Land use | Call for a moor renaissance

What do German environment ministries believe will help combat the climate crisis, declining biodiversity, and the consequences of extreme weather? The previous government pointed to the "Natural Climate Protection Action Program," even though it was cut from an initial four billion euros to 3.5 billion euros in the wake of the budget crisis. The new Environment Minister, Carsten Schneider (SPD), also considers the program "essential," as he recently emphasized in the Bundestag. "Nature gives us humans so much," he added.

In fact, nature can greatly contribute to making Germany climate-neutral by 2045 by absorbing large quantities of greenhouse gases. According to the Climate Protection Act, the LULUCF sector is to capture at least 25 million tons of _CO2 equivalent by 2030, and 40 million tons by 2045. The abbreviation stands for "land use, land-use change, and forestry." This term records how changes in the landscape affect climate-relevant emissions. A devastating example is the current massive forest fires in southern Europe.

Intact forests, moors, and near-natural landscapes could also act as _CO2 sinks to offset hard-to-avoid emissions from industry and agriculture. The Scientific Advisory Board for Natural Climate Protection (WBNK) has now presented recommendations on what should be done with land use to achieve this. The nearly 260-page report states that the vast majority of human-caused emissions come from fossil fuel combustion. However, the intensified use of the landscape is also leading to increasing emissions, for example, from drained moors. Artificial bodies of water also emit greenhouse gases – in Germany, recently, around five million tons of _CO2 equivalent annually.

Until now, the prevailing assumption was that moors, meadows, and forests were powerful _CO2 sinks. The Federal Environment Agency previously estimated that the LULUCF sector would capture approximately 16.3 million tons of _CO2 equivalent annually between 2027 and 2030. Many experts consider such assumptions to be false. They merely serve as a justification for not taking too aggressive action on climate protection.

The Advisory Board has now officially and thoroughly dispelled the climate policy myth of land use. The 16 scientists clarify that since 2014, the LULUCF sector in Germany has become a net source of emissions. This poses a serious threat to Germany's climate neutrality. Instead of absorbing approximately 40 million tons of _CO2 equivalent in 2045, as stipulated in the Climate Act, the sector is currently forecast to emit just under 35 million tons. The Advisory Board considers meeting the land use targets of the Climate Act to be an "enormous challenge."

The WBNK members attribute the greatest _CO2 potential to increased rewetting of peatlands. Dry peatlands in Lower Saxony alone emit more greenhouse gases than all of Slovenia, those in Bavaria more than all of Iceland, and those in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania more than Jamaica, the advisory board calculates. Rewetting, on the other hand, can turn a peatland into a _CO2 sink again – even if it takes about 15 years to achieve roughly the same performance as a never-drained one.

In recent decades, an average of around 2,000 hectares of peatlands have been rewetted annually in Germany. To achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2045, the WBNK is taking up the long-standing call to rewetting more than 50,000 hectares annually. To emphasize this, the Advisory Council proposes including a specific area target in the Climate Act. By 2045, approximately 80 percent of the peatlands currently used for agriculture should be rewetted.

The committee compares this peatland renaissance with the coal phase-out in terms of its social significance. It considers an initial allocation of approximately one billion euros per year for the reconversion to be appropriate. By 2045, this would be a considerable sum, but significantly less than the coal phase-out, which Germany is spending around 40 billion euros on—without creating a natural _CO2 sink.

Peatland climate protection is not just a question of money, the WBNK makes clear, but above all of a different agricultural policy. The advisory board is calling for an end to subsidies for agriculture on drained peatlands where rewetting options exist. Such a demand alone is a red rag to the lobby of conventional agriculture. The advisory board goes even further, however, and wants to see peatland climate protection enshrined in law as an "overriding public interest" and to transfer the concept of "acceleration areas" from renewable energy law to the planning of rewetting projects.

The Federal Environment Minister and his Advisory Council would have been welcome to be consulted directly on such questions of natural climate protection. However, a spokesperson stated in response to a query that a meeting open to the press could not take place due to scheduling constraints. However, the ministry will carefully review the WBNK's proposals and then incorporate them into the further development of the "Natural Climate Protection Action Program."