One of the few things that the government and opposition, regulars and Internet bullies can still agree on in these polarized times is the complaint of living in a country of snorers and slow-downers, of blockers and doubters. No matter whether it’s building a house, extending your passport or putting a new machine into operation: the planning and approval processes are as tough as chewing gum, the authorities are supposed to be bullying and preventing things wherever they can. When Olaf Scholz remarked some time ago that it couldn’t be that difficult to set up five new wind turbines every day in Germany, he quickly realized: Yes, it is difficult, obviously even impossible.
So it’s no wonder that there was a sigh of relief across the country when the Federal Chancellor and the state premiers agreed on a program to accelerate planning at the beginning of November and immediately gave it the lofty title “Germany Pact”. The package aims to standardize regulations, eliminate unnecessary rules and speed up processes. In his famously modest manner, Scholz spoke of a “very historic moment we find ourselves in here.”
The heads of government will now actually receive a prize for their performance – although not one that the bleary-eyed but extremely proud Chancellor had hoped for at the time: the Nature Conservation Association of Germany (Nabu), the largest environmental association in the country with the largest number of members, will Pact for Planning Acceleration this Thursday with the “Dinosaur of the Year” award. For the activists, whose predecessors fought for the preservation of flora and fauna more than 120 years ago, the federal-state decision is officially the most backward decision and at the same time the “environmental mess of the year”.
Nabu warns against dreams from the 70s
Just, wait a minute: more wind turbines and solar fields = environmental mess? Did the activists get something confused in the truly crazy year of 2023? Not at all, as Nabu boss Jörg-Andreas Krüger assures. He admits that the call from business and politics for faster building permits, for example for energy supply, housing and infrastructure projects, is understandable. But this should not come at the expense of nature and result in a “race to destroy landscapes”. “It is not consideration for nature that prevents faster planning. It is people, inefficient processes and excessive bureaucracy combined with a lack of staff,” says Krüger. So instead of dreaming of a “greenfield construction boom like in the 70s” and sacrificing environmental standards for it, politics needs a different basic attitude that brings economy and ecology together.
The official recipient of the award is Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein, who is currently leading the Prime Minister’s Conference. According to Krüger, the prize will be delivered to him on his behalf this Thursday – “by express”, without any bureaucratic delays.