Environmentally Harmful Subsidies in Germany

For many years, the German public have regarded environmental protection as one of the most important problems in Germany. People attach great importance to the quality of environmental assets – such as climate, water, soil or air. This is reflected by public and private expenditure on protection of the environment: in 2006 the state and industry spent a combined total of €34.2 billion on water conservation, waste management, air quality control and noise abatement.