German govt drafts programme to improve climate action with forests and peatlands

Germany’s environment ministry has opened consultations on a draft update to the country’s Action Programme for Natural Climate Protection, with measures to achieve the target of removing 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e) annually by 2045 through actions such as the restoration of degraded forests and peatlands, reported Tagesspiegel Background.

Trees, plants and soils – the so-called land use and land use-change and forestry sector (LULUCF) – had turned into a net greenhouse gas emitter in Germany, causing the emission of about 30 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents in 2025. Unlike other sectors, the land use sector can be both a source of net emissions and a sink thanks to net carbon sequestration. Healthy forests and peatlands bind more greenhouse gases than they emit. However, dying trees and dried out peatland can also turn into crucial sources of emissions. 

Climate change is now causing more droughts, which increasingly affects groundwater reservoirs and damages forests, reducing their ability to store CO2. In recent years, German forests have also been damaged heavily by bark beetle infestations, storms and forest fires. Germany’s forests returned as a net carbon sink in 2025 after a period of being net emitters. The German climate law prescribes annual net-negative emissions targets for the land use sector for 2030, 2040 and 2045, and emissions projections show Germany will fail the targets without further efforts. 

The original programme for natural climate action was published by the previous coalition government, and environment minister Carsten Schneider had presented an earlier draft update last September. 

The new draft no longer mentions a multi-stakeholder commission on the future of the forest. Against the backdrop of impending declines in forest vitality and productivity due to climate change, the commission was meant to bring together a variety of interest groups to address potential conflicts of interest between promoting the forest’s capacity to act as a carbon sink, increasing timber harvesting and the desired use of wood as a raw material, and the protection of biodiversity. The latest proposal replaces the commission with a group of just three experts each from the energy and agriculture ministries – a significant narrowing of scope and legitimacy.

There are also concerns that the draft promises measures that have long been rejected by other ministries, reported Tagesspiegel. The section on peatland protection states that the federal government intends to “legally enshrine an overriding public interest in peatland conservation and protection, including the implementation of projects to rewet peatlands.” The ministry pushed for this in another bill, the Act to Strengthen Natural Infrastructure (NatIf), but the provision has been significantly watered down after pushback from the agriculture ministry. That bill is still being debated within the government, said Tagesspiegel.