Linke on the environment and animal welfare

The Left wants to ban throwing away edible food. By 2030, the amount of food waste is to be cut in half.

The Left wants to ban throwing good food in the trash. Stores should donate the food or give it away. By 2030 there should be only half as much food waste.

Food that is still edible is to go to nonprofit organizations or be handed out directly for free. The goal is to halve the amount of waste by 2030. The platform calls for binding requirements that differ by industry.

The Left wants a resource protection act and to rule out mining in protected areas and the deep sea. Local people are to share in mining projects and be able to reject them. A stricter supply chain law is meant to prevent exploitation in the Global South.

The Left wants a law to protect raw materials. There should be no mining in protected areas or the deep sea. Local people should be allowed to say no. Companies should be liable if their suppliers harm people or nature.

The right to have a say and to refuse is explicitly to apply to lithium mining in Saxony as well, and local people are to share in the value created. Environmental and drinking water protection is to be guaranteed worldwide. The program opposes what it sees as a looming green colonialism over raw materials for climate-friendly technology. The supply chain law is to get complaint channels for those affected and liability rules, and trade agreements are to include strong social and environmental standards.

The Left wants to make products longer-lasting and repairable, recycle more and cut waste. Single-use packaging is to be largely banned, waste exports from the EU prohibited and waste disposal returned to public ownership.

Products should last longer and be repairable. There should be more recycling and less waste. Much single-use packaging should be banned. Waste should no longer leave the EU for other countries. Waste collection should be public again.

New ecodesign rules are to secure lifespan, updates and repairs; warranty periods are to follow product lifespan, and the reversed burden of proof is to rise to two years. Manufacturers are to pay for take-back, transport, reprocessing and disposal and pay levies on remaining single-use packaging. In the EU, the Left seeks a uniform deposit system for beverage bottles and wants to fight illegal shipping of electronic waste harder. Organic waste is to be fermented into biogas before composting. Private fireworks are to be reduced to protect people, animals and nature.

The Left wants to spend twice as much on nature-based climate protection, expand protected areas and restore damaged ecosystems. Nature would get rights of its own, water would stay in public hands, and the oceans would be better protected.

The Left wants twice as much money to protect nature. More land should be wilderness. People should be able to go to court on behalf of nature. Water should belong to everyone. The oceans should be better protected.

Five percent of land would become wilderness, and there would be an enforceable right to an intact environment plus broader rights for associations to sue. For industrial projects like Tesla in Grünheide, drinking water supply would take priority; restoring rivers, an action plan against low water levels, and reviving bogs and floodplain forests are planned. The UN High Seas Treaty would be ratified quickly and nearly a third of the world's oceans protected by 2030. Fishing would be regulated more strictly, deep-sea mining banned internationally and commercial whaling ended. A positive list would define which animals may be kept as pets.

The Left wants to overhaul the Animal Welfare Act, enforce it more strictly and add tougher penalties. The party sees animals as sentient beings whose protection should take priority over profit. A phaseout of animal testing and several bans are also planned.

Animals should be better protected. People who abuse animals should be punished harder. One federal official should focus only on animal welfare. Animal testing should end step by step. Fur and wild animals in circuses should be banned.

An independent federal animal welfare commissioner would take part in lawmaking, and animal welfare groups would be strengthened. Severely harmful animal experiments would end at once, with a phaseout plan for the rest. Fur production and imports, dolphinariums, wild animals in circuses, animals at fairs, breeding that causes suffering and medically unnecessary procedures would be banned. The animal trade would be strictly regulated and illegal wildlife trade fought. Standards for keeping animals in zoos, businesses and homes would be geared to the animals, and wildlife corridors are meant to reduce collisions.