The Green Party has criticized the federal government’s action program for a national circular economy as insufficient. Jan-Niclas Gesenhues, the Green Party parliamentary group’s environmental policy spokesperson, told the “Rheinische Post” (Thursday edition) that the action program is “a pure PR stunt without substance”.
The cabinet adopted the action plan on Wednesday. Key elements of the program include setting up a platform for economic actors and establishing a funding scheme. A total of 260 million euros is planned to flow into this funding program from the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) by 2029.
Gesenhues continued, pointing out that the program entirely lacks components such as reusable goods, repair services, waste prevention, and sustainable consumption. He noted that these areas are central to a functional circular economy, a concept for which the existing Circular Economy Strategy already has very good principles. Overall, he described the program as a “bitter disappointment”.
Furthermore, the Green politician criticized the government for failing to utilize its market power, arguing that the federal government is missing a major opportunity and thus severely undermining the impact of the plan.
