4 current election programs in Lower Saxony have points on this topic.
Their points are shown side by side, summarized and placed. The quote and page number for each point are on the party's topic page.
AIThe summaries and placements on this page were written by AI. No person reviews each one. How they are made
Each axis measures one topic. There is no single "left" or "right" for everything here: economy, society, migration and security are kept apart. Only what the program says is placed. How to read the placement
The small columns under the bars show how many points sit on each of the five steps.
Program for the 2022 Lower Saxony state election
The AfD wants Germany to set a maximum number of wolves, as France and Sweden have done. It justifies this with attacks on grazing animals that it says threaten farmers' livelihoods.
The AfD wants only a fixed number of wolves in Germany. Wolves kill sheep and other animals in the fields. The AfD says many animal farmers lose their income because of this.
The AfD wants to rebuild smaller, regional slaughterhouses so that animals travel shorter distances. Slaughter without stunning should not be allowed, even for religious reasons. Permits for modern barns should be easier to get.
The AfD wants more small slaughterhouses close to farms. Then animals do not have to travel so far. Animals should always be stunned before slaughter. This should also apply to religious slaughter. Farmers should be able to build new barns more easily.
The AfD wants to keep protecting existing natural areas and landscapes but not designate new protected areas or enlarge national parks. It sees these as a creeping expropriation of owners.
The AfD wants to keep protecting nature in Lower Saxony. But there should be no new protected areas. National parks should not get bigger either. The AfD says owners would otherwise slowly lose control of their land.
Program for the 2022 Lower Saxony state election
The CDU wants a fertilizer ordinance that follows the polluter-pays principle. Farms that work according to good professional practice should be able to exit existing restrictions. More nitrate monitoring sites are to be set up, and water protection is to be pursued in cooperation with those involved.
There are strict rules for putting fertilizer on fields. The CDU wants limits only for those who pollute the water. Farmers who work cleanly should be freer again. There should be more sites that measure nitrate in water.
The CDU backs hunters and wants to keep statewide hunting under the district-based system. The list of species that may be hunted is not to be shortened, and trapping is to remain permitted. The program regards hunting as cultural heritage and as hands-on nature conservation.
The CDU supports hunters in Lower Saxony. Hunting should stay possible across the whole state. There should be no new bans for certain animal species. The CDU sees hunting as culture and as nature protection.
The CDU wants to actively manage the wolf population and add the wolf to the hunting law, in line with species protection and EU law. It cites the growing population, attacks on livestock, and unease especially in rural areas. Coastal regions are to become wolf-free zones.
There are more and more wolves in Lower Saxony. The CDU wants to control the number of wolves. Hunters should be allowed to hunt wolves under certain rules. There should be no wolves on the coast. Sheep protect the dikes there.
The CDU wants to keep implementing and expand funding for the Niedersächsischer Weg ("Lower Saxony Way"), an agreement between environmental groups and farmers. On species protection, it relies on incentives, cooperation, and personal responsibility alongside necessary rules. Programs for insects, protected areas, and greener cities are added.
The CDU wants to protect nature and species. Farmers and environmental groups should work together on this. The CDU relies on rewards and not only on rules. There should be more flower strips for insects. Cities should become greener too.
The CDU wants to launch large reforestation programs, especially in the Harz and the Heide regions, and adapt forests to climate change. It points to bark beetle damage and to the forest's role for nature, climate, the economy, and recreation.
The CDU wants to plant many new trees. This applies mainly to the Harz and the Heide regions. The forest should cope better with climate change. More trees should grow in cities too.
The CDU wants a long-term strategy for water use by households, businesses, and industry. Plans include better wastewater treatment, more water reuse, and protection of groundwater reserves. The program points to the effects of climate change on the drinking water supply.
The CDU wants to protect water better. Sewage plants should clean water more thoroughly. Used water should be used again more often. When water is scarce, nobody should waste drinking water.
The CDU expects the federal government to secure the Asse II mine and to start the promised retrieval of the nuclear waste soon. It points out that Lower Saxony has borne special burdens from nuclear power for decades.
Nuclear waste lies in the Asse II mine. The CDU calls the mine run-down. The federal government should secure it. The waste should be taken out soon. There should be fewer nuclear waste transports.
Program for the 2022 Lower Saxony state election
The Greens oppose dumping sludge from dredging in rivers and ports into the North Sea or inland waters. Instead, uncontaminated dredged material is to be used for coastal protection. Coastal protection plans are to be revised in light of the effects of climate change.
Dredgers take mud out of rivers and ports. The Greens do not want this mud dumped in the sea. Clean mud should help protect the coast. Coastal protection plans should fit climate change.
The Greens want to create a fund to tackle marine litter and keep plastic waste out of rivers, lakes, ports and the North Sea. Old munitions lying in the sea are to be recovered. The program justifies this with the Wadden Sea's importance for biodiversity and climate protection.
The Greens want to protect the sea better. A new fund should help fight trash in the sea. Old munitions should be taken out of the sea. There should be more floodplains along rivers.
The Greens want to write into the state water law that public drinking water supply takes priority over other uses. This is meant to let municipal water utilities keep providing good, affordable drinking water. Because of the climate crisis, new water extraction areas are also to be approved faster.
Drinking water for people should come first. The Greens want to put this into the water law. Other users of water come after that. Water utilities should be allowed to use new areas for drinking water faster.
The Greens want to avoid waste and reuse raw materials as fully as possible, naming zero waste as the goal. Repair, durable products and reusable packaging systems are to be supported. According to the platform, this protects the climate and environment and reduces dependence on raw material imports.
The Greens want much less trash. Products should last long and be easy to repair. Raw materials should be used again and again. There should be more reusable packaging and repair cafés. Then the state needs fewer raw materials from abroad.
The Greens want to refuse all emergency approvals for neonicotinoids because, according to the platform, these insecticides endanger bees, bumblebees and other insects. They also want to support beekeeping in the state.
Some pest poisons also harm bees. The Greens want no exceptions for these poisons. They want to help beekeepers. Beekeepers are people who keep bees.
The Greens want livestock farming to be geared to the animals' needs. Straw bedding and outdoor access are to become standard, and tethering and procedures without anesthesia are to end.
The Greens want farm animals to have better lives. Pigs and cattle should get straw and time outside. Cattle should no longer be tied up. Procedures without anesthesia should be banned. Farmers should get money to rebuild their barns.
The Greens want to push at the federal level for a general eight-hour limit on animal transports and a ban on longer transports to countries outside Europe. Slaughter close to the farm is to be supported and CO2 stunning ended.
Many animals travel in trucks for a very long time. The Greens want to allow eight hours at most. Trips to slaughterhouses in Germany should take four hours at most. More animals should be slaughtered nearby. The state should check big slaughterhouses itself.
The Greens want to do without animal testing as far as possible and give more funding to alternative methods. For university teaching, a complete phase-out is to be examined.
The Greens want far fewer tests on animals. They want to give more money for other methods. University classes may stop using animal tests completely. Animal welfare advocates should have a say in approvals.
The Greens want tighter rules for keeping pets and wild animals privately. Plans include a statewide neutering ordinance for cats, a certificate of competence for keepers of exotic animals and a positive list of suitable species.
The Greens want new rules for pets. Cats should be neutered. People who keep exotic animals should prove their knowledge. A list should say which species people may keep at home. Sending animals by mail should be banned.
The Greens oppose keeping wild animals in circuses and back the federal government's planned positive list. Zoos are to keep wild animals in the most animal-appropriate way possible. A central register is to record exotic wild animals.
The Greens do not want wild animals in circuses. Zoos should keep wild animals in better ways. The state should keep a list of exotic animals. Then officials can check where such animals live.
The Greens want the state and municipalities to guarantee funding for animal shelters. A grant program is to pay for renovating the buildings and making them more energy-efficient. Volunteers and animal welfare groups are also to be strengthened.
Animal shelters should get enough money. The state and the towns should make sure of that. There should be money to repair the buildings. Volunteers should get more recognition.
The Greens want binding limits on land consumption: below three hectares a day by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Settlements should grow upward rather than outward and vacant lots should be built on, if necessary through an obligation to build.
Every day new land is built on. The Greens want to cut this sharply. From 2050, no new land should be used up on balance. Buildings should grow taller instead. Empty lots in towns should be built on.
The Greens want to amend Lower Saxony's water act and regulate water withdrawals more strictly. Permits would be granted only once efficient technology and alternatives have been exhausted. Exemptions from the water withdrawal fee for extractive industries would end.
The Greens want to protect groundwater better. Anyone who wants to take water must first save water. Companies for oil, gas, sand and gravel should pay a fee for water. So far they have exemptions.
The Greens want to reduce nitrate, germs, drug residues and microplastics entering water bodies, starting with those who cause the pollution. A polluter fund would make drug manufacturers share the costs of water treatment. Salt discharges by the company K+S would end by 2027 at the latest.
There are pollutants in rivers and lakes. The Greens want to reduce them. Whoever pollutes the water should pay for it. Drug makers should pay into a fund. The company K+S should stop discharging salt by 2027.
The Greens hold the potash industry responsible for cleaning up its legacy waste. Residues from potash mining should primarily be put back into the mines or else processed. Flooding mines with fresh water should end.
Potash mining leaves salty waste behind. The Greens want the companies to clean it up themselves. The waste should go back into the mines. Nobody should fill mines with fresh water anymore.
The Greens oppose further deepening of the Elbe, Weser and Ems rivers and advocate a joint port strategy for northern Germany. Contaminated dredged material from the seaports should be separated and recycled in a facility on land rather than dumped at sea.
The Greens do not want to dig the Elbe, Weser and Ems rivers deeper. The ports in the north should work together better. Sludge from the ports often contains pollutants. It should be treated on land and not go into the sea.
With a water development plan called "200 wild streams," the Greens want to return streams, rivers and lakes to a more natural state. According to the platform, only four percent of Lower Saxony's waters are in good ecological condition, although the EU requires this for all of them by 2027.
Only a few waters in Lower Saxony are in good condition. So the Greens want to make streams, rivers and lakes more natural again. There is a plan covering 200 streams. The state should provide enough money for it.
The Greens want to reduce the loss of soil through sealing, overuse and erosion, and to cut plastic use in farming and construction. On air, the platform demands that health-protection limits be met everywhere.
Good soil is being lost, for example under concrete and asphalt. The Greens want to slow this down. Farmers should get help to treat the soil gently. Less plastic should end up in the ground. The air should be clean enough everywhere too.
The Greens want to carry out the agreements reached under the "Niedersächsischer Weg" (Lower Saxony Way) after the biodiversity referendum initiative. Beyond that, the EU goal of protecting 30 percent of land area is to be met step by step.
Many animal and plant species are dying out. After a citizens' petition, Lower Saxony made agreements on this. The Greens want to carry out these agreements. Also, 30 percent of the land should be protected. In protected areas, nature should come first.
The Greens want to quickly designate all parts of the European Natura 2000 network that are not yet formally protected as nature reserves or landscape protection areas. Within protected areas, other uses are to take a back seat to conservation. In the party's view, Lower Saxony ranks last in Germany on this.
The EU requires special protected areas for nature and birds. In Lower Saxony, not all of them are properly secured yet. The Greens want to fix that quickly. In these areas, nature should come first. The state should check more closely.
The Greens want to leave two percent of the state's land entirely to nature, with no use or intervention. The Wadden Sea and Harz national parks and the Elbe floodplain biosphere reserve are to stay protected, and new cross-state biosphere reserves are to be created in the Drömling and the southern Harz.
The Greens want more wilderness in Lower Saxony. On two percent of the land, people should not interfere at all. There should be new large protected areas, for example in the southern Harz. No more land there should be opened up for gypsum mining.
The Greens want to create a network of connected habitats covering at least 15 percent of the state's land. Protected areas form the core and are to be linked by waterways, hedges, field margins, tree-lined roads and wildlife bridges.
Animals and plants need habitats that are connected. The Greens want such a network across Lower Saxony. It should cover at least 15 percent of the land. Hedges, streams, tree-lined roads and wildlife bridges link the areas.
The Greens want to counter species decline with insect-friendly management of state-owned land, support programs for endangered species and statewide insect monitoring. Ecological land consolidation is to be reintroduced.
There are fewer and fewer insects and other animals. The Greens want to manage state land so that insects can live there. The state should regularly count how many insects there are. Endangered animals like the European hamster should get their own support programs.
The Greens want to turn the measures promised after the referendum initiative for meadow birds such as the curlew, black-tailed godwit and snipe into concrete programs. Farmers would be compensated for lost yields and get extra incentives for bird-friendly land management.
Birds like the curlew nest in meadows. There are far fewer of them than before. The Greens want firm programs to protect them. Farmers should get money if they manage their meadows in a bird-friendly way.
The Greens want to manage wolves through herd protection and support for livestock farmers. They reject a cap on the wolf population and general hunting. Individual wolves should be killed only in exceptional cases.
The Greens want to protect sheep and other grazing animals from wolves. They want more money for fences and guard dogs. They are against hunting wolves in general. Only single dangerous wolves may be killed.
The Greens want to convert Lower Saxony's forests into more resilient deciduous and mixed woodland with native tree species. Ecological services are to be funded across all types of ownership because, according to the platform, drought and the climate crisis have badly damaged the forests.
Many forests in Lower Saxony are in bad shape. The Greens want more leafy and mixed forests. Native trees should grow there. Such forests cope better with heat and dry weather. Forest owners should get money for this.
In state-owned forest, climate and species protection are to take priority over commercial use. The Greens want to certify it under FSC or Naturland standards, bring more forest into public ownership and turn five percent of all forest into unused natural woodland.
The state owns one third of the forest in Lower Saxony. There, protecting climate and species should matter more than cutting wood. The forest should get an eco label. Part of the forest should not be used at all. The state should own more forest.
The Greens want domestic wood to be used as efficiently as possible, mainly for durable products such as furniture and buildings. Use for paper and fuel is to fall substantially, and industrial-scale wood burning for electricity is to end.
Wood is a valuable material, but the supply is limited. The Greens want wood used mostly for houses and furniture. Less wood should go into paper and heating. Big power plants should stop burning wood.
The Greens want to better equip environmental and nature conservation agencies at state, city and county level. According to the platform, staff shortages mean too few inspections. Environmental offenses are to be prosecuted more vigorously and complaint offices set up.
The offices for protecting the environment have too few staff. So there are too few checks. The Greens want to strengthen these offices. People who harm the environment should be punished more often. There should be places where people can report harm to the environment.
The Greens want to revise Lower Saxony's hunting law and shorten the list of species that may be hunted. Certain methods such as kill traps and den hunting are to be banned. Active hunters would have to prove their shooting skills.
The Greens want new rules for hunting. Fewer kinds of animals may be hunted. Traps that kill animals should be banned. Hunters should not shoot pets. Hunters must show regularly that they can shoot well.
Program for the 2022 Lower Saxony state election
The SPD wants to promote the circular economy in order to conserve raw materials and reduce waste. Products and building materials are to become easier to recycle.
The SPD wants less waste. Materials should be reused more often. Products should be made so they are easy to recycle. There should be the same rules for this across Germany.
The SPD wants to protect bogs as natural CO2 stores and found a conservation foundation that buys and rewets bog land. New sealing of soil is to end by 2050.
Bogs store a lot of CO2. The SPD wants to make dry bogs wet again. A new foundation should buy bog land for this. Also, less ground should be built over.
The SPD wants to secure the water supply for the long term under climate change and expand protection against floods and storm surges. It plans a master plan for managing water volumes and stronger dikes.
Climate change brings more drought and more floods. The SPD wants a plan for the water in the state. The dikes should get better. Rivers should get more room.
The SPD wants to reforest woodlands damaged by drought and pests in a way that suits the changing climate. In the state forests, ecology is to take priority over economic goals.
Many forests are sick from drought and pests. The SPD wants to plant new trees that fit the climate. In the state's forests, nature should matter more than profit.
The SPD wants to improve animal welfare and animal health in all forms of husbandry. It backs the proposals of the Borchert Commission, an expert panel on restructuring livestock farming, and wants to push at the federal level for their funding.
Farm animals should have better lives. Experts have made proposals for this. The SPD wants to carry out these proposals. Animals in circuses and on transports should also be better protected.
The SPD wants to keep conflicts between pasture farming, people and wolves low as the wolf population grows. The states are to be able to manage wolf numbers differently by region, in line with EU law.
More and more wolves live in Lower Saxony. This causes conflict, for example over sheep on pastures. The SPD wants the states to be allowed to manage wolf numbers by region. Wolves should be counted more exactly.
The SPD wants to secure the quality of groundwater and surface water by implementing the EU Water Framework Directive. Pollution is to be prevented at the source where possible, and wastewater treatment is to be upgraded.
The SPD wants clean water in rivers, lakes and the ground. It wants to follow the EU rules for water. Harmful substances should not get into the water at all. Sewage plants should become more modern.