What do the parties in Hamburg say on the environment and animal welfare?

The AfD wants to protect Hamburg's green spaces, allotment gardens and nature areas from development and launch a program to unseal paved ground. Parks should be cleared of litter, graffiti removed faster and more trees planted. Measures for groundwater and biodiversity are also included.

Hamburg should stay green. Small gardens and street trees should be protected. Concrete and asphalt should be removed in many places. Parks should be clean. Schools should get school gardens. This should protect insects and birds.

The AfD wants to keep the Dove Elbe as an inland waterway and recreation area. It opposes industrial use as a tidal waterway as part of the Elbe deepening, arguing this would cause silting and harm local businesses.

The Dove Elbe is a large river arm in Hamburg. Many people relax there. The AfD wants to keep it that way. Tides should not reach it. Otherwise boat businesses would be at risk.

The CDU wants to preserve green spaces and protected areas, allow new paving-over of land only as an exception, and reopen sealed surfaces. According to the platform, trees, nature-oriented schoolyards and allotment gardens are meant to cool the city and secure quality of life.

The CDU wants to protect green spaces in Hamburg. Ground should only rarely be paved over. Paved areas should be opened up again. The city should replace street trees that were cut down. Allotment gardens should be safe until 2040.

The CDU wants to place at least one-fifth of Hamburg's forest under protection and to secure peatlands through protective measures and land purchases. It justifies this with the decline in biodiversity and the role of forests and peatlands in climate protection.

Hamburg has fewer and fewer kinds of animals and plants. So the CDU wants to protect more forest. At least 20 percent of the forest should be protected. The city should also buy and protect peatland.

The CDU wants to expand animal welfare in Hamburg through several individual measures, including a new animal shelter and a station for wild animals. Animal cruelty is to be pursued consistently.

The CDU wants to protect animals better. Hamburg should get a new animal shelter. There should also be a station for wild animals. Dogs should get more areas to run. People who are cruel to animals should be pursued.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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 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 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 Left calls for a comprehensive biodiversity strategy with firm targets and deadlines. At the same time, Hamburg would invest in protection against heavy rain and heat because, according to the program, such weather events are increasing.

The Left wants to better protect animals and plants in Hamburg. There would be a plan with fixed goals. The city should prepare for heat and heavy rain. Old trees should stay standing.

The SPD wants to secure the stock of green spaces, maintain and expand parks and playgrounds, and keep supporting allotment gardens. Open farmland areas and remaining moors are to stay undeveloped, and more trees are to be planted than felled.

The SPD wants to keep parks, playgrounds and allotment gardens. Every family should reach a green space in ten minutes. Moors and fields should not be built on. The city should plant more trees than it cuts down. Parks and paths should also be cleaner.

The SPD wants to open an additional animal shelter and house found animals in line with animal welfare standards. Off-leash dog areas are to be created in districts that have none, and the pigeon population is to be managed humanely.

The SPD wants to open a new animal shelter. Found animals should be housed well. There should be more areas where dogs can run free. The city wants to limit the number of pigeons without harming them.