From the Environmental State to the Sustainability State? Conceptualization, Indicators, and Examples

The ‘environmental state’ is an established concept in environmental politics that describes states with a considerable capacity to address (domestic) environmental issues with new institutions and policies. At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the environmental discourse joined forces with the development discourse, politically facilitating the paradigm of sustainable development. The Agenda 21 and the 2030 Agenda call upon states to adapt their governance structures and policies to this new paradigm, for instance through national strategies for sustainable development and sustainability councils. The literature is undecided whether sustainable development can be addressed within the environmental state, or if it would be more adequate to speak of a ‘sustainability state’ on its own right. After reviewing the relevant literature, the article argues that the sustainability state is not just a development stage of the environmental state, but that it is institutionally layered on other state functions, going clearly beyond – but not replacing – the environmental state. The article offers a descriptive-analytical conceptualization of the sustainability state and develops formal indicators to operationalize it. It analyzes how new administrative and political, regulatory and policy, financial, and knowledge structures can address different governance principles for sustainable development. All indicators are illustrated with empirical examples from Germany or other countries. According to a preliminary assessment, Germany is considered an emerging sustainability state (addressing 15 of 21 indicators), but seems to be struggling to generate strong impact beyond a sustainability bubble and to adequately address the global dimension of sustainability in its national sustainability performance.