The German Green Party is known as the “Party of Ecology”. Protecting the environment runs through its political DNA. In voter surveys, the German Greens regularly come out as the party deemed to have by far the greatest competency in this area and in energy policy as well. But is that justified? Do they make any difference when they govern? And how do the Greens use their influence in state coalitions to impact federal legislation?

In the study I try to answer these questions by looking at the subnational level of the federal states. The German Greens (technically Alliance 90/The Greens) currently govern in 11 out of Germany’s 16 states. In each one of them they are in charge of the ministry of environment, and in addition in charge of other environment-related policy fields, such as transport, agriculture, and energy.

The study has been published by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Brussels. Download or order it here.

The German version is available for download and print order (here). The research builds up on the 2017 study The German Greens in Coalition Governments (here).