Germany to strengthen natural ecosystems for climate protection

The German government will make a total of 4 billion euros available by 2026 to improve the state of natural ecosystems, with the goal of making them more resilient and to ensure that they can make a stronger contribution to climate protection. The cabinet adopted the final version of a programme with measures for natural climate action. “Forests and floodplains, soils and moors, oceans and bodies of water, near-natural green spaces in the city and in the countryside: they can all sequester carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the long term,” said environment minister Steffi Lemke. The programme aims to better protect these natural habitats and make them more resilient in order to contribute to national climate targets in the long term. It lays out a wide variety of 69 measures, including the expansion of organic farming, an assessment of climate protection potential for seaweed, and the implementation of the moorland strategy.

“After decades of underfunding and neglect of our ecosystems, the Natural Climate Action Programme can bring about a turnaround in nature conservation,” Jörg-Andreas Krüger, head of environmental organisation NABU, said. The union called for natural climate protection and the restoration of ecosystems to be prioritised and accelerated “just as much as the expansion of renewable energies”. Lemke had presented key points and a draft of the programme last year. The ruling government coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP parties had promised the package in their coalition agreement.