SPD on the environment and animal welfare

The SPD wants to develop both cities into "Circular Cities" that use resources sparingly and keep them in circulation. Waste reports, pilot projects and better collection of organic waste are meant to contribute.

The SPD wants less trash. Things should be repaired and reused more often. The cities should report regularly on what happens to the trash. Large apartment buildings should also get organic waste bins.

Both cities are to publish a detailed waste report regularly, showing how individual material flows are collected and recycled over time. As pilot projects, the program names citywide reusable-packaging systems, more repair cafés, zero-packaging stores, space for urban gardening and a repair bonus. Bremen's municipal sanitation service is to draw up a concept for organic waste collection in large housing complexes. The SPD also wants to examine how cooperation with utilities such as Hansewasser, Wesernetz and SWB can be deepened.

The SPD wants to preserve and expand green and water areas in both cities, unseal paved land and protect trees better. This is meant to serve climate protection, adaptation to heat and heavy rain, and biodiversity, and to secure recreation areas for everyone.

The SPD wants more green space in the city. Trees should be better protected. Paved areas should be opened up so rain can soak in. Roofs and walls should get plants. All neighborhoods should have green space equally.

Enough money and staff are to be available to care for and renew public trees, and tree protection is to be tightened by regulation, especially during underground construction. Greening of roofs and facades is to be subsidized. The SPD rejects a hard cap on land use, arguing it would drive people out of the cities; instead it relies on sparing sealing and greening. It also aims for pesticide-free cities, ecologically maintained roadside greenery and a socially fair distribution of green space across neighborhoods. Bremen's environmental service and Bremerhaven's parks department are to be strengthened after review.

The SPD wants to protect the peatlands in the state of Bremen because they store CO2 and matter for nature and species protection. It wants to examine which areas can be rewetted and to involve farmers from the start.

Peatlands store a lot of CO2. The SPD wants to protect Bremen's peatlands. It wants to check where dried peatlands can be made wet again. Farmers should have a say from the start.

According to the program, peatlands make up about 10 percent of the state's area, including the Blockland, the Ruschdahl-Moor and the Fehrmoor. Natural peatlands are described as important CO2 stores and as protection against the effects of climate change. Regional agriculture is to be included in the review. For compensation, Bremen is to seek federal money from the Aktionsprogramm Natürlicher Klimaschutz (action program for natural climate protection).

The SPD wants to fight litter in public spaces with education, more checks and fines. The Ordnungsdienst (municipal enforcement service) is to grow in all districts, and cameras are to be used for limited periods at individual dumping hotspots.

Some streets in Bremen have a lot of trash. The SPD wants to change that. It wants to inform people and check more often. People who dump trash illegally should pay a fine. Cameras will hang in some places for a while. There will also be more trash cans and public toilets.

Preventive outreach as practiced in Bremen-Nord is to continue and be stepped up, and local networks such as the Gröpelingen security partnership are to grow. The enforcement service is to get branch offices in Bremen-Nord and the east of Bremen, and the environmental wardens project is to be extended to other districts. Squares and playgrounds are to be laid out more openly, and busy places such as Osterdeich and Werdersee are to get additional trash cans and toilets. A new situation report on environmental offenses is to be drawn up, and checks on cross-border waste shipments are to get more equipment and staff.