Grüne on the environment and animal welfare

The Greens want to halve the use of newly extracted raw materials in the long run and build a circular economy. This is meant to secure supply and, according to the program, protect the climate and species and create new jobs.

The Greens want to use far fewer new raw materials. Things should last longer and be repaired. People who get an electrical device repaired should get money from the state. Cities should be allowed to tax packaging.

The approach has four pillars: lower consumption, a circular economy with repair and recycling, mining at home and in Europe with reformed mining law and faster procedures, and raw material partnerships that respect human rights and environmental protection. The circular economy strategy and the EU ecodesign rules would be implemented, including a digital product passport. A nationwide repair bonus for common household electrical and electronic devices and stronger reusable systems are planned. Municipalities would handle commercial waste better and get legal certainty to levy a packaging tax.

The Greens want to write the protection of climate and nature into the Grundgesetz (Basic Law, Germany's constitution). The Aktionsprogramm Natürlicher Klimaschutz (action program for natural climate protection) would continue permanently and receive more money after 2028.

The Greens want to protect the climate and nature better. This protection should be in the constitution. The constitution is the most important law in Germany. There should also be more money for forests and moors.

The platform argues that intact nature secures quality of life and is needed to reach climate neutrality. According to the party, near-natural forests, moors and floodplains absorb carbon dioxide cheaply. The action program for natural climate protection would be made permanent, widened and developed further. Its funding would keep rising after 2028.

The Greens want to effectively protect thirty percent of land and sea area by 2030 and pass a biodiversity law to do so. Land for restoring nature would be secured by law.

The Greens want to protect more nature. By 2030, almost one third of the area should be protected. A new law should protect the variety of animals and plants. Rivers, forests and moors should become more natural again.

The EU Nature Restoration Law would be implemented quickly, with land guaranteed by statute. Plans include steps against land consumption, faster designation of nature reserves, more land in the National Natural Heritage, and linked habitat networks and large protected areas. The party rejects river engineering projects such as those on the middle Elbe and the border stretch of the Oder. Endangered species such as the lynx and fire salamander would get support programs, and the federal nature conservation fund would be strengthened. The right of associations to sue is to remain strong, and environmental education would be promoted.

The Greens oppose placing the wolf and other protected species under hunting law. In problematic individual cases, however, shooting should become faster and simpler. EU nature conservation law is to be preserved.

The wolf is a protected animal. The Greens do not want to open it to hunting. If a wolf causes problems, shooting it should be allowed more quickly. Animal owners should easily get money for damage.

The platform seeks a balance between local solutions and the requirements of nature conservation. This includes protecting herds, compensation with little paperwork, and shooting in exceptional cases. The party also describes keeping the wolf out of hunting law as a way to avoid bureaucracy. Genetic engineering methods such as gene drives that could endanger entire populations are to be ruled out.

The Greens want to update the Bundeswaldgesetz (Federal Forest Act) so that forests develop as naturally as possible into resilient mixed forests. The platform cites damage from the climate crisis, conifer plantations, drought and pests.

Many forests are in bad shape. The Greens want a new forest law. It should support forests with many kinds of trees. Such forests cope better with heat and drought.

Near-natural forests with native tree species suited to their location are to be preserved and developed. Forest owners would receive support and forestry agencies would be strengthened. Differentiated wildlife management is meant to let forests regenerate on their own everywhere. The timber industry should move toward long-lasting products, and research on wood and forests would be funded.

The Greens want to make the World Health Organization's recommendations on air and noise the legal standard. A new soil protection law would reduce pollutants and pesticides in the soil, including giving up glyphosate and neonicotinoids entirely.

The Greens want clean air and less noise. The rules of the World Health Organization should apply. A new law should protect the soil. Very harmful plant poisons should go away completely.

The WHO guidelines would serve as the legal standard in Germany and Europe. On soil, the party relies on more precaution and a new soil protection law. Fewer toxic substances and fewer pesticides should end up in the ground. Especially harmful products such as glyphosate and neonicotinoids would be dropped completely.

The Greens want to reduce packaging waste and make plastics producers bear more of the environmental costs. From 2045 at the latest, there should be no avoidable packaging waste. Internationally, the party seeks a plastics treaty with binding rules.

The Greens want less waste from packaging. Companies that make plastic should pay more for harm to nature. From 2045, there should be no needless packaging waste. There should also be less plastic worldwide.

Littering of the landscape and waters is to stop. Plastics producers would carry a larger share of the environmental costs of their products. Negotiations on a global plastics treaty should end with binding steps to lower plastic production. Technology that removes trash from the sea in an environmentally sound way would be funded.

The Greens want to curb private fireworks and consider a year-round ban on sales for private use appropriate. Municipalities should be able to set no-fireworks zones on a secure legal footing. The platform points to burdens on municipalities, people, animals and the environment, as well as misuse.

The Greens want fewer private fireworks. Stores should not sell them to private people all year. Cities should be able to ban fireworks in certain places. This should protect people, animals and nature.

Cities and towns would get more options for restricting fireworks. No-fireworks zones would be legally secure for every category of fireworks. The sales ban for private individuals would apply nationwide. The party cites the burden on municipalities and frequent misuse as reasons.

The Greens want to gradually end the use of so-called forever chemicals, starting where they can be replaced or are not critical. Reform of the EU chemicals regulation REACH should move faster without lowering the level of protection.

Some chemicals never break down. People call them forever chemicals. The Greens want to stop using them step by step. Where a replacement exists, this should happen fast.

For critical uses and future technologies such as electrolyzers or electric drives, there would be clear deadlines for substitution, because alternatives are sometimes lacking. During the transition, as little of these substances as possible should reach the environment. Incentives and a research push are meant to bring environmentally friendly substitutes to market faster. On REACH, the party wants to account for interactions between chemicals, speed up procedures and improve sanctions.

The Greens want producers of substances hazardous to water to pay for the consequences of water pollution. The National Water Strategy and the EU Water Framework Directive are to be implemented with sufficient money and staff.

The Greens want clean water. Whoever pollutes water should pay for the harm. Dangerous substances should no longer get into water. Old munitions should be taken out of the North Sea and Baltic Sea.

Nutrient inputs are to fall, and especially dangerous pollutants that break down poorly are to be kept out of the water cycle. Recovery of old munitions from the North Sea and Baltic Sea would continue and be finished by mid-century. For rivers, nature conservation and waterway administration would have equal authority. Cities and landscapes should be able to absorb and store water better. The new EU directive on environmental criminal law would be implemented, and the most serious environmental crimes would be outlawed in the statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Greens want stronger protection for the oceans and real refuges for fish and marine mammals in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. At least ten percent of Germany's marine area is to remain entirely unused so that nature can recover there.

The Greens want to protect the seas better. In part of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, nobody should disturb nature. Fish and other animals can recover there. Fishing should also do less harm to nature.

Internationally, the Greens back a global moratorium on deep-sea mining, implementation of the High Seas Treaty, and protected areas in Antarctica. Germany is to contribute to the global goal of effectively protecting one third of the oceans and to get a marine strategy. Fishing is to receive help with the transition, for example for nature-friendly fishing techniques and alternative income sources. The plan also includes reviewing shipping routes, ending harmful discharges, upgrading sewage plants, and programs against plastic pollution. A share of the revenue from selling sea areas for offshore wind is to keep going to marine protection.

The Greens want stricter animal welfare rules in Germany, Europe, and internationally. Animal transports are to last no more than four hours across Europe and be banned out of Europe; in addition, harmful breeding is to end and animal welfare groups are to be able to sue.

The Greens want to protect animals better. Animals should spend four hours at most in a transport truck. Transports out of Europe should be banned. Animal welfare groups should be able to go to court for animals. Wild animals should no longer be in circuses.

Breeding is to focus more on health, and animal cruelty is to be punished more severely and checked more effectively. The office of the federal animal welfare commissioner is to be made permanent, and recognized animal welfare organizations are to get the right to bring collective lawsuits. Slaughter and its oversight are to be improved, and decentralized and mobile slaughter strengthened. Animal testing is to be reduced through a reduction strategy and replaced by animal-free methods wherever possible. Animal shelters are to get more money, and commercial imports of wild-caught animals and imports of hunting trophies are to end.

The Greens want to reduce land consumption with new tools such as tradable land-use certificates or a levy on building land. At the same time, more urban development funding should make city and town centers livelier.

More and more land in Germany is built on. The Greens want to slow this down. They want new rules for that. They also want nicer city and village centers. More money should go to this.

Daily land consumption is to fall to 30 hectares by 2030 and to net zero in the long run. The platform argues that spatial and regional planning alone have not reduced land use effectively. For towns and villages it relies on neighborhood-based development with climate-neutral mobility, more green spaces and water areas, and public participation. Urban development funding would be increased and inner-city development made simpler.