Tierschutzpartei on climate and energy

The Tierschutzpartei wants to anchor climate protection in a separate article of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). Federal and state authorities would be obliged to do everything necessary to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees if possible.

The Tierschutzpartei wants to write climate protection into the constitution. The state would then have to do everything to limit warming. The goal is no more than 1.5 degrees.

The proposed article binds lawmakers and the executive, with a view to future generations, nature and wildlife. The reference point for the temperature rise is the year 1850. The platform also points to a limited CO₂ budget for Germany that must not be exceeded; emissions should therefore fall sharply every year.

The Tierschutzpartei calls for a starting CO₂ price of 180 euros per ton. The revenue is to be returned to the population in equal shares as a climate dividend.

The Tierschutzpartei wants a high price on CO₂. One ton should cost 180 euros to start. Everyone should get the money back in equal shares.

In the party's view, the per-person payout distributes emissions in a socially fair way. The platform also wants to push the renovation of old buildings rather than demolition. It justifies this with the high heat loss of poorly insulated older buildings.

The Tierschutzpartei stands by ending the registration of new combustion engines by 2035 at the latest. Fossil fuels are also to be phased out, and fracking is to be banned without exception.

From 2035, no new gasoline or diesel cars should be registered. The Tierschutzpartei wants to keep this rule. Fracking should be banned completely. Fracking is a way to get gas out of the ground.

By 2035, the rail network is to be expanded, electric cars made affordable and charging points built so the transition is orderly. According to the platform, the same applies to fossil fuels. People should get support in switching to heat pumps or renewable energy.

The Tierschutzpartei wants to adapt cities to the effects of the climate crisis. It calls for large programs to unseal paved ground and for more flood protection.

The Tierschutzpartei wants to remove concrete and asphalt in cities. The ground can then take in water and cool the air. There should also be more protection against floods.

According to the platform, sealed surfaces store heat and prevent natural cooling. Uncovered soil is meant to bind carbon dioxide, absorb rain and balance out heat. For flood protection the party lists more special-purpose associations, dams and prevention, as well as stronger fire departments; it points to the floods in the Ahr valley in 2021 and in Valencia.

The Tierschutzpartei wants to drive the energy transition mainly through photovoltaics and introduce a solar mandate for new buildings and fully renovated roofs. People with low incomes are to receive money for balcony solar units. For wind and hydropower, animal protection is to be given more weight.

The Tierschutzpartei wants much more power from the sun. Every new building should get solar panels. This also applies when a roof is rebuilt. Poor people should get money for a balcony solar unit. Wind turbines and hydropower plants should not harm animals.

On open land, only agri-PV systems, meaning solar panels above farmed land, are to be allowed, and these are to be subsidized. Wind turbines are to get automatic shutdown systems for birds and bats and are not to be built near bird sanctuaries or migration routes. Hydropower plants are to allow fish migration, for example with fish ladders. The party wants further investment in geothermal research, a storage mix of batteries, power-to-gas and power-to-heat, and investment and subsidies for hydrogen.

The Tierschutzpartei considers the coal phase-out agreed for 2038 too late and wants to bring it forward to 2030 at the latest. It stands by the exit from nuclear energy and rejects a return to nuclear power.

Germany plans to stop using coal by 2038. The Tierschutzpartei thinks that is too late. It wants this done by 2030. Nuclear power should not come back. The party sees nuclear power as dangerous.

The earlier coal exit is meant to make climate neutrality possible and is to be prepared by a nationwide expansion of renewables in the coming years. The platform calls nuclear energy a major risk for people, animals and nature. The party also opposes classifying nuclear power as a sustainable energy source.

The Tierschutzpartei wants to exit oil and gas for building heat and power generation earlier than 2035. The federal government is to cover most of the cost of a heat pump for low-income households. District heating networks are to be modernized and expanded on a large scale.

The Tierschutzpartei wants to move away from oil and gas heating faster. Poor people should get help to buy a heat pump. The state should pay most of it. There should be more district heating. That means heat comes to homes through pipes.

The platform cites dependence on other countries and rising costs for the population as reasons. For district heating, the party calls for funding programs, upgrades to old networks and construction of new ones. Industrial waste heat, geothermal energy and large solar thermal plants are to be integrated more. Large heat pumps are also to tap low-temperature sources such as bodies of water, sewage plants or subway shafts.

The Tierschutzpartei wants at least 50,000 hectares of drained peat soils to be rewetted each year, instead of the 2,000 hectares achieved so far. Peatlands are to be preserved as carbon stores and habitats. Ongoing drainage is to be stopped and reversed in the long term.

Peatlands store a lot of CO₂. Many peatlands are dry today. The Tierschutzpartei wants to make them wet again. That should be at least 50,000 hectares every year. Nobody should drain peatlands anymore.

The party demands legally binding targets for peatland restoration and faster permitting. On the wet areas, paludiculture is to be promoted, meaning farming on wet peat soil that is meant to combine land use with climate protection. The platform also wants to fund research into and production of peat substitutes, such as substrates made from compost or wood fiber, to reduce peat extraction.

The Tierschutzpartei wants binding requirements to cut methane and ammonia emissions from animal farming. No more forests would be cleared for animal feed, and peatlands would be rewetted. Plant-based diets would be promoted more strongly as a climate measure.

Animal farming creates gases that harm the climate. The Tierschutzpartei wants rules that force these gases down. Nobody should cut down forests for animal feed. Drained peatlands should be made wet again.

According to the platform, animal farming contributes heavily to climate change, mainly through methane and ammonia. Natural habitats should no longer give way to feed crops. Rewetted peatlands are meant to lock in carbon dioxide and preserve biodiversity.