Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – Representatives of environmental and nature conservation associations have called for more weight for nature and climate protection during the conversion in the Rhenish Revier. So far, the policy of structural change has been geared primarily to economic concerns, criticized NRW representatives of the nature conservation association Nabu and the Federal Agency for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) on Tuesday in Düsseldorf. In view of the challenges posed by the climate and biodiversity crisis, however, a socio-ecological transformation is necessary. “Continue as before” should not exist.
“What we lack is a comprehensive view of how this region should develop,” said Heide Naderer, the Nabu chairwoman in North Rhine-Westphalia. Almost 15 billion euros are available for the structural change in the Rhenish mining area. But so far the voices of nature conservation and environmental organizations and agriculture have not been heard.
The mining of lignite for power generation from currently three opencast mines between Cologne, Aachen and Mönchengladbach is to stop in 2030 according to the plans of the federal and state governments of North Rhine-Westphalia. Several thousand people work in the area.
In a ten-point paper for a climate-friendly and nature-friendly structural change in the Rhenish Revier, the alliance called for the Cologne district government to commit more areas for biodiversity protection. Ideas and initiatives from civil society should be given greater consideration.
For the working group on rural agriculture (AbL), its chairman Bernd Schmitz criticized that a large-scale sealing of the areas was planned with funds from the coal phase-out law. But it is valuable, best arable land. He called for all previously sealed areas in the remaining villages and in former industrial areas that were previously unused to be included in the planning.
