Late last month the Sustainable Finance Committee, which advises the German federal government on the development and implementation of its Sustainable Finance Strategy, released a report outlining more than 30 policy recommendations to be taken to establish a sustainable financial system. Digitalization, globalization, climate concerns, and more recently the coronavirus pandemic are driving change around the world. In order to address these trends, companies must innovate and adapt to survive. The finance sector can play a role in facilitating this transformative process by doing more to address sustainability and the social impact of investing. On March 26, the ACG hosted a discussion about Germany’s model for sustainable finance with one of the members of the Sustainable Finance Committee, Dr. Gerald Podobnik, the CFO of the Corporate Bank division of Deutsche Bank.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect lives around the world, it is becoming clear that the pandemic and its economic fallout are having a regressive effect on gender equality. Sociologist Jutta Allmendinger recently claimed the pandemic will set Germany back 30 years in terms of the equality achieved between men and women. Mothers, in particular, are disadvantaged by existing containment strategies. On March 23, the Thomas Mann House, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and the American Council on Germany hosted a discussion with Jutta Allmendinger, President of WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and Richard V. Reeves, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and moderated by Birte Meier, Journalist, ZDF, whose residency at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles to work on “Equal Pay in California and what Germany can learn from it” was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has forced companies around the globe to adapt their business models. Due to public health concerns and lockdowns, many companies had to lay off or furlough workers. In Germany, Kurzarbeit policies softened the economic blow.
On March 16 the American Council on Germany and 1014 hosted a discussion about how trade unions are coping with the impact of Covid-19 with Reiner Hoffmann, the Chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or DGB), and John E. Shinn, International Secretary and Treasurer of the United Steelworkers.
On Sunday, 14 March 2021, Germany held state elections in the western Länder of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. Although the states are relatively small – with roughly 7.7 million and 3.1 eligible voters, respectively – these elections mark the beginning of Germany’s Superwahljahr, which will culminate with federal elections in late September and the formation of a new government with a new Chancellor for the first time in 16 years.
The day after the state elections, March 15, the ACG hosted a discussion on the results and Germany’s party landscape in an election year from Politics Editor for ZEIT ONLINE Katharina Schuler, and Florian Naumann, Team Leader and Editor in the Politics Department of Merkur.de.
On March 11, the American Council on Germany and the Denver Council on Foreign Relations hosted an evening discussion with Ricklef Beutin, the Deputy Chief of Mission for the German Embassy in Washington, DC.