Environmental advocacy group Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) has escalated its legal challenge against the government’s current environmental protection legislation, submitting a detailed new filing to the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) on Tuesday. The move reinforces BUND’s ongoing lawsuit demanding significantly enhanced ecological safeguards, drawing parallels to the group’s successful 2021 climate litigation.
At the heart of BUND’s argument is the assertion that biodiversity loss constitutes a direct threat to fundamental human rights, including the rights to life, health and food security. Myriam Rapior, a member of BUND’s federal executive board and primary complainant, emphasized this connection, expressing hope that the court will, as it did with the climate ruling, prioritize the rights of future generations.
Bund’s legal action directly challenges the economic calculus underpinning current policy, arguing that the costs of unchecked biodiversity loss vastly outweigh the investments required for effective conservation. Rapior labelled the current rate of species extinction “economically fatal” suggesting a systemic failure to account for the long-term financial implications.
The lawsuit seeks to compel the Bundestag, the German parliament, to adopt a comprehensive legal framework for ecological protection. This framework would aim to halt biodiversity decline and implement coordinated restorative measures – a strategy mirroring BUND’s successful 2021 action that pressured the government to strengthen climate action.
BUND’s case hinges on the escalating severity of both biodiversity loss and climate change and contends that current policies are actively undermining existing environmental protections. The group highlights the critical interdependence of human existence and intact ecosystems, stressing the necessity of thriving soil formation, effective pollination and functioning freshwater cycles. Without these, long-term human survival is fundamentally jeopardized.
Significantly, BUND’s strategy leverages the recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which underlined the potential for states to face multi-billion-dollar liability claims for failing to adequately protect the environment. The ICJ’s stance provides substantial legal precedent for BUND’s argument and signals a growing international recognition of the financial risks associated with environmental negligence. The lawsuit represents a significant escalation in the pressure on the German government to elevate ecological protection to a position of paramount legal and policy importance.
