Grüne on the environment and animal welfare

The Greens want to strengthen nature-based climate protection in Hamburg. Existing forests are to be preserved and total forest area is to grow. The platform notes that forests cool and store CO2.

The Greens want to protect Hamburg's forests. There should also be new forests. Forests cool the city on hot days. Forests also take CO2 out of the air.

The platform regards forests, peatlands and wetlands as carbon stores and as important for biodiversity. The way forest areas are used is to be reviewed. Forests are to serve more as places to recover on hot days. The Greens cite the newly designated and reforested areas in four districts as a starting point.

The Greens want to expand the Grünes Netz (Green Network) of connected green spaces and recreation areas, upgrade parks and enlarge them where possible. Everyone in Hamburg should be able to reach a green space within a five-minute walk. The platform sees this as protection against summer heat and a contribution to health and biodiversity.

The Greens want more and better parks. Green spaces should be linked to each other. Everyone should reach a green space in a 5-minute walk. Every park should have flower meadows for insects. Green spaces cool the city in summer.

Green spaces are to be managed in a near-natural way, for example with native plants and insect-friendly flower meadows in every park. Property owners are to receive support for greening their buildings. Urban biodiversity is to be expanded with every construction project in public space. The Greens want to make sure the Vertrag für Hamburgs Stadtgrün (agreement on Hamburg's urban green space), signed with the conservation group NABU in 2019, is observed; the platform describes it as a balance between housing construction and protecting green space.

The Greens want a dedicated program to open up and renaturalize more paved surfaces. New sealing of land is to be kept as low as possible; in the long run, newly sealed and unsealed areas should balance out. According to the platform, this helps against heat islands and lets more water seep into the ground.

Many surfaces in the city are covered with asphalt or concrete. The Greens want to open up such surfaces again. Then water can flow into the ground. The city gets cooler in summer. As little new land as possible should be paved over.

In road planning, an unsealing balance is to be presented regularly alongside the tree balance. The Greens want to examine legal tools that would let the city buy or swap land specifically for unsealing and renaturalization. A land-use strategy is meant to work toward the long-term balance. The city's urban development goals, such as housing construction, are to remain in place.

The Greens want to draw up a water strategy for Hamburg. It is meant to secure the drinking water supply despite drought and heavy rain and keep prices affordable. Rainwater is to be used more widely as non-drinking water.

The Greens want to make a plan for water in Hamburg. Everyone should have drinking water in the future too. It should stay affordable. People should save water. Rainwater should be used for flushing toilets.

The platform justifies the strategy with more frequent climate-related extremes that strain the city's supply. Part of the strategy is to raise awareness of careful water use. New technologies are meant to reduce pollutants and help save water. The use of rainwater, for example for flushing toilets, is to receive more support.

The Greens want to halt species loss and increase biodiversity across the whole city. To that end, nature reserves are to be enlarged, the habitat network legally secured, and species monitoring expanded. The party commits to the EU Nature Restoration Regulation and to the agreements of the UN biodiversity conference in Montreal.

The Greens want to protect animals and plants better. There should be more protected areas for nature. These areas should be linked to each other. That way animals can move around. The city should count more carefully which species exist.

Ten percent of the state's area is to be under nature protection; for this, the Boberger Niederung and Kirchwerder Wiesen reserves will be enlarged and the Vollhöfner Weiden newly protected. Areas so far only under review for the habitat network are to be updated regularly and mostly turned into permanent network areas. Projects such as "UnternehmensNatur" and "MOIN STADTNATUR" are to be kept. The Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park is to remain a biosphere reserve; for Elbe silt, the party seeks solutions that make dumping in or right outside the park unnecessary. Contaminated sites in soil and water are to continue to be handled in transparent procedures with public participation.

The Greens want a planting drive to bring the number of street trees back to at least the 2009 level. Old trees should be spared from felling where possible, and every tree felled should be replaced by at least one new one. Tree stock and forests are to be adapted to heat, drought and storms.

The Greens want to plant more trees along the streets. There should be as many again as in 2009. That was almost 233,000 trees. Old trees should stay. New trees should cope well with heat and dry weather.

The platform calls for enough money both for new plantings and for the care of young trees. More so-called future trees are to be planted, meaning species that cope well with the changed urban climate. The recreational forests Klövensteen and Niendorfer Gehege are to be prepared for climate change. The Greens support fully preserving the Pionierwald (pioneer forest) in Wilhelmsburg. Pointing to more than 20,000 homes that are approved but not yet under construction, they want to re-examine building on especially valuable land.

The Greens reject any further deepening of the Elbe. Future river engineering is to respect ecological limits and bring ecological improvements. Rivers are to get more room, for example by moving dikes back and restoring floodplains.

The Greens do not want to dredge the Elbe any deeper. Rivers should get more room. Animals in the water should get their habitats back. Dirty water from roads should not flow into rivers. Hamburg should work with neighboring states.

The benchmark is the good water status required by the European Water Framework Directive. As consequences of past deepening, the platform lists more turbidity, silting and the decline of fish species such as smelt. Hamburg is to do more to clean up contaminated sites on the upper Elbe and resume dialogue with neighboring states, including on fish passage. Road runoff containing microplastics should not reach waterways untreated; funds for riparian buffer strips are to be adjusted.

The Greens want a sustainability strategy with clear goals for Hamburg and sustainability officers in every city authority and district. The city budget is to be aligned with the sustainability goals. A circular economy is meant to save raw materials, especially in construction and waste recovery.

Sustainable means living so that there is enough for everyone later too. The Greens want a plan with clear goals for this. Every city office should get a person in charge of it. Building should create less waste. The city should spend its money in line with these goals.

The basis is the 17 UN goals of the 2030 Agenda. In construction, sustainable materials are to be promoted, cradle-to-cradle processes encouraged and demolition avoided; events are to be subject to binding sustainability criteria. Plans include a funding program for civic engagement, a climate and sustainability platform for public institutions, and a joint sustainability council for universities. Companies and start-ups are to get support with sustainable business models and with their supply-chain due diligence duties.

The Greens want a lighting master plan for Hamburg that brings together safety, culture and ecology. Public lighting is to be switched step by step entirely to efficient, insect-friendly LED lamps and controlled through a networked system. The platform justifies this with the effects of light pollution on animals, plants and people.

The city is very bright at night. That harms animals, plants and people. The Greens want a plan for lighting in Hamburg. Lamps should use little power and be gentle on insects. Nature reserves should stay dark.

Smart lighting systems are meant to improve the sense of safety, safety on paths, energy efficiency and the quality of public spaces all at once. Possible barriers for people with visual impairments are to be considered in research and planning. In open landscapes and around nature reserves, the burden of light on insects is to be reduced. The Greens also plan a sustainable festival of light as an alternative to events with fireworks, where overall more city lighting is switched off than artistic lighting is added.

The Greens want to introduce a mandatory dog owner's license for newly acquired dogs and revise the dog law including its breed list. The city is to create an additional animal shelter at a second location. Illegal puppy trading is to be prosecuted consistently.

Anyone who gets a new dog should have to pass a test. This is called a dog owner's license. The Greens want a second animal shelter in Hamburg. The current shelter is often full. The city should fight the illegal puppy trade harder.

The practical test for the license is to be taken individually with the owner's own animal. The dog law is to be evaluated on the basis of current scientific findings in order to better protect people and animals from danger. The Süderstraße shelter, which according to the platform repeatedly has to stop taking in animals, is to get a long-term lease and permission to build on its expansion site. Veterinary offices are to get enough staff to enforce animal welfare and uncover more cases of puppy trading.

The Greens want to set up a city-recognized rescue station for injured wild animals and have the city pay more toward their care. Stray cats are to be neutered, and the populations of nutria and city pigeons are to be reduced in ways consistent with animal welfare.

Injured wild animals like hedgehogs should get an official rescue station. The city should pay more for this. Stray cats should be neutered. That means they can no longer have young. The number of pigeons and nutria should go down without hurting the animals.

According to the platform, help for injured hedgehogs or squirrels currently depends on private initiatives; a station recognized under the Federal Nature Conservation Act is meant to change that, following other states. A neutering project for stray cats is planned, as in neighboring states. Glass surfaces on public buildings are to get bird-protection markings, and the party promotes them for private construction. For nutria, it wants to examine options other than hunting, such as sterilization, because hunting has not measurably reduced the population so far. The existing pigeon lofts in Altona, Mitte and Hamburg-Nord are to be evaluated, continued if successful, and joined by sites in the other districts.

The Greens want to make Hamburg a hub for research methods that do not use animals. The 3R principle, meaning replace, reduce and refine animal experiments, is to be pursued further and given more staff.

The Greens want fewer animal tests in research. There are new methods that work without animals. Hamburg should be a leader in these methods. A network of researchers and companies should help.

The platform says animal experiments cannot yet be avoided entirely but points to new techniques such as organoids and organ-on-a-chip, which are also said to improve drug safety. The 3R field is to be developed further together with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). A network of research institutions and companies is to be created. Because oversight by veterinary offices and the justice authority is labor-intensive, the field is to get more staff.

The Greens want to set up an additional animal shelter in Hamburg because the existing one repeatedly has to stop taking in animals. They also want to create the office of an independent state animal welfare commissioner.

Hamburg should get a second animal shelter. The current shelter is often too full. There should also be an independent person for animal welfare. This person should speak for Hamburg on animal welfare.

The platform attributes the bottlenecks at the Süderstraße shelter to growing pet numbers, seized puppies and exotic animals from illegal trade, and surrendered animals with breeding-related illnesses. Housing found and impounded animals is described as a mandatory task of the city. The state commissioner is meant to represent Hamburg in federal-state cooperation with the federal animal welfare commissioner.

The Greens want to designate one tenth of Hamburg's area as nature reserves. These areas and the landscape protection areas are to remain permanently free of construction, and as much forest as possible is to be preserved.

Ten percent of Hamburg should be nature reserve. Nobody may build there. This also applies to landscape protection areas. The Greens want to keep as much forest as possible.

Besides the nature reserves, the nearly 19 percent of the state's area secured as landscape protection areas is also to stay permanently undeveloped. The party wants to review plans to use forest for housing, citing the Pionierwald in Wilhelmsburg as an example. Further investment is meant to improve the quality of natural areas.

The Greens rule out any further deepening of the Elbe and want to address the ecological effects of the last deepening together with neighboring states and the federal government. On silt, they call for flexible sediment management and reject dumping near Scharhörn.

The Elbe river was made deeper for big ships. Since then, more silt has built up in the river. The Greens do not want to make the Elbe any deeper. The river should recover. They do not want to dump the silt near the island of Scharhörn.

According to the platform, the last deepening missed its goals and led to more silting through so-called tidal pumping. With the Stiftung Lebensraum Elbe foundation and the proposals of the Forum Tideelbe, the river's natural balance is to be restored. The measures named are more floodplain space, better water quality, less turbidity, more oxygen, species protection and stronger disaster protection. Sediment management should avoid dredging material in circles and release uncontaminated sediment where it drifts on into the North Sea. A dredged-material depot in the North Sea and use for dike building and landscape preservation are to be examined.

The Greens want events on public land to follow the city's sustainability guidelines and large events to hold a certificate. As an alternative to fireworks, they propose a festival of lights.

Big festivals should put less strain on the environment. There should be clear rules for that. Large events should have a sustainability certificate. Instead of fireworks, the Greens want to offer a festival of lights.

Major events are to be spread more evenly across the year. The platform names the "Green Events" network as a partner. The "Open Mouth" food festival launched in 2023 is to be expanded, and further sustainable event formats are to be added. The festival of lights would follow international examples.

The Greens want Hamburg to develop its own circular economy strategy, modeled on cities such as Amsterdam. The aim is less waste, lower resource use and fewer emissions; the program says costs should also fall in the long run.

The Greens want less trash in Hamburg. Materials should be used again and again. This is called a circular economy. Hamburg should get its own plan for it. Amsterdam is one model.

The program names "zero waste," meaning a sharp cut in the amount of trash, as a central goal; this would allow waste incineration capacity to be reduced. The recycling duty in the commercial waste ordinance is to be effectively enforced. The city's environmental guideline is being expanded into a sustainability guideline that pays more attention to life-cycle costs and repairability in public purchasing. Companies newly covered by sustainability reporting duties are to receive subsidized advice.

The Greens want to introduce a Hamburg repair bonus modeled on Thuringia's, refunding up to half the cost of repairing a device. Repair businesses and repair cafés are also to be strengthened, a FabLab funded in every district, and a circular economy center set up.

Broken devices should be repaired more often. The Greens want a repair bonus for this. The city then pays up to half of the cost. You only have to show the receipt. There should also be more open workshops.

The bonus would apply once a year per person for the repair of one device and be paid on presentation of the receipt. Businesses that repair or refurbish products are to be easier to find and get more support; offers such as repair cafés are to be secured permanently and expanded. A FabLab, an open workshop with equipment such as 3D printers and laser cutters, is to be funded in every district. A circular economy center modeled on Berlin's Haus der Materialisierung would bring recycling, reuse, repair, workshop space, tool lending and classes together in one place.

The Greens want to work with consumers so that less food ends up in the trash. Passing on food donations is to become easier, and taking discarded food from supermarket bins is no longer to be a crime.

A lot of food ends up in the trash. The Greens want to change that. Donating food should become easier. People who take food from supermarket trash bins should not be punished.

The responsible agency and the consumer advice center provide information and practical tips on handling food. The network "aufgefangen," which brings together projects against waste, is to grow. At the federal level, the party wants local projects such as Fairteiler (public food-sharing points) to be able to operate without risks for volunteers. A regular dialogue is to bring practitioners and researchers together on possible solutions.