Federal Environment Agency demands: “Climate change adaptation must be included in the Basic Law”

Heavy rain, floods, heat waves: Climate change is also increasingly affecting Germany. The Federal Environment Agency is now calling for this to be anchored in the Basic Law.

The topic of climate protection is increasingly coming into focus in Germany. Now the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has spoken out and called for the handling of climate change to be anchored in the Basic Law. “Effective precaution is only possible together with the federal, state and local governments,” said the President of the Federal Environment Agency, Dirk Messner, to the AFP news agency. That is why climate change adaptation should become a joint task – and that must be included in the Basic Law.

Messner also urged a more ambitious approach to climate protection. Regarding the required amendment to the Basic Law, the head of the authorities stated that the new government must “pursue this goal with the highest priority”. The editorial network Germany (RND) first reported on the initiative.

So far there is no legal framework

The measures required to adapt to global warming are “essentially known”, emphasized Messner. “This includes unsealing surfaces, leaving more space for watercourses, converting cities for heavy rain and arming them against heat, and implementing new settlement plans.” What has been missing so far, however, is the legal and financial framework so that these measures can also be implemented across the board. In a position paper, the Federal Environment Agency also proposes a nationwide Climate Adaptation Act. This should set out clear responsibilities for taking precautions against floods, drought and heat.

Messner urged the implementation of the required measures. This also included more urban green spaces, including green roofs, a forest conversion towards mixed forests suitable for the location, and heat action plans for health protection for vulnerable groups. However, Messner also pointed out the limits of adaptation. “Only ambitious climate protection can prevent the consequences of global warming from being even more extreme than we have just experienced in the flooded regions,” he emphasized. “If we don’t get started with climate protection now, the next thing we will end up in temperature regions that could trigger tipping points in the earth system – with far-reaching, difficult-to-control and sometimes unpredictable consequences for our societies,” warned the UBA President.

Climate protection can still be expanded worldwide

Messner warned that swift and concrete action is owed to the next generation in particular. He criticized that so far climate protection in Germany and worldwide had not been promoted sufficiently. “Because of this, damage and destruction caused by global warming can sometimes only be lessened.” The more successful climate protection is in the future, the more effective climate adaptation can also be.