SPD on the environment and animal welfare

The SPD wants to keep Saxony's wolf management and maintain a balance between species protection and herd protection. Public information, compensation and protective measures for herds are to remain funded.

The SPD wants to keep Saxony's way of dealing with wolves. Wolves should stay protected, but so should herds of farm animals. Animal owners should still get money for damage. The state should also keep paying for herd protection.

The SPD wants wolf management to keep taking both concerns into account: protecting the species and protecting livestock. Programs that inform the public about wolves are to continue. Compensation for damage and measures to protect herds are to remain publicly funded.

The SPD wants decisions by the state parliament, government and administration to be checked for sustainability. The sustainability report is to become a real balance sheet with measurable goals, and life-cycle assessments are to play a role in public investment as well.

The SPD wants to check political decisions for sustainability. That means looking at the effects on the future. Saxony should get measurable sustainability goals. A report should later show whether the goals were met.

The platform treats sustainability as a principle for all policy areas, in which short-term effects are weighed against long-term consequences. Aspects of life-cycle assessment, which looks at a product's entire life span, are to be applied to political decisions and state investments. Qualitative growth is to be the guiding idea in planning. Saxony's economic policy is to be aligned step by step with the EU taxonomy, and companies are to get support in applying it. Education for sustainable development is also to serve as a learning principle in schools.

The SPD wants to make sustainable products cheaper through taxation and to make the Reparaturbonus (repair subsidy) permanent. The circular economy and consumer education are to be strengthened; the party explicitly wants to do without bans.

The SPD wants sustainable products to cost less. Taxes should change to make that happen. People who get things repaired should keep getting money from the state. The SPD does not want bans here. Big corporations should pay a minimum tax worldwide.

State support is meant to make sustainable consumption easier and thereby reduce resource use. The platform stresses that this is about neither radical steps nor bans, but about many small contributions such as buying used or repairing instead of buying new. Globally active corporations are to be held responsible through a global minimum tax. The SPD wants to give special support to companies that lead the way under the German Sustainability Code. In housing, the trend toward more living space per person is to be reversed through incentives and support for sustainable forms of housing.

The SPD wants to build closed material loops in Saxony, from raw material to reuse. The platform sees the reuse of resources as a key to climate neutrality. Public buildings are to be built with as much recycled material as possible.

The SPD wants raw materials to be used more than once. Old products should become new ones. This is called a circular economy. The state should use a lot of recycled material when it builds. Groups that repair and swap things should also get money.

The Center for the Transformation of Chemistry in the Central German coal district is to help create a circular economy for chemical products. Companies would get support for developing products and technology for the circular economy, and the Circular Saxony cluster would be strengthened. The SPD wants to draw on the expertise of TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Procurement practice for public construction would change so that more recycled building materials are used; recycling of gypsum and concrete would continue to be funded. Initiatives against food waste and packaging and for swapping and repair would continue to receive support.

The SPD wants a climate adaptation strategy covering all areas and more money for municipalities to prepare for heat, drought and extreme weather. Water supply is to be secured as groundwater becomes scarcer. The party continues to reject expanding the Elbe river for shipping.

The weather is getting more extreme. The SPD wants to prepare towns and villages for it. There should be more money for this. Water should stay clean and be enough for everyone. The Elbe river should not be expanded for ships.

Heat protection for health, green roofs, heat-resistant road surfaces and precautions against extreme weather are to become standard in every municipality. The SPD wants to adapt the Wasserkonzeption Sachsen 2030 (state water plan) to severe weather and improve the handling of process water and rainwater. In groundwater, nitrate, chemical residues, microplastics and antibiotics are to be reduced; technology that cuts industrial water use would get support. On flood protection, the party wants to keep technical and natural measures in balance. Villages still relying on their own wells are to be connected to the network.

The SPD wants to cut land consumption: by 2030, fewer than three hectares a day are to be newly sealed, and in the long run none on a net basis. This comes with measures for biodiversity, climate-resilient mixed forests and the rewetting of peatlands.

A lot of land in Saxony gets built over. The SPD wants to slow this down. By 2030 it should be less than three hectares a day. Later no more land should be added at all. The SPD also wants to protect forests, peatlands and rare animals and plants.

For the goal of net-zero soil sealing, the SPD wants to present a dedicated strategy. Management of soil, forests and waters that benefits biodiversity would be funded, for instance through hedges and flower strips; the party supports more biotope networks. Converting forests to mixed stands, adding forest area and regulating game populations through hunting are also part of the plan. Peatlands are to be preserved and rewetted more extensively because they store carbon and absorb water. State funding for nature conservation stations would continue, and zoning in Saxon Switzerland National Park would be adjusted through dialogue.

The SPD wants measurable improvements for animals. It wants to strengthen animal shelters and veterinary offices, secure veterinary care, and fund alternatives to animal testing so that research can soon do without such tests.

The SPD wants animals to be better off. Animal shelters should get help. The offices for animal health should get stronger. Research should soon work without animal testing.

In the platform's view, animal welfare means preventing suffering and also ensuring animals' well-being. Veterinary care and emergency services are to be secured together with the state chamber of veterinarians. The SPD sees society, politics and business as sharing responsibility.