Three questions for Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
Let’s get to it: What does sustainability mean to you? What do you associate with the term?
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul: For me, sustainability means doing everything I can personally and politically to enable everyone – including around the globe and generations to come – to live a happy and fruitful life.
What is your personal priority in your work as part of the Council for Sustainable Development?
For me, this role is about ensuring that the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda are realised in the German government’s policies in practice. In turn, this also means helping to make sure there is enough financial scope in the budgets to achieve these goals. Across all these international issues, global health is a central focus of mine.
In the context of sustainability, what do you believe will pose the greatest challenge in the coming years?
Various transformations need to take place, and the greatest challenge will be shaping these transitions in a way that reduces inequality and ensures that the much-needed decarbonisation of the economy can also be replicated in other global regions. At the same time, we need to be and become resilient in the face of poverty, pandemics and climate change.
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul has been a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development since November 2016.
Curriculum vitae
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul detailed CV available to download (PDF, 69 KB)
Quote
“Various transformations need to take place, and the greatest challenge will be shaping these transitions in a way that reduces inequality.”
Press photo
You are welcome to use this press photo free of charge for reporting purposes, provided you quote the copyright notice.
© Photo: Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
Download press photo (277 KB), Photo: © Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
To download the photo in high resolution we recommend to click the link with the right mouse key. The photo file can then be saved to your computer via the context menu “Save target/link as…” (or similar).