Linke on the environment and animal welfare

The Left wants a circular economy in which more than 99 percent of raw materials are recycled in the future. The program cites scarce raw materials for the energy transition as well as environmental damage and human rights violations in mining.

Wind turbines and solar panels need raw materials. Mining them often harms nature and people. The Left wants to reuse almost all raw materials. Bremen should build the facilities needed for this.

According to the program, the raw materials are needed for wind turbines, solar panels, hydrogen catalysts and storage batteries. Bremen is to build the infrastructure for reprocessing. Rules are to be tightened at the federal and European level.

The Left wants to protect the green belt around Bremen and allow no further development in undeveloped outlying areas. Parks, trees and allotment gardens are to be preserved and expanded, paved surfaces unsealed and the municipal environmental service given more funding.

A green belt of nature surrounds Bremen. The Left does not want any more building there. The city should have more parks, trees and allotment gardens. Allotment gardens should not become commercial land. The city's environmental service should get more money.

A municipal green plan is to bundle the goals for green and water areas in the city. In districts with little greenery, such as the Bahnhofsvorstadt, the city should examine where surfaces can be unsealed. The party rejects rezoning allotment gardens in the land-use plan and building commercial sites on them. Environmental standards are to apply equally in all districts, and more burdened neighborhoods are to receive compensation. The Umweltbetrieb Bremen (municipal environmental service) is to regain main responsibility for all public green spaces and contract out as little work as possible.

The Left wants Bremen's biodiversity strategy to be continually updated and carried out. Pesticides should no longer be used in Bremen, gravel gardens should disappear, and paved surfaces should be opened up and planted.

The Left wants to protect more animals and plants in the city. Bremen should stop using pesticides. Gravel gardens should stay banned. More areas should become green.

The platform also calls for a nationwide pesticide ban. Vacant land not needed for building for now should be allowed to grow wild as "temporary nature." Following Berlin's example, an unsealing plan with a land register is to be created, with green strips along wide streets and parks replacing parking lots. Green roofs and facades with insect-friendly plants should get more funding and research. The party rejects new highways, including the A20. The new dike on the left bank of the Weser should remain a green space.

The Left rejects deepening the Lower Weser, arguing that the expansion harms the river and its tributaries ecologically. The deepening of the Outer Weser now applied for is to be the final stage.

The Left does not want to make the Lower Weser deeper. It says this harms the river and its wildlife. The Outer Weser should be deepened one last time only. Smaller rivers should become more natural again.

According to the platform, deepening and straightening have increased the current, damaging the river habitat. For the Outer Weser, the planned channel depth of 13.5 meters is treated as the upper limit. Restoration of tributary waters is to be expanded and the EU Water Framework Directive implemented. In addition, less nitrate from farming should reach the water.

The Left wants Bremen to become a city built around the circular economy by 2038. At the same time, noise limits should not be loosened and illegal dumping should be stopped.

By 2038, Bremen should throw away less and reuse more. Broken devices should be repaired more often. Noise rules should stay strict. Illegally dumped trash should be removed quickly.

New buildings should go primarily on land already in use, to avoid sealing more ground. Repair shops such as the Klimawerkstatt are to receive support. The noise action plan is to be reviewed for ways to create more binding options, especially for heavily affected residential areas. The city sanitation service should remove dumped waste quickly, and additional "trash detectives" should track down those responsible.

The Left wants to end experiments on primates at the University of Bremen and push at the federal level for stricter animal welfare law. Animal testing is to be handled far more restrictively.

The Left wants no more experiments on monkeys at the University of Bremen. Laws that protect animals should become stricter. Selling animals online should be banned. Animals should be kept and transported in better conditions.

Because federal law has so far blocked a ban, the party also wants to reform the higher education law and use every option at the state level against further macaque experiments. Federally, it calls for bans on online animal trading and on importing live wild animals, tougher rules for keeping and transport, and mandatory tagging and registration of pets. Subsidies are to be tied more closely to environmental, social and animal welfare criteria, and conflicting subsidies scrapped. Regional slaughtering and marketing should be strengthened and the market power of large slaughterhouse, dairy and retail corporations limited.

The Left wants to introduce a mandatory certificate of competence, including dog training, for dog owners. Bremen's animal shelter should get reliable, sufficient funding, and public dovecotes are to be set up for city pigeons.

People who keep a dog should show they know how. This includes dog training classes. The animal shelter in Bremen should get more money. Pigeons should get their own shelters in the city.

The platform justifies the certificate by saying that problem behavior in dogs mostly stems from poor handling; it could make the disputed breed list unnecessary. Additional off-leash areas are to be created. Funding for the shelter should rise and be made permanent, and the party backs a building expansion. Dovecotes at central locations are to follow the model used in Augsburg.

The Left opposes expanding the Grauer Wall landfill in Bremerhaven and wants to plan a replacement site. It sees dangers to groundwater and residents and demands that less waste from outside be accepted.

Bremerhaven has a landfill. It is supposed to get bigger. The Left is against this. It sees dangers for groundwater and for neighbors. The party wants to look for another place for the waste.

According to the program, the expansion was approved without sufficient regard for the 2009 landfill ordinance. It cites risks from dust, pollutants in groundwater and in the Neue Aue stream, and rising sea levels. Pollutant leaks and inadequate inspections are to be investigated. The party considers the site unsuitable as a replacement for Bremen's landfill.