Enlarge image
Moor area (in Gollenshausen am Chiemsee): Intact moors make a significant contribution to climate protection
Photo: Sigrid Singer/EyeEm/Getty Images
Plants absorb CO₂ from the air and use the carbon - the C - to build biomass from it: leaves, stalks and roots.
Carbon is also bound when organic material is decomposed into humus.
Through this principle, various ecosystems contribute to a natural form of climate protection, because they ensure that less harmful CO₂ enters the atmosphere.
They are therefore also referred to as natural carbon sinks.
But that only works as long as the ecosystems are intact.
The functioning of the natural carbon sinks also plays a role in the climate goals that Germany has set itself and to which the government has committed itself by law.
That is why the Federal Environment Ministry has now presented the cornerstones of an action program that is intended to strengthen exactly that: natural climate protection through moors, forests and seas.
Four billion euros by 2026
"We will protect, strengthen and restore these natural ecosystems," said Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens).
"It's high time that we didn't work against nature, but used the existing synergies between the environment and climate protection."
Enlarge image
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens)
Photo: Janine Schmitz / photothek / IMAGO
The federal government is providing money for this purpose: by 2026, a total of four billion euros should be available to strengthen and protect natural carbon sinks.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, this is more "than has ever been made available in Germany for this area".
Peat soils in Germany play a central role in the action plan.
Around 92 percent of the moor areas are currently drained and used for agriculture.
But this releases greenhouse gases – around 53 million tons of CO₂ equivalents every year.
According to the key issues paper, this amount corresponds to around 6.7 percent of total national greenhouse gas emissions.
In order to prevent so much carbon dioxide from escaping from the dry peat soils, the water level has to be raised again.
This rewetting could allow the moors to bind CO₂ again.
more on the subject
Secret climate killer Moor: How Mr. Kück tries to save his homeland - and the world by Philipp Kollenbroich
But Lemke also pointed out that the protection of the moors involved a "violent field of tension".
For example, the planned coastal motorway A20 would lead to a considerable extent through moorland.
“It would be desirable not to use any more bogs for road construction,” said the minister.
Lemke named another concrete measure with the renunciation of logging in beech forests with older trees.
These forests have a particularly high storage effect, which is why commercial deforestation should be avoided in public beech forests.
Lemke also called on private forest owners to join such a regulation.
»Climate protection is crisis prevention«
Overall, the action plan of the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Nature Conservation identifies ten »fields of action«.
In addition to moors and forests, rivers, lakes, floodplains, seas and coastal areas are to be protected.
In addition, urban areas are to be increasingly greened.
Data collection, collection and modeling should also be encouraged.
The ministry will now discuss the implementation of the action plan with “all relevant stakeholders”.
This includes administrations and associations, but also farmers and landowners.
The completed action program should be in place by the end of the year.
Lemke advocated not losing sight of ecology in the face of other global crises.
"Climate protection is crisis prevention," she said.
»How we respond to this crisis, how we deal with it, is crucial for our future.«
vki/AFP