The Federal Association for Nature Conservation (BUND) is urging the German government to significantly increase its efforts regarding climate protection. Olaf Bandt, the chairman of the BUND, told the “Rheinische Post” that the current extremely high temperatures, including those recorded in the oceans, should serve as a wake-up call, demanding much greater action on both climate protection and adaptation. To prevent the climate crisis and its consequences from escalating further, emissions must be swiftly reduced.
Bandt further asserted that Germany itself is not doing enough. He highlighted the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy as the most effective leverage point. This transition entails adopting technologies such as heat pumps instead of gas heating, electric vehicles, and rail transport instead of combustion engines. He criticized the federal government for currently slowing down precisely these necessary changes, thereby increasing the risks for both the population and the economy, concluding that this trajectory must be urgently corrected.
Alongside mitigation efforts, he stressed the need for more concrete measures for heat protection through cooling, especially in densely paved urban areas. “For instance, trees are the most effective air conditioning we possess,” he said, lamenting that there are insufficient resources allocated for reforestation and urban redevelopment.
This call for action comes as the EU Climate Change Service Copernicus reported on Monday in Bonn that temperatures in Western Europe broke records during June and July, marking the hottest summer months since records began.
