Postscript: Energy crunch - shortages of raw material: What is the medium-term outlook for the German economy?

As a postscript to the contributions published in ifo Schnelldienst 5/2007 on raw material shortages, Dieter Ameling of the German Steel Federation shows how the steel industry reacts to shortages on the raw material and energy markets and reduces the effects on the subsequent stages of the value added chain. For Ameling, a reverse integration, i.e., investments in raw material extraction, is not a suitable strategy to counter increasing raw material costs. The ultimate strategy can only be a greater resource and energy efficiency. Matthias Ruete, European Commission, presents in his article the Energy and Climate Package of the European Commission that was made public on 10 January 2007. The EU Commission has proposed a policy mix to integrate, three twenty-percent medium-term goals by the year 2020: an autonomous twenty-percent reduction of European greenhouse gas emissions based on the level of 1990, a twenty-percent increase in the use of renewable energy in the European energy mix and a twenty-percent increase in energy efficiency.