Activists take German government to court over biodiversity October 23, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Oct 22, 2024
- 2 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Activists take German government to court over biodiversity
A German group of environmental activists said Wednesday they were taking the government to the country's highest court to force it to take more measures to protect biodiversity in the country and around the world.
The German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) charged that “the government is not doing enough to protect biodiversity” a day after filing its complaint with the constitutional court.
“We are losing 150 species every day,” while a third of species worldwide are at risk, said Myriam Rapior, vice-president of BUND, the German arm of the Friends of the Earth group.
The group said that the rate of disappearance of species of fauna and flora is currently “a hundred to a thousand times higher than the normal biological extinction rate”, labeling it a problem that rivals the climate crisis.
The group argued that the German government is obliged and bound by treaty to draw up a legally effective biodiversity protection policy that “guarantees our livelihoods for the future.”
The biodiversity case is the latest in a series of lawsuits around the world in recent years targeting governments and companies with the aim of making them step up their efforts to protect the environment.
Several individuals have joined the lawsuit to demand that the government impose “measurable restrictions” on the cultivation of livestock and the use of pesticides, said Felix Ekardt, BUND's regional director in the state of Saxony.
- 'Full of exceptions'
According to BUND and its supporters, an EU regulation on biodiversity adopted in June is “too vague in its requirements”, “full of exceptions” and gives politicians “too much time” to act.
Lawyer and BUND board member Franziska Hess said that the outcome of the lawsuit could be expected “in one or two years.”
In 2021, Germany's constitutional court issued a landmark ruling that concluded that then-Chancellor Angela Merkel's flagship climate protection plan was “insufficient” and would “infringe on the freedoms” of future generations.
This led the government to pass a new law setting more ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions.
The Climate Action Program adopted in October 2023 by Merkel's successor, Olaf Scholz, was also deemed insufficient in a court ruling last year.
Speaking at a regular government press conference on Wednesday, Environment Ministry spokesman Andreas Kuebler said the government was following the latest case “calmly and with interest.”
He said he hoped the court would confirm that the government “is doing a lot to protect biodiversity.”
Kuebler highlighted the government's “unprecedented” nature and climate protection plan for 2024-28, with which the government has committed to investing 3.5 billion euros (US$3.8 billion).
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