Our bottom-up approach to climate change

The climate crisis affects people, those affected as well as those causing it, in industrial countries as well as in developing nations in the south of the globe. In our northern European democracies, more and more people are raising their voices and adding the issue of climate protection to the climate debate – as is the case for climate court cases. They promote and demand more ambitious goals and more direct action from their all-too-hesitant politicians. Petitions are being turned into rulings when governments fail to pick up on these demands – usually initiated by civilians.

In 2016, directly after the Paris Agreement was signed and within the first year of its founding, Protect the Planet rallied around the local citizen’s movement “Stop Using Hard Coal” with complete conviction. The aim of this movement was to speed up the exit from coal in Munich and an impressive 55,000 signatures were collected in support of this petition.

After that (in 2018), Protect the Planet was one of the first supporting organisations to back the People’s Petition for “Biodiversity and Natural Beauty in Bavaria” (colloquially known as “Save the Bees”), which in February 2019 prompted 18% of eligible voters to sign up – making it the most successful People’s Petition in Bavaria of all time.

In the late summer of 2022, another Munich petition was launched in support of retaining the valuable cooling properties of green spaces to prevent further global warming and protect the urban natural environment.

In January 2023, this petition was also a resounding success, with 60,000 personal signatures presented to the Munich City Council, who accepted the demand after lengthy debate.