10 Years of the Export Initiative Environmental Protection: Working Together to Promote CleanTech Internationally

To mark its tenth anniversary, the Export Initiative Environmental Protection brought together around 220 representatives from business, politics and academia at the CleanTech Conference 2026 in Berlin. The conference focused on competitiveness, international markets and strong partnerships.

On 3 and 4 September, the CleanTech Conference organised by the Environmental Protection Export Initiative (EXI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) took place in Berlin. On behalf of the BMUKN, Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH organised the event in cooperation with the “Chambers for GreenTech” project team at DIHK Service GmbH at the Haus der Deutschen Wirtschaft.

The conference provided an opportunity to take stock of the Export Initiative’s first ten years while also looking ahead. The central question was how policymakers and businesses can work together to strengthen the competitiveness of Germany’s environmental technology sector while advancing environmental protection worldwide.

The event opened with an evening reception on 3 September 2026. In her welcome address, Parliamentary State Secretary Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter emphasised the importance of the EXI in promoting environmental technologies internationally. A review of the Export Initiative’s ten-year history then highlighted the developments the funding programme has helped to initiate and the progress made by funded projects in partner countries.

Dialogue between politics and business

Following opening remarks by Dr Helena Melnikov, Chief Executive of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), and Dr Constanze Haug, Managing Director of the project management agency ZUG, Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider opened the conference on 4 September 2026 with a keynote speech. He emphasised that innovative environmental technologies make an important contribution to economic strength and the protection of natural resources:

“CleanTech has developed into a key industrial sector for Germany. Future growth will be driven to a large extent by environmental technologies, particularly in Germany. German companies are strong in the field of environmental protection, and demand for environmentally friendly solutions is growing worldwide. This creates opportunities for German companies. Through the Export Initiative Environmental Protection, we are helping German companies seize export opportunities while also contributing to global environmental protection.”

In the discussion that followed, the Federal Minister for the Environment was joined by Dr Volker Treier, Head of Foreign Trade and Member of the Executive Board of the DIHK, Dr Anne Lamp, CEO of traceless materials, and Frank Posnanski, CFO of Sunfire SE to discuss the future of “CleanTech Made in Germany”. The discussion focused on the impact of geopolitical developments, changing trade relations and how policymakers and businesses can work together to establish reliable framework conditions that enable innovations to reach international markets more quickly.

Projects with an international impact

An accompanying exhibition showcased the achievements of the funding programme. The EXI projects AHK Kazakhstan 2, Waste2Wealth, WECISA, NEWA 2, SUA, HygO and Green-H2Islands presented their environmental technologies. They illustrate how German companies and organisations, together with international partners, are developing and implementing solutions for sustainable waste management, water management, urban development and renewable energy.

Shaping international markets together

A keynote speech by Jens Burchardt, Managing Director & Partner at Boston Consulting Group, highlighted the potential of international CleanTech markets. In the subsequent panel discussion, experts from industry, trade associations and the foreign trade sector discussed the opportunities and challenges facing Germany’s environmental technology sector in a changing geopolitical landscape.

In the afternoon, participants explored these issues in greater depth in four workshops. Discussions focused on strategic support for foreign trade, strategies for stimulating demand, new approaches to financing and the role of CleanTech start-ups as drivers of innovation. A graphic recording captured the key takeaways and provided a visual introduction to the concluding outlook on the further development of the Export Initiative through to 2036.

Ten years of the Export Initiative – looking ahead

Since 2016, the Export Initiative Environmental Protection has supported German companies in promoting innovative environmental technologies internationally. To date, the funding programme has supported more than 200 projects in numerous partner countries, strengthening economic cooperation, technology transfer and the protection of the environment and natural resources.

Nilgün Parker, Head of the Division for “Industry-related Aspects of Environmental Policy, Sustainable Finance and Investment Policy” at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, said:

“Ten years of the Export Initiative Environmental Protection have shown that international competitiveness and ambitious environmental protection go hand in hand. If we pool our technological strengths and present ourselves internationally as ‘Team Germany’, we can turn our innovative strengths into successful solutions for global markets. Over the past ten years, the EXI has established important structures and networks to achieve this. We can build on this foundation.”

The CleanTech Conference 2026 demonstrated that the major environmental and transformation challenges of our time can only be successfully addressed through joint efforts. Close dialogue between policymakers, business and academia, together with international cooperation through EXI projects, creates the conditions needed for innovative environmental technologies to make an impact worldwide.