59th Annual Meeting of the Ifo Institute

On 24 June 2008, the 59th Annual Meeting of the Ifo Institute took place in the Aula of the University of Munich (LMU). After words of greeting by LMU President Bernd Huber, Ifo President Hans-Werner Sinn presented the latest Ifo economic forecast. He commended the performance of the Agenda 2010 reforms, by which a considerable number of jobs, especially in the low-wage sector, have been created. Sinn also discussed the importance of bio-energy for efficient environmental policies. Bio-fuels do lower the demand for fossil fuel but this demand-policy measure remains ineffective if the supply of fossil fuel is not also reduced. In addition, with the production of bio-energy the cultivation areas for food are drastically reduced. The keynote speaker, Reinhard Bütikofer, party leader of Alliance 90/The Greens, examined the economic-efficiency aspects of climate protection. The event concluded with a panel discussion chaired by Roland Tichy, Chief Editor of WirtschaftsWoche. Participants in addition to Reinhard Bütikofer and Hans-Werner Sinn were Otmar Bernhard, Bavarian State Minister for the Environment, Health and Consumer Protection, Udo Martinsohn, Chairman of the Board of Management Swiss Re Germany Holding AG, Johannes Teyssen, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management, E.ON AG, and Andreas Troge, President of the Federal Environmental Agency. Statements by Otmar Bernhard and Udo Martinsohn are printed in this issue.