The landscape of non-governmental environmental policy research and advisory institutes differs between eastern and western Germany. In West Germany, the anti-nuclear movement in particular contributed to the emergence of the first non-governmental institutes in the late 1970s, whereas independent institutes were prohibited under the political system of the GDR. Yet widespread environmental pollution and a lack of transparency in the provision of information helped give rise to a large environmental movement, partly encouraged by the state itself. Its politically less contentious activities tended to emphasise individual responsibility. At the same time, however, the environmental movement provided a forum for discussing the political system’s lack of transparency and democracy, inevitably bringing it into conflict with the state. Following German reunification, many members of the environmental movement entered politics or took up positions at publicly funded environmental research institutes. As a result, with only a few exceptions, independent environmental research struggled to establish itself.

The project ‘From Blue Skies over the Ruhr to the Energy Transition’ (December 2012–June 2014) produced seven papers covering a range of topics. They drew on findings from the project interviews and placed them in the context of the existing academic literature. In doing so, the papers contributed to documenting the history of non-governmental environmental policy research and advice and identified areas in which the material collected could help fill existing gaps in knowledge. At the same time, the findings raised further research questions extending beyond the scope of the project.