Aktionsprogramm Natürlicher Klimaschutz

Heavy rain and flooding, followed by record heat and drought – the extreme weather of recent years at the latest has made it tangible that the climate crisis has arrived in Germany. At the same time, more and more species are becoming irretrievably extinct, partly because climatic conditions are changing faster than ecosystems can adapt. To counteract the dual environmental crisis of global warming and species extinction in a targeted manner, we need to bring nature conservation and climate protection closer together. This is also one of the lessons learned from the World Conference on Nature in Montreal, where we as a community of nations resolved to reverse the trend toward restoring nature.

This is precisely where the German government's Action Program for Natural Climate Protection (ANK) comes in. The aim is to protect, strengthen and restore ecosystems so that they can remain natural climate protectors. Forests and floodplains, soils and bogs, oceans and bodies of water, green spaces in cities and in rural areas can bind carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it over the long term. They also act as a buffer against the consequences of climate crises by absorbing floods and providing cooling in hot weather. And finally, they preserve our livelihoods, provide important habitats for animals and plants, store water and are places of retreat for people.