The Green Deal and climate action are at stake in the European elections. So it’s no wonder that the climate movement is now also getting involved in the election campaign. Today we describe who is getting involved and where, and why even climate activists don’t always like it.
The people of Afghanistan, on the other hand, have no choice. The country is desperately poor and practically defenceless against climate change. Since the Taliban returned to power, all climate aid has been stopped and the country isno longer allowed to have a say at UN conferences. But this could now change, at least in part, as we will show you.
And sometimes it is the fear of elections that prevents everything: Those responsible in politics who want to spend money on climate action elsewhere don’t have it easy. This was once again demonstrated by the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, which we are reviewing today for your information.
Have fun reading!
Your Bernhard Pötter
Feature
‘Using the stage’ – how the climate movement is preparing for the European elections
Last Generation activists no longer want to stick to the ground, but to EU politics.
Around six weeks before the European elections on June 9, the election campaign – for example by the SPD and CSU – and the mailing of election notifications have begun in Germany. This time, the ballot paper also includes names that are otherwise more familiar from climate strikes. The “Last Generation” climate movement, for example, wants to “finally bring the resistance into Parliament”, says spokesperson Carla Hinrichs, and that is why the movement is running in the elections for the European Parliament. Lena Johnsen and Theodorr Schnarr are their lead candidates.
Their candidacy is not completely hopeless: With around 0.5 percent of the vote, they would enter the European Parliament. The Last Generation has calculated that they would need around 250,000 votes. The movement does not think that it could change anything politically in the European Parliament. Rather, it wants to “use the stage” that the election campaign and a possible entry will bring, explains spokesperson Maike Grunst in an interview with Table.Briefings. After the movement announced at the beginning of the year that it would no longer be blocking the streets, the candidacy is now a new attempt to attract attention.
From activism to Parliament – that is one way to give a climate agenda more clout. According to current polls, it does not look as if climate policy will be driven forward in a particularly progressive way by a new EU Parliament. On the contrary: many polls predict an increase in conservative parties andthus a “green backlash”. The climate movement is responding to this in very different ways:
Fridays for Future (FFF) is preparing an EU climate strike on May 31 and is trying to mobilize voters aged 16 and over for the election. Luisa Neubauer explains in a video, for example, why not voting tends to help right-wing parties.
Apart from a few smaller actions in Germany, Extinction Rebellion has been rather quiet of late. In the Netherlands, however, they managed to get the country to phase out fossil fuel subsidies last year by blockading the streets. At the beginning of the year, Extinction Rebellion announced that it would also be campaigning for the abolition of such subsidies in other places before the EU elections.
In addition, many activists from the movement are also running for a seat in the European Parliament within traditional parties. Among them are a conspicuous number of women: Lena Schilling is the lead candidate for the Greens in Austria, Carola Rackete is running as a non-party candidate for Die Linke.
Klimaliste Deutschland has also collected the necessary signatures for a candidacy and will be running on June 9.
Various candidacies as an ‘incentive‘
The 27-year-old Anna Peters, former national spokesperson for the Green Youth, also wants to make a difference in the EU Parliament. In particular, she wants to campaign for a climate-friendly financial policy. Peters is 13th on the list for the Greens and has a good chance of winning a seat. She is not an activist, but feels very close to the climate justice movement, she tells Table.Briefings. “We now need to run a very good election campaign to oppose a shift to the right“, she says. For her, this means reaching young people in particular – for example by campaigning in schools.
She does not necessarily see the fact that climate activists are running for minor parties instead of the Greens as a threat: “Isee it more as an incentive for us Greens to prove ourselves“. And: “I’m happy to see any person from the climate justice movement in politics.” There is a need for both people who promote issues from the outside through protest and those who work within the political system to advance climate protection.
Protest in Parliament
The Last Generation is currently working in a decentralized and grassroots democratic manner at round tables on its content for the election. This is rather atypical for the organization, which was previously known primarily for its hierarchical structures. “None of the other parties do what it takes”, explains Maike Grunst. The candidacy of the Last Generation does not lead to the fragmentation of the climate movement in Parliament, but makes it more colorful, more diverse and thus ultimately stronger.
At the moment, the Last Generation is mainly working on making its candidacy better known; The movement wants to reach young people with a TikTok challenge. Grunst has the feeling that the group is now receiving more attention again as a result of the election campaign. The chances of actually making it into the EU Parliament are around 50 percent, she says. The activists do not want to work together with other parties in the European Parliament; instead, they want to focus on protest in Parliament too.
Lost votes for climate protection
Michael Bloss, Member of the European Parliament for the Greens, on the other hand, is critical of the Last Generation’s candidacy: it seems as if the activists ” have no strategy on how to achieve more for climate protection, as with the street actions“. He sees a different motivation: “In order not to be considered a criminal organization, they are now founding a party because it offers better protection under basic law. Legitimate, but it doesn’t help climate protection in Parliament.” Using the European Parliament only for the production of videos would make a mockery of democratic institutions, he believes. And another party in the European Parliament is already responsible for jokes.
He also sees problems beyond this: “Climate protection is under incredible attack”. It is important to stick together. There is a danger that many votes for climate protection will be split between the various small parties, that the parties will then not be included and that the votes will simply not be represented. This would be detrimental to climate protection. Bloss also emphasizes that the EU Parliament needs pressure from the streets and that a lot has happened in the past five years thanks to the broad protests under FFF. However, activism is something different than fighting for majorities for climate protection and compromises in Parliament.
Climate Justice
European election 2024
Fridays for Future
Protests
Afghanistan: How climate aid could break the country’s isolation
Fig harvest during the drought in Kandahar: Afghanistan is one of the countries most affected by the climate crisis, but international climate aid has been halted since the Taliban came to power.
Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the climate crisis. However, since the Taliban returned to power, the country has been internationally isolated and cut off from all financial aid in this area. Now the first climate conference in the country has focused on the dramatic consequences of global warming. And there are initial attempts to provide the people with international aid again.
From Feb. 10-12, almost 100 scientists from Afghan educational institutions met for the first climate conference. At the University of Nangarhar in the eastern city of Jalalabad, they discussed issues relating to climate change: agriculture, technology, medicine and education – as well as Sharia law and the Koran.
Heavily affected, barely prepared
The discussion is urgently needed: Afghanistan ranks sixth among the countries most affected by the climate crisis and is one of the least preparedto deal with the consequences of climate change. In the last 60 years, the temperature in Afghanistan has risen by 1.8 °C, while the country is only responsible for 0.06 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
80 percent of Afghans live from agriculture. But after 43 years of conflict, the impoverished country is facing climate-related problems: Devastating droughts, flash floods, water shortages. This exacerbates food insecurity and promotes displacement, as well as child marriages, kidney sales and child labor, experts warn.
Afghanistan imports most of its electricity from neighboring countries. Less than 50 percent of the population has access to electricity. Although renewable energies, especially bioenergy, make up 19 percent of Afghanistan’s energy mix, the country is far from realizing its full potential. With over 300 days of sunshine a year, Afghanistan could generate 222,000 MW of solar power, significantly exceeding the capacity of the US “sun belt”.
Taliban closely linked to the farmers
However, such a development would require a great deal of international support and cooperation. However, the withdrawal of NATO troops, the collapse of the Afghan Republic in 2021 and the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul have turned Afghanistan into a pariah state. According to experts, the climate crisis appears to be one of the few issues on which the Taliban and the international community are on the same wavelength.
“The Taliban emerged from the 1994 Kandahar farmers’ uprising and have therefore always been linked to rural issues”, Graeme Smith, Afghanistan analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Table Briefings. “Now those same farmers are watching their fields wither or floods destroy their homes – all consequences of climate change. So the Taliban are being forced to deal with the climate issue, not because they are environmentalists, but because their supporters are demanding protective measures.”
“We are trying to reach out to the flood victims, but thousands of residents have lost their homes. The international community should support us in helping those who are suffering from the climate crisis”, said Abdullah Mofaghir, Director of Disaster Management in Logar Province, in the summer of 2022, when many families were affected by flash floods.
Excluded from UN conferences and aid
But Afghanistan is excluded from the UN climate negotiations – for the third year in a row in 2023. “The people of Afghanistan have a right to be represented on the international stage”, Nourullah Amini, Head of the Climate Adaptation Department at the country’s National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), told Table.Briefings. The country missed out on one of the biggest breakthroughs at COP27 – the establishment of the long-awaited Loss & Damage Fund for climate damage. He calls for the international community to urgently include Afghanistan in the climate negotiations.
Abdulhadi Achakzai, a climate activist from the Environmental Volunteer Network, attended COP27 and COP28 independently to raise awareness of Afghanistan’s plight. “I was advocating not just for myself, not for the government of Afghanistan, but for the 40 million people who are directly affected by climate change. Children and women in Afghanistan, because they are the most affected“, said Achakzai.
Before the regime change, Afghanistan was entitled to around $800 million from the Green Climate Fund GCF, the Global Environment Facility and the Adaptation Fund. However, $18 million for sustainable energy projects in Afghanistan from the GCF, for example, are on hold: Afghanistan has no access to these funds under Taliban rule. Donors are wary of supporting the de facto authorities and are concentrating on humanitarian aid. Funds to mitigate the climate crisis, on the other hand, are often seen as development aid, which should not be provided to the country.
Climate crisis destabilizes the region
Graeme Smith from the International Crisis Group points out that foreign powers have invested resources in stabilizing Afghanistan in recent decades. The reason: They assumed that instabilitycould destabilize the region and encourage terrorism. Now climate change is threatening stability – but the same foreign governments are refusing to provide funds to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“It is obscene that Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world that lives mainly from agriculture, is the only one excluded“, comments Jonathan Noel, climate activist and writer, who gave a keynote speech at the climate conference in Nangarhar.
Initial talks about new projects
However, the exclusion of the Afghan de facto government seems to be slowly changing. In March, the UN Development Program UNDP, in cooperation with Japan, announced a one-year project on climate adaptation through the restoration of water resources and ecosystems. In early April, the Taliban began the first talks with the United Nations, donors, NGOs and communities on climate impacts in Afghanistan. The talks were led by the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee with the participation of expert organizations and were half male and half female.
“It is not a step towards recognition, but just a recognition that everyone needs to be at the table if we are to respond effectively to the impacts of climate change. This includes those who are currently governing Afghanistan”, Tjere Watterdal, Country Director of the NAC, told The Climate Table.
More pragmatism could prevent many shocks as a result of the climate crisis – from mass displacement to internal or even external conflicts over scarce resources, especially water – such as the tensions with Iran over the Helmand River. The Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW) has also set up a committee to encourage companies to invest in renewable energy. Recently, the Kazakh company Silk Road declared that it would invest in power generation from water and wind resources. Jagoda Grondecka
Afghanistan
Climate policy
Taliban
After Petersberg: dispute becomes more heated
Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev, Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue 2024.
Following the 15th Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, some trends are emerging for the international climate negotiations in the coming months:
COP host Azerbaijan still lacks a clear strategy for a successful conference.
Urgently needed progress in reducing CO2 emissions is being pushed into the background.
The battle for future climate financing will be a toughone.
Like every Petersberg Climate Dialogue, the meeting of representatives from around 40 countries at the Foreign Ministry was intended to test ideas and explore possible compromises. High-profile speeches, an open exchange on progress and goals and secretive talks behind closed doors did not – as planned – lead to concrete results. Nevertheless, developments can be recognized:
Financial target: At least $142 billion?
The financial issue surrounding the new COP29 climate target (NCQG) is becoming more concrete and the tone is becoming sharper. According to a report by Climate Home, while emerging and developing countries emphasized the passage in the Paris Agreement that makes industrialized countries responsible at the expert-level financial consultations taking place in Colombia at the same time, the USA, for example, opposed this at the Petersberg Dialogue. Foreign Minister Baerbock also warned that, in addition to the $100 billion reached by the industrialized countries in 2022, “those who can” (i.e. the emerging economies) must also contribute more.
The exact amount is unclear. At the Petersberg Dialogue, it was said that inflation compensationalone would have to increase the previous $100 billion to around $142 billion. This contrasts with the annual sum of $2.4 trillion that,according to UN experts, the emerging and developing countries (excluding China) will need each year in 2030 to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
New sources of money are urgently needed. At the start of the climate dialog with finance ministers from Spain, Brazil and South Africa, Svenja Schulze, the German Development Minister, demonstratively called for a global “wealth tax” to raise $250 billion dollars. According to reports from observers, the COP29 presidency can imagine a levy on air traffic – but also a levy on fossil fuel producers. She finds it “exciting that Azerbaijan, as a gas producer, is apparently open to such a levy”, commented Sabine Minninger, climate expert at Bread for the World.
New NDCs as green investment plans
Germany is pushing for the national climate plans (NDCs) of all countries to be upgraded from declarations of intent by climate ministers to ambitious investment plans for all sectors in their next round. According to Baerbock, the German NDC partnership, which has already provided developing countries with technical support in drawing up NDCs, is to be upgraded to an “alliance of changemakers”. Whether there will be more money for this, however, is unclear given the German budget situation.
Germany stands by its pledge of €6 billion per year from 2025 onwards. In his speech to the delegates, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that “Germany can be relied upon” to provide the funding. Baerbock had given even clearer assurances the day before that the money would flow.
The troika of COP hosts United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Brazil have once again failed to provide clear statements on what their “Mission 1.5” should look like in concrete terms. To date, this has mainly been a joint letter published by the three countries on the occasion of the Copenhagen Conference of Climate Ministers. It met with little approval from industrialized countries because it was primarily intended to require them to make financial pledges in the NDCs. At the Petersberg Dialogue, the designated COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev said that there should be a balance between mitigation, adaptation and finance, but it also became clear that the focus is clearly on finance.
Azerbaijan: Gas is a gift from God
In its role as COP President, Azerbaijan sees itself less as a neutral mediator and more as a developing country with interests in gas exports. The country has good relations with the Non-Aligned Movement and the EU, said President Ilham Aliyev in his speech in Berlin. But “we will defend the right of the oil and gas states to continue with these investments”, said the President. External capital will be used to build green power generation with a capacity of 5 gigawatts by 2030 and the gas that is not needed as a result will be supplied to the EU, which urgently needs it. “It is not our fault that we have oil and gas”, said Aliyev. “This is a gift from God and we should be judged by how we use it for our development.”
The CO2 reductions that are urgently needed for the UN climate targets are being pushed into the background. He is becoming “increasingly frustrated”, Niklas Höhne, head of the New Climate Institute, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on the sidelines of the Climate Dialogue. “We have been warning for three years that the national targets for 2030 are not enough, that we need to halve emissions in order to achieve the 1.5 degree target. But nothing is happening.”
Climate financing
COP29
COP29
News
G7 agree to phase out coal by 2035
Coal is to be phased out in the richest industrialized nations by 2035. This was agreed by the G7 energy, environment and climate ministers at the ministerial meeting in Turin on Monday. Petter Lydén, Head of International Climate Policy at Germanwatch, commented on the decision, saying that Germany would have to phase out coal “at least three years earlier than previously agreed”. This is great progress, but not enough. In order to meet the Paris climate targets, “at least all industrialized countries would have to phase out coal by 2030”.
In addition to host Italy, the G7 also includes Germany, the USA, the UK, France, Canada and Japan. Together, they are responsible for 40 percent of global economic output and 20 percent of greenhouse gases. At a G7 ministerial meeting a year ago, they agreed for the first time on a joint coal phase-out, but without a specific date at the time. The first G7 ministerial meeting since COP28 in December 2023 is now taking place, at which an international resolution to phase out fossil fuels was agreed. At the climate summit, it was also decided to double energy efficiency and triple global capacity for renewables by 2030.
This goal also requires more storage capacity. A six-fold increase in storage capacities to 1,500 gigawatts by 2030, compared to 2022, is therefore being considered. Higher investment in the electricity grid could also be decided today, Tuesday, when the G7 ministerial meeting ends. An end to subsidies for fossil fuel projects abroad will also be discussed. rtr/lb
Kohleausstieg
Climate Club starts work on decarbonization of industry
The Climate Club for a climate-neutral industry began its work last Thursday on the fringes of the Hannover Messe. Representatives of the 38 member states, including China, the USA, India, the EU, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Mozambique and Vanuatu, met under the chairmanship of Germany and Chile to clarify common standards for the path to a climate-neutral cement and steel industry. According to the German Federal Ministry of Economics, this involves international cooperation on standards and emissions measurement – but also a common understanding of “carbon leakage”, i.e. the migration of industrial production due to climate policy measures.
The club was initiated by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his time as Minister for Financial Affairs. At the start, the OECD stated in an overview that countries had so far mainly pursued a policy of “carrots instead of sticks” when it came to the green restructuring of the sectors. It is true that all major steel countries have installed political measures to bring the sector to net zero, and they have primarily used the supply side. However, only very few of the measures are binding. The top instruments are “non-binding targets” and “public funds for low-carbon innovation and the conversion of plants”.
In the production of climate-neutral steel, significantly fewer new projects (nine) were announced last year than in previous years (36 in 2021) – and the projects are shifting away from Europe towards Asia, for example. This is one of the findings of the Green Steel Tracker portal, which provides an overview of the 99 projects to date. It is “encouraging” that hydrogen direct reduction technology is spreading, but coal-based blast furnaces are still being built. bpo
Klimaclub
Climate Protection Act: new lawsuits foreseeable
Before the vote on the Climate Protection Act, renowned environmental lawyers had harshly criticized the amendment and called on MPs to reject the draft. Nevertheless, the Bundestag passed the new law – increasing the likelihood that legal action will be taken against it.
Officially, the major environmental associations are still examining the matter. They only want to announce their decision once the law has been passed by the Bundesrat and signed by the Federal President. However, there are rumblings behind the scenes that the changes will probably not be accepted.
The intention had already become clear between the lines at a press conference last Thursday: The planned bill was likely to be unconstitutional, incompatible with the climate ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on key points, and it also contradicted the latest climate ruling of the European Court of HumanRights (ECtHR): This was said by climate lawyers Remo Klinger, Franziska Heß, Roda Verheyen and Felix Ekardt at a joint press conference with the Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), Germanwatch, Greenpeace, Fridays for Future and the Solarenergie-Förderverein Deutschland.
Although no lawsuits were explicitly announced at this event, it became very clear how intensively and in detail the lawyers involved are already examining the facts of the case.
Criticism from CDU/CSU and members of the Greens
Before the vote in Parliament, politicians from the CDU/CSU hadalso clearly criticized the abolition of the binding sector targets. By “gutting” the law, the Greens were gambling away their climate policy credibility, criticized CDU/CSU Vice-President Andreas Jung. Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge had eloquently defended the “compromise”, as she called it, before the vote.
However, at least eleven Green MEPs also spoke out against the new version, including all members of the Green working group on mobility led by Stefan Gelbhaar, climate experts Lisa Badum and Kathrin Henneberger as well as the party’s left-wing members Anton Hofreiter, Canan Bayram and Jamila Schäfer. They published personal statements explaining why they could not agree to the change in the law. Hofreiter, for example, alluding to Volker Wissing, criticized the amendment for sending the “dangerous message that the laws will simply be changed for ministers who do not comply with the law”.
Despite these explanations, there were no abstentions or no votes from the Green parliamentary group. Instead, the critics stayed away from the vote and some of them left the chamber immediately beforehand. The reason given for this was that the CDU/CSU had not requested a roll-call vote – probably in view of the FDP party conference starting on Friday. In simple votes, where far fewer MPs are present, it is unusual to vote differently from the group opinion in order not to jeopardize the majority. Instead, it is then “customary to make a personal statement”, Badum explained to Table.Briefings. ae/mkr
Klima & Umwelt
Expert opinion: Heat pump owners are not obliged to connect to the district heating network
The concern of some property owners that they will be forced to connect to a new district heating network once the municipal heating planning has been completed, even if they use a heat pump, is unfounded. This is the conclusion of an expert opinion presented on Monday by Miriam Vollmer, a lawyer specializing in energy law, on behalf of the German Heat Pump Association.
In principle, it is possible to oblige residents to connect to a new district heating network, it says. However, exceptions must be made for the owners of heat pumps. This is because the encroachment on property that goes hand in hand with a compulsory connection is only justified if emissions are reduced as a result. This is generally not the case with heat pumps, as they usually cause lower emissions than district heating, which is still predominantly fossil-fuelled.
And even if a new district heating network were to be operated entirely with renewable energies, a compulsory connection for heat pump users would not be proportionate. This is because the devaluation of the investment would be disproportionate to the small additional climate benefit – especially as this would decrease every year due to the continuously increasing share of renewable energies in the electricity mix. An exception could only be rejected if it would make the entire heating network uneconomical – which is unlikely to happen in practice, especially not in the case of individual residential buildings.
For author Vollmer, it is therefore clear: “Anyone who decides to install a heat pump on the basis of heating subsidies or the Building Energy Act has no legal uncertainty if local authorities have not yet submitted heating plans or district heating expansion plans.” Martin Sabel, Managing Director of the German Heat Pump Association, welcomed the clear result. It supports building owners in “embarking on the path to climate neutrality even without heat planning”. mkr
Climate-friendly new construction: DUH warns against ‘whitewashing’
In order to promote the construction of homes that are good for both the climate and your wallet, the German government has announced a new funding program entitled “Climate-friendly new construction in the low-price segment” (KNN). One billion euros was already approved for the current year in January; the budget holders are currently negotiating the exact funding guidelines. However, according to Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), these are likely to be such that the program will not bring any real climate benefits.
The DUH bases its assessment on a report by the Institute for Resource Efficiency and Energy Strategies, which is due to be published this Tuesday and was made available to Table.Briefings in advance. This leads to the conclusion that with the chosen life cycle approach, practically all buildings constructed according to the current building standard are below the relevant limit value and can therefore be subsidized, provided they also have a photovoltaic system on the roof (which pays off even without additional funding).
The aim of promoting more environmentally friendly building materials – such as wood instead of concrete – would not be achieved in this way, according to the report. Instead, it would make sense “to relate the requirements for sustainable construction exclusively to the manufacturing and construction phase of buildings”, the experts write.
DUH has also criticized the current plans and is calling for the subsidy conditions to be tightened. Otherwise, there is a risk of a “balance sheet whitewash of energy waste”, said DUH energy expert Elisabeth Staudt to Table.Briefings. “What the German government is trying to sell as progress under the guise of the life cycle approach will in reality neither promote the urgently needed turnaround in construction nor ensure long-term affordability for residents in any way.” This is particularly critical because the KNN is intended to serve as a blueprint for the future direction of building promotion as a whole. mkr
Energieeffizienz
‘Paludi Alliance’ wants to create market for products from wet peatlands
The “toMOORow” initiative aims to create a sales market for products from the management of moorland in Germany through cooperation between research, foundations, politics and companies. At a kick-off event in Berlin on Tuesday, the “Alliance of Pioneers” presented itself, which aims to initiate new supply chains for reed grass products, for example, which are to be produced on rewetted moorland, through pilot projects.
The project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture with around €1.8 million from the “Climate and Transformation Fund” due to its importance for species and climate protection and for value creation in rural areas. Minister Cem Özdemir and his colleague from the Ministry of the Environment, Steffi Lemke, plan to attend the event.
Drained peatlands in Germany are responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases amounting to 53 million tons of CO2 every year. Currently, only five percent of German peatland soils are wet and therefore absorb carbon. A major obstacle to the rewetting of soils to date has been the loss of income for farmers.
The founders of the “Paludi Alliance” are the Michael Otto Environmental Foundation, the Michael Succow Foundation and the Greifswald Moor Centrum. They present 14 companies, mainly from the construction, packaging, insulation, wood and paper industries, which advocate the rewetting and economic use of moorland: Bau-Fritz, Leipa, Otto Wulff, Prezero Foundation, Procter & Gamble Service, Sto, Strabag, Tengelmann (Twenty-One, Kik Textilien und Non-Food GmbH and OBI), toom Baumarkt and Wepa Foundation. bpo
Climate & Environment
Climate policy
Nature-Based Solutions
Nature-Based Solutions
German government spends €130 million for climate adaptation of forests
On Monday, the BMUV and BMUL announced their intention to provide around €130 million for forest owners and local authorities. The funds come from the “Climate-adapted Forest Management” funding program, which is part of the “Natural Climate Protection Action Program” (ANK). According to government figures, the funding program has supported more than 8,500 private and municipal forest owners since 2022, who together own a total area of 1.52 million hectares of forest. That is around ten percent of Germany’s forest area.
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir said he was pleased to be able to continue the funding program “despite the difficult budget situation”. The reason for this is that funding for the ANK is being cut by around a third, as was announced in January. Of the €5 billion originally planned until 2027, only €3.5 billion will remain. This will be used to finance measures such as the rewetting of moors, climate-friendly forest conversion and the creation of floodplains to prevent flooding.
However, in 2023, only two percent of the funds that the BMUV could have spent on the ANK flowed out at all, as the Ministry of Finance’s most recent KTF report showed. For this year, the BMUV expects a significantly higher outflow of funds – including for “climate-adapted forest management”. Approval notices for the program will be issued immediately and funding applications can still be submitted. lb
The Green Deal and climate action are at stake in the European elections. So it’s no wonder that the climate movement is now also getting involved in the election campaign. Today we describe who is getting involved and where, and why even climate activists don’t always like it.
The people of Afghanistan, on the other hand, have no choice. The country is desperately poor and practically defenceless against climate change. Since the Taliban returned to power, all climate aid has been stopped and the country isno longer allowed to have a say at UN conferences. But this could now change, at least in part, as we will show you.
And sometimes it is the fear of elections that prevents everything: Those responsible in politics who want to spend money on climate action elsewhere don’t have it easy. This was once again demonstrated by the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, which we are reviewing today for your information.
Have fun reading!
Your Bernhard Pötter
Feature
‘Using the stage’ – how the climate movement is preparing for the European elections
Last Generation activists no longer want to stick to the ground, but to EU politics.
Around six weeks before the European elections on June 9, the election campaign – for example by the SPD and CSU – and the mailing of election notifications have begun in Germany. This time, the ballot paper also includes names that are otherwise more familiar from climate strikes. The “Last Generation” climate movement, for example, wants to “finally bring the resistance into Parliament”, says spokesperson Carla Hinrichs, and that is why the movement is running in the elections for the European Parliament. Lena Johnsen and Theodorr Schnarr are their lead candidates.
Their candidacy is not completely hopeless: With around 0.5 percent of the vote, they would enter the European Parliament. The Last Generation has calculated that they would need around 250,000 votes. The movement does not think that it could change anything politically in the European Parliament. Rather, it wants to “use the stage” that the election campaign and a possible entry will bring, explains spokesperson Maike Grunst in an interview with Table.Briefings. After the movement announced at the beginning of the year that it would no longer be blocking the streets, the candidacy is now a new attempt to attract attention.
From activism to Parliament – that is one way to give a climate agenda more clout. According to current polls, it does not look as if climate policy will be driven forward in a particularly progressive way by a new EU Parliament. On the contrary: many polls predict an increase in conservative parties andthus a “green backlash”. The climate movement is responding to this in very different ways:
Fridays for Future (FFF) is preparing an EU climate strike on May 31 and is trying to mobilize voters aged 16 and over for the election. Luisa Neubauer explains in a video, for example, why not voting tends to help right-wing parties.
Apart from a few smaller actions in Germany, Extinction Rebellion has been rather quiet of late. In the Netherlands, however, they managed to get the country to phase out fossil fuel subsidies last year by blockading the streets. At the beginning of the year, Extinction Rebellion announced that it would also be campaigning for the abolition of such subsidies in other places before the EU elections.
In addition, many activists from the movement are also running for a seat in the European Parliament within traditional parties. Among them are a conspicuous number of women: Lena Schilling is the lead candidate for the Greens in Austria, Carola Rackete is running as a non-party candidate for Die Linke.
Klimaliste Deutschland has also collected the necessary signatures for a candidacy and will be running on June 9.
Various candidacies as an ‘incentive‘
The 27-year-old Anna Peters, former national spokesperson for the Green Youth, also wants to make a difference in the EU Parliament. In particular, she wants to campaign for a climate-friendly financial policy. Peters is 13th on the list for the Greens and has a good chance of winning a seat. She is not an activist, but feels very close to the climate justice movement, she tells Table.Briefings. “We now need to run a very good election campaign to oppose a shift to the right“, she says. For her, this means reaching young people in particular – for example by campaigning in schools.
She does not necessarily see the fact that climate activists are running for minor parties instead of the Greens as a threat: “Isee it more as an incentive for us Greens to prove ourselves“. And: “I’m happy to see any person from the climate justice movement in politics.” There is a need for both people who promote issues from the outside through protest and those who work within the political system to advance climate protection.
Protest in Parliament
The Last Generation is currently working in a decentralized and grassroots democratic manner at round tables on its content for the election. This is rather atypical for the organization, which was previously known primarily for its hierarchical structures. “None of the other parties do what it takes”, explains Maike Grunst. The candidacy of the Last Generation does not lead to the fragmentation of the climate movement in Parliament, but makes it more colorful, more diverse and thus ultimately stronger.
At the moment, the Last Generation is mainly working on making its candidacy better known; The movement wants to reach young people with a TikTok challenge. Grunst has the feeling that the group is now receiving more attention again as a result of the election campaign. The chances of actually making it into the EU Parliament are around 50 percent, she says. The activists do not want to work together with other parties in the European Parliament; instead, they want to focus on protest in Parliament too.
Lost votes for climate protection
Michael Bloss, Member of the European Parliament for the Greens, on the other hand, is critical of the Last Generation’s candidacy: it seems as if the activists ” have no strategy on how to achieve more for climate protection, as with the street actions“. He sees a different motivation: “In order not to be considered a criminal organization, they are now founding a party because it offers better protection under basic law. Legitimate, but it doesn’t help climate protection in Parliament.” Using the European Parliament only for the production of videos would make a mockery of democratic institutions, he believes. And another party in the European Parliament is already responsible for jokes.
He also sees problems beyond this: “Climate protection is under incredible attack”. It is important to stick together. There is a danger that many votes for climate protection will be split between the various small parties, that the parties will then not be included and that the votes will simply not be represented. This would be detrimental to climate protection. Bloss also emphasizes that the EU Parliament needs pressure from the streets and that a lot has happened in the past five years thanks to the broad protests under FFF. However, activism is something different than fighting for majorities for climate protection and compromises in Parliament.
Climate Justice
European election 2024
Fridays for Future
Protests
Afghanistan: How climate aid could break the country’s isolation
Fig harvest during the drought in Kandahar: Afghanistan is one of the countries most affected by the climate crisis, but international climate aid has been halted since the Taliban came to power.
Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the climate crisis. However, since the Taliban returned to power, the country has been internationally isolated and cut off from all financial aid in this area. Now the first climate conference in the country has focused on the dramatic consequences of global warming. And there are initial attempts to provide the people with international aid again.
From Feb. 10-12, almost 100 scientists from Afghan educational institutions met for the first climate conference. At the University of Nangarhar in the eastern city of Jalalabad, they discussed issues relating to climate change: agriculture, technology, medicine and education – as well as Sharia law and the Koran.
Heavily affected, barely prepared
The discussion is urgently needed: Afghanistan ranks sixth among the countries most affected by the climate crisis and is one of the least preparedto deal with the consequences of climate change. In the last 60 years, the temperature in Afghanistan has risen by 1.8 °C, while the country is only responsible for 0.06 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
80 percent of Afghans live from agriculture. But after 43 years of conflict, the impoverished country is facing climate-related problems: Devastating droughts, flash floods, water shortages. This exacerbates food insecurity and promotes displacement, as well as child marriages, kidney sales and child labor, experts warn.
Afghanistan imports most of its electricity from neighboring countries. Less than 50 percent of the population has access to electricity. Although renewable energies, especially bioenergy, make up 19 percent of Afghanistan’s energy mix, the country is far from realizing its full potential. With over 300 days of sunshine a year, Afghanistan could generate 222,000 MW of solar power, significantly exceeding the capacity of the US “sun belt”.
Taliban closely linked to the farmers
However, such a development would require a great deal of international support and cooperation. However, the withdrawal of NATO troops, the collapse of the Afghan Republic in 2021 and the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul have turned Afghanistan into a pariah state. According to experts, the climate crisis appears to be one of the few issues on which the Taliban and the international community are on the same wavelength.
“The Taliban emerged from the 1994 Kandahar farmers’ uprising and have therefore always been linked to rural issues”, Graeme Smith, Afghanistan analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Table Briefings. “Now those same farmers are watching their fields wither or floods destroy their homes – all consequences of climate change. So the Taliban are being forced to deal with the climate issue, not because they are environmentalists, but because their supporters are demanding protective measures.”
“We are trying to reach out to the flood victims, but thousands of residents have lost their homes. The international community should support us in helping those who are suffering from the climate crisis”, said Abdullah Mofaghir, Director of Disaster Management in Logar Province, in the summer of 2022, when many families were affected by flash floods.
Excluded from UN conferences and aid
But Afghanistan is excluded from the UN climate negotiations – for the third year in a row in 2023. “The people of Afghanistan have a right to be represented on the international stage”, Nourullah Amini, Head of the Climate Adaptation Department at the country’s National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), told Table.Briefings. The country missed out on one of the biggest breakthroughs at COP27 – the establishment of the long-awaited Loss & Damage Fund for climate damage. He calls for the international community to urgently include Afghanistan in the climate negotiations.
Abdulhadi Achakzai, a climate activist from the Environmental Volunteer Network, attended COP27 and COP28 independently to raise awareness of Afghanistan’s plight. “I was advocating not just for myself, not for the government of Afghanistan, but for the 40 million people who are directly affected by climate change. Children and women in Afghanistan, because they are the most affected“, said Achakzai.
Before the regime change, Afghanistan was entitled to around $800 million from the Green Climate Fund GCF, the Global Environment Facility and the Adaptation Fund. However, $18 million for sustainable energy projects in Afghanistan from the GCF, for example, are on hold: Afghanistan has no access to these funds under Taliban rule. Donors are wary of supporting the de facto authorities and are concentrating on humanitarian aid. Funds to mitigate the climate crisis, on the other hand, are often seen as development aid, which should not be provided to the country.
Climate crisis destabilizes the region
Graeme Smith from the International Crisis Group points out that foreign powers have invested resources in stabilizing Afghanistan in recent decades. The reason: They assumed that instabilitycould destabilize the region and encourage terrorism. Now climate change is threatening stability – but the same foreign governments are refusing to provide funds to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“It is obscene that Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world that lives mainly from agriculture, is the only one excluded“, comments Jonathan Noel, climate activist and writer, who gave a keynote speech at the climate conference in Nangarhar.
Initial talks about new projects
However, the exclusion of the Afghan de facto government seems to be slowly changing. In March, the UN Development Program UNDP, in cooperation with Japan, announced a one-year project on climate adaptation through the restoration of water resources and ecosystems. In early April, the Taliban began the first talks with the United Nations, donors, NGOs and communities on climate impacts in Afghanistan. The talks were led by the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee with the participation of expert organizations and were half male and half female.
“It is not a step towards recognition, but just a recognition that everyone needs to be at the table if we are to respond effectively to the impacts of climate change. This includes those who are currently governing Afghanistan”, Tjere Watterdal, Country Director of the NAC, told The Climate Table.
More pragmatism could prevent many shocks as a result of the climate crisis – from mass displacement to internal or even external conflicts over scarce resources, especially water – such as the tensions with Iran over the Helmand River. The Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW) has also set up a committee to encourage companies to invest in renewable energy. Recently, the Kazakh company Silk Road declared that it would invest in power generation from water and wind resources. Jagoda Grondecka
Afghanistan
Climate policy
Taliban
After Petersberg: dispute becomes more heated
Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev, Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue 2024.
Following the 15th Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, some trends are emerging for the international climate negotiations in the coming months:
COP host Azerbaijan still lacks a clear strategy for a successful conference.
Urgently needed progress in reducing CO2 emissions is being pushed into the background.
The battle for future climate financing will be a toughone.
Like every Petersberg Climate Dialogue, the meeting of representatives from around 40 countries at the Foreign Ministry was intended to test ideas and explore possible compromises. High-profile speeches, an open exchange on progress and goals and secretive talks behind closed doors did not – as planned – lead to concrete results. Nevertheless, developments can be recognized:
Financial target: At least $142 billion?
The financial issue surrounding the new COP29 climate target (NCQG) is becoming more concrete and the tone is becoming sharper. According to a report by Climate Home, while emerging and developing countries emphasized the passage in the Paris Agreement that makes industrialized countries responsible at the expert-level financial consultations taking place in Colombia at the same time, the USA, for example, opposed this at the Petersberg Dialogue. Foreign Minister Baerbock also warned that, in addition to the $100 billion reached by the industrialized countries in 2022, “those who can” (i.e. the emerging economies) must also contribute more.
The exact amount is unclear. At the Petersberg Dialogue, it was said that inflation compensationalone would have to increase the previous $100 billion to around $142 billion. This contrasts with the annual sum of $2.4 trillion that,according to UN experts, the emerging and developing countries (excluding China) will need each year in 2030 to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
New sources of money are urgently needed. At the start of the climate dialog with finance ministers from Spain, Brazil and South Africa, Svenja Schulze, the German Development Minister, demonstratively called for a global “wealth tax” to raise $250 billion dollars. According to reports from observers, the COP29 presidency can imagine a levy on air traffic – but also a levy on fossil fuel producers. She finds it “exciting that Azerbaijan, as a gas producer, is apparently open to such a levy”, commented Sabine Minninger, climate expert at Bread for the World.
New NDCs as green investment plans
Germany is pushing for the national climate plans (NDCs) of all countries to be upgraded from declarations of intent by climate ministers to ambitious investment plans for all sectors in their next round. According to Baerbock, the German NDC partnership, which has already provided developing countries with technical support in drawing up NDCs, is to be upgraded to an “alliance of changemakers”. Whether there will be more money for this, however, is unclear given the German budget situation.
Germany stands by its pledge of €6 billion per year from 2025 onwards. In his speech to the delegates, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that “Germany can be relied upon” to provide the funding. Baerbock had given even clearer assurances the day before that the money would flow.
The troika of COP hosts United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Brazil have once again failed to provide clear statements on what their “Mission 1.5” should look like in concrete terms. To date, this has mainly been a joint letter published by the three countries on the occasion of the Copenhagen Conference of Climate Ministers. It met with little approval from industrialized countries because it was primarily intended to require them to make financial pledges in the NDCs. At the Petersberg Dialogue, the designated COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev said that there should be a balance between mitigation, adaptation and finance, but it also became clear that the focus is clearly on finance.
Azerbaijan: Gas is a gift from God
In its role as COP President, Azerbaijan sees itself less as a neutral mediator and more as a developing country with interests in gas exports. The country has good relations with the Non-Aligned Movement and the EU, said President Ilham Aliyev in his speech in Berlin. But “we will defend the right of the oil and gas states to continue with these investments”, said the President. External capital will be used to build green power generation with a capacity of 5 gigawatts by 2030 and the gas that is not needed as a result will be supplied to the EU, which urgently needs it. “It is not our fault that we have oil and gas”, said Aliyev. “This is a gift from God and we should be judged by how we use it for our development.”
The CO2 reductions that are urgently needed for the UN climate targets are being pushed into the background. He is becoming “increasingly frustrated”, Niklas Höhne, head of the New Climate Institute, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on the sidelines of the Climate Dialogue. “We have been warning for three years that the national targets for 2030 are not enough, that we need to halve emissions in order to achieve the 1.5 degree target. But nothing is happening.”
Climate financing
COP29
COP29
News
G7 agree to phase out coal by 2035
Coal is to be phased out in the richest industrialized nations by 2035. This was agreed by the G7 energy, environment and climate ministers at the ministerial meeting in Turin on Monday. Petter Lydén, Head of International Climate Policy at Germanwatch, commented on the decision, saying that Germany would have to phase out coal “at least three years earlier than previously agreed”. This is great progress, but not enough. In order to meet the Paris climate targets, “at least all industrialized countries would have to phase out coal by 2030”.
In addition to host Italy, the G7 also includes Germany, the USA, the UK, France, Canada and Japan. Together, they are responsible for 40 percent of global economic output and 20 percent of greenhouse gases. At a G7 ministerial meeting a year ago, they agreed for the first time on a joint coal phase-out, but without a specific date at the time. The first G7 ministerial meeting since COP28 in December 2023 is now taking place, at which an international resolution to phase out fossil fuels was agreed. At the climate summit, it was also decided to double energy efficiency and triple global capacity for renewables by 2030.
This goal also requires more storage capacity. A six-fold increase in storage capacities to 1,500 gigawatts by 2030, compared to 2022, is therefore being considered. Higher investment in the electricity grid could also be decided today, Tuesday, when the G7 ministerial meeting ends. An end to subsidies for fossil fuel projects abroad will also be discussed. rtr/lb
Kohleausstieg
Climate Club starts work on decarbonization of industry
The Climate Club for a climate-neutral industry began its work last Thursday on the fringes of the Hannover Messe. Representatives of the 38 member states, including China, the USA, India, the EU, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Mozambique and Vanuatu, met under the chairmanship of Germany and Chile to clarify common standards for the path to a climate-neutral cement and steel industry. According to the German Federal Ministry of Economics, this involves international cooperation on standards and emissions measurement – but also a common understanding of “carbon leakage”, i.e. the migration of industrial production due to climate policy measures.
The club was initiated by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his time as Minister for Financial Affairs. At the start, the OECD stated in an overview that countries had so far mainly pursued a policy of “carrots instead of sticks” when it came to the green restructuring of the sectors. It is true that all major steel countries have installed political measures to bring the sector to net zero, and they have primarily used the supply side. However, only very few of the measures are binding. The top instruments are “non-binding targets” and “public funds for low-carbon innovation and the conversion of plants”.
In the production of climate-neutral steel, significantly fewer new projects (nine) were announced last year than in previous years (36 in 2021) – and the projects are shifting away from Europe towards Asia, for example. This is one of the findings of the Green Steel Tracker portal, which provides an overview of the 99 projects to date. It is “encouraging” that hydrogen direct reduction technology is spreading, but coal-based blast furnaces are still being built. bpo
Klimaclub
Climate Protection Act: new lawsuits foreseeable
Before the vote on the Climate Protection Act, renowned environmental lawyers had harshly criticized the amendment and called on MPs to reject the draft. Nevertheless, the Bundestag passed the new law – increasing the likelihood that legal action will be taken against it.
Officially, the major environmental associations are still examining the matter. They only want to announce their decision once the law has been passed by the Bundesrat and signed by the Federal President. However, there are rumblings behind the scenes that the changes will probably not be accepted.
The intention had already become clear between the lines at a press conference last Thursday: The planned bill was likely to be unconstitutional, incompatible with the climate ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on key points, and it also contradicted the latest climate ruling of the European Court of HumanRights (ECtHR): This was said by climate lawyers Remo Klinger, Franziska Heß, Roda Verheyen and Felix Ekardt at a joint press conference with the Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), Germanwatch, Greenpeace, Fridays for Future and the Solarenergie-Förderverein Deutschland.
Although no lawsuits were explicitly announced at this event, it became very clear how intensively and in detail the lawyers involved are already examining the facts of the case.
Criticism from CDU/CSU and members of the Greens
Before the vote in Parliament, politicians from the CDU/CSU hadalso clearly criticized the abolition of the binding sector targets. By “gutting” the law, the Greens were gambling away their climate policy credibility, criticized CDU/CSU Vice-President Andreas Jung. Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge had eloquently defended the “compromise”, as she called it, before the vote.
However, at least eleven Green MEPs also spoke out against the new version, including all members of the Green working group on mobility led by Stefan Gelbhaar, climate experts Lisa Badum and Kathrin Henneberger as well as the party’s left-wing members Anton Hofreiter, Canan Bayram and Jamila Schäfer. They published personal statements explaining why they could not agree to the change in the law. Hofreiter, for example, alluding to Volker Wissing, criticized the amendment for sending the “dangerous message that the laws will simply be changed for ministers who do not comply with the law”.
Despite these explanations, there were no abstentions or no votes from the Green parliamentary group. Instead, the critics stayed away from the vote and some of them left the chamber immediately beforehand. The reason given for this was that the CDU/CSU had not requested a roll-call vote – probably in view of the FDP party conference starting on Friday. In simple votes, where far fewer MPs are present, it is unusual to vote differently from the group opinion in order not to jeopardize the majority. Instead, it is then “customary to make a personal statement”, Badum explained to Table.Briefings. ae/mkr
Klima & Umwelt
Expert opinion: Heat pump owners are not obliged to connect to the district heating network
The concern of some property owners that they will be forced to connect to a new district heating network once the municipal heating planning has been completed, even if they use a heat pump, is unfounded. This is the conclusion of an expert opinion presented on Monday by Miriam Vollmer, a lawyer specializing in energy law, on behalf of the German Heat Pump Association.
In principle, it is possible to oblige residents to connect to a new district heating network, it says. However, exceptions must be made for the owners of heat pumps. This is because the encroachment on property that goes hand in hand with a compulsory connection is only justified if emissions are reduced as a result. This is generally not the case with heat pumps, as they usually cause lower emissions than district heating, which is still predominantly fossil-fuelled.
And even if a new district heating network were to be operated entirely with renewable energies, a compulsory connection for heat pump users would not be proportionate. This is because the devaluation of the investment would be disproportionate to the small additional climate benefit – especially as this would decrease every year due to the continuously increasing share of renewable energies in the electricity mix. An exception could only be rejected if it would make the entire heating network uneconomical – which is unlikely to happen in practice, especially not in the case of individual residential buildings.
For author Vollmer, it is therefore clear: “Anyone who decides to install a heat pump on the basis of heating subsidies or the Building Energy Act has no legal uncertainty if local authorities have not yet submitted heating plans or district heating expansion plans.” Martin Sabel, Managing Director of the German Heat Pump Association, welcomed the clear result. It supports building owners in “embarking on the path to climate neutrality even without heat planning”. mkr
Climate-friendly new construction: DUH warns against ‘whitewashing’
In order to promote the construction of homes that are good for both the climate and your wallet, the German government has announced a new funding program entitled “Climate-friendly new construction in the low-price segment” (KNN). One billion euros was already approved for the current year in January; the budget holders are currently negotiating the exact funding guidelines. However, according to Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), these are likely to be such that the program will not bring any real climate benefits.
The DUH bases its assessment on a report by the Institute for Resource Efficiency and Energy Strategies, which is due to be published this Tuesday and was made available to Table.Briefings in advance. This leads to the conclusion that with the chosen life cycle approach, practically all buildings constructed according to the current building standard are below the relevant limit value and can therefore be subsidized, provided they also have a photovoltaic system on the roof (which pays off even without additional funding).
The aim of promoting more environmentally friendly building materials – such as wood instead of concrete – would not be achieved in this way, according to the report. Instead, it would make sense “to relate the requirements for sustainable construction exclusively to the manufacturing and construction phase of buildings”, the experts write.
DUH has also criticized the current plans and is calling for the subsidy conditions to be tightened. Otherwise, there is a risk of a “balance sheet whitewash of energy waste”, said DUH energy expert Elisabeth Staudt to Table.Briefings. “What the German government is trying to sell as progress under the guise of the life cycle approach will in reality neither promote the urgently needed turnaround in construction nor ensure long-term affordability for residents in any way.” This is particularly critical because the KNN is intended to serve as a blueprint for the future direction of building promotion as a whole. mkr
Energieeffizienz
‘Paludi Alliance’ wants to create market for products from wet peatlands
The “toMOORow” initiative aims to create a sales market for products from the management of moorland in Germany through cooperation between research, foundations, politics and companies. At a kick-off event in Berlin on Tuesday, the “Alliance of Pioneers” presented itself, which aims to initiate new supply chains for reed grass products, for example, which are to be produced on rewetted moorland, through pilot projects.
The project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture with around €1.8 million from the “Climate and Transformation Fund” due to its importance for species and climate protection and for value creation in rural areas. Minister Cem Özdemir and his colleague from the Ministry of the Environment, Steffi Lemke, plan to attend the event.
Drained peatlands in Germany are responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases amounting to 53 million tons of CO2 every year. Currently, only five percent of German peatland soils are wet and therefore absorb carbon. A major obstacle to the rewetting of soils to date has been the loss of income for farmers.
The founders of the “Paludi Alliance” are the Michael Otto Environmental Foundation, the Michael Succow Foundation and the Greifswald Moor Centrum. They present 14 companies, mainly from the construction, packaging, insulation, wood and paper industries, which advocate the rewetting and economic use of moorland: Bau-Fritz, Leipa, Otto Wulff, Prezero Foundation, Procter & Gamble Service, Sto, Strabag, Tengelmann (Twenty-One, Kik Textilien und Non-Food GmbH and OBI), toom Baumarkt and Wepa Foundation. bpo
Climate & Environment
Climate policy
Nature-Based Solutions
Nature-Based Solutions
German government spends €130 million for climate adaptation of forests
On Monday, the BMUV and BMUL announced their intention to provide around €130 million for forest owners and local authorities. The funds come from the “Climate-adapted Forest Management” funding program, which is part of the “Natural Climate Protection Action Program” (ANK). According to government figures, the funding program has supported more than 8,500 private and municipal forest owners since 2022, who together own a total area of 1.52 million hectares of forest. That is around ten percent of Germany’s forest area.
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir said he was pleased to be able to continue the funding program “despite the difficult budget situation”. The reason for this is that funding for the ANK is being cut by around a third, as was announced in January. Of the €5 billion originally planned until 2027, only €3.5 billion will remain. This will be used to finance measures such as the rewetting of moors, climate-friendly forest conversion and the creation of floodplains to prevent flooding.
However, in 2023, only two percent of the funds that the BMUV could have spent on the ANK flowed out at all, as the Ministry of Finance’s most recent KTF report showed. For this year, the BMUV expects a significantly higher outflow of funds – including for “climate-adapted forest management”. Approval notices for the program will be issued immediately and funding applications can still be submitted. lb
