Gabriel said the changes came thanks to an increasing awareness in Germany of the need to protect nature. That, he added, had been initiated by the previous Social Democratic-Green party government coalition and continued by the current government of conservatives and Social Democrats.

"There has been a high degree of continuity in German environment policy in recent years, which is now also having an impact on discussions on an international level, where Germany has been able to take on a leading role," Gabriel said, after the cabinet endorsed the report's findings.

Since 1998, the German government has dramatically increased spending on the environment. The report said substantial progress had been made in saving energy, where state subsidies to homeowners to the tune of 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) have reduced private energy consumption.

In addition, state-sponsored research into renewable energies has nearly doubled to 100 million euros a year, resulting, in a boom in the use of solar energy. Offshore wind energy generation is now surging in a country where wind power is already a huge market, the report said.

Germany has also managed to lower its carbon dioxide emissions substantially and cut back on the use of hazardous chemicals. Gasoline and diesel are now cleaner due to regulations that require producers to add bio fuels to them.

Not all good news

But there are also worrying developments, the environment minister said. He pointed to the increasing depletion of natural resources, such as arable land and water.

"If we continue with resource depletion at the current pace, we'll need two planets to meet this consumption pattern in the future," Gabriel said. "That is why changing these patterns is the most pressing challenge for the German government."

Gabriel lamented the fact that two-thirds of all natural habitats are threatened in Germany, and that 40 percent of species are facing extinction. He said that biodiversity is important in the search for future alternatives to dwindling resources. Re-focusing on nuclear energy, however, is not a viable way to achieve this, he said.

"It's an absurd discussion, because nuclear power cannot help us reduce our dependency on gas and oil. Nuclear energy doesn't fuel our cars and it is equally inappropriate for heating houses, which is mainly done here with natural gas."

Germany decided in 2002 to gradually phase out nuclear energy. The last German nuclear plants are supposed be taken off the grid in 2021.

Gabriel also said that along with the rapid depletion of natural resources, the reduction of noise pollution is to become a key policy goal of the current government. Rising cross-border traffic in an expanding European Union is a challenge that needs a strong political answer and a concerted effort by all EU members, he added.