bonn as a location for international discussion on sustainable development. Its goal is to raise the location’s profile in international competition and pool its existing potential. Particularly in the current national and international debate on the “green economy” transformation – i.e. the social transformation and shift from traditional to ecological economies – Bonn has great potential, both thematically and institutionally, as the home of numerous federal ministries, the German UN location with a focus on sustainable development, and the seat of some 150 NGOs, both international and internationally active.

The “Bonn Perspectives” are directed at the interfaces and nexus between various policy areas, e.g. between water, energy and food security, and between urbanisation, the economy and climate. New approaches and options for action will be formulated to address numerous conflicts of interest and objectives between these policy areas, in order to successfully achieve sustainability goals. This is the starting point for the “Bonn Perspectives,” with innovative dialogue techniques and conference formats that do justice to the complexity of the issue.

The “Bonn2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus – Solutions for the Green Economy” is the Federal Government’s first international conference in the framework of the “Bonn Perspectives,” whose first project phase runs to the end of 2012.

Website: www.bonn-perspectives.de

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