{"id":22192,"date":"2023-06-23T11:21:30","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T09:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.protect-the-planet.de\/about-us\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:07:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:07:58","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.protect-the-planet.de\/en\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About us"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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About us<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Protect\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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What do an entrepreneur, a filmmaker, and a lawyer have in common? A love for our planet and the fight to preserve our natural resources. With this premise in mind, Dorothea Sick-Thies, Carl-A. Fechner, and Markus Gohr founded Protect the Planet \u2013 Gesellschaft f\u00fcr \u00f6kologischen Aufbruch (Society for Ecological Change) in 2015. And since then, we have been working hard every day as a powerful environmental organization in the south of Munich. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It is our vision to prevent the climate catastrophe, and make this planet a liveable and just world.<\/p>\n

Our mission<\/strong> is to encourage politicians and businesses to take appropriate climate protection measures by using legal means to achieve progress in climate policy.<\/span>
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To this end, we work together in strong networks<\/strong> so that we can pull the right levers to achieve the best results.<\/p>\n

We also inform, inspire, encourage, and mobilize society<\/strong> to take action on the urgent need for climate protection. We strengthen climate education and promote acceptance for the expansion of renewable energies locally. <\/span><\/p>\n

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We focus our work on the following key areas:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Climate NETWORK for strong cooperation and shared success,
Climate LAW for legal pressure and everything that is fair for the future.
Climate EDUCATION for encouragement, inspiration, and mobilization of society,
Climate RENEWABLE for more wind behind the expansion of renewable energies, especially in Germany,
Climate LOCAL for a climate-neutral Munich and Bavaria, where we as a non-governmental organization have our home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Our vision:<\/strong> “We help prevent catastrophic climate change and make our planet a just and liveable.”<\/p>\n

We implement this vision with the help of our values:<\/p>\n

\"You<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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We have been advocating for ambitious climate-change goals since 2015, and have managed to make good progress along the way, including the significant contribution we made to three successful referenda: Stop Using Hard Coal (2017), Save the Bees (2019) and the Public Petition to Preserve Green Spaces (2023).<\/p>\n

We also initiated the first climate court case at a European level (2018), which formed the basis of the historic Federal Constitutional Court complaint (2021) to which we also contributed.<\/p>\n

Here is an overview of our successes and milestones of the past few years:<\/p>\n

2015<\/strong> Protect the Planet set up as a non-governmental organisation by Dorothea Sick-Thies, Markus Gohr and Carl-A. Fechner.<\/p>\n

2017<\/strong> Successful participation in the referendum Stop Using Hard Coal<\/em> to turn off the Munich hard-coal-fired power station by 31 December 2022.<\/p>\n

2018<\/strong> Protect the Planet gGmbH founded.<\/p>\n

2018<\/strong> First European People\u2019s Climate Case<\/em> filed with the European Court on behalf of plaintiffs from eight different countries.<\/p>\n

2019<\/strong> We were one of the co-initiators of the petition forBiodiversity and Natural Beauty “Save the Bees\u201c<\/em>, thus contributing to the most successful Bavarian referendum in history.<\/p>\n

2020<\/strong> Started the first intake of Campaigning School<\/em> in conjunction with G\u00fcnther Metzges-Diez, the Fundraising Academy and Germanwatch.<\/p>\n

2020<\/strong> Supported the constitutional complaint \u201cNeubauer et al. vs the German Federal Government\u201d<\/em> against Germany\u2019s inadequate Climate Protection Act of 2019 in cooperation with Greenpeace, Germanwatch and environmental lawyer Dr Roda Verheyen.<\/p>\n

2021<\/strong> Rejection of the People’s Climate Case<\/em> just a few months after the EU Parliament raised climate targets to 60% in line with the plaintiffs’ request.<\/p>\n

2021<\/strong> Historic success of the Constitutional Complaint against the German Climate Protection Act, when climate protection was moved up the constitutional priority list and the rights of future generations strengthened by the decision of the German Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n

2021<\/strong> Launched the WindRat<\/em> network for greater acceptance of wind power and much faster expansion of our wind power capacity.<\/p>\n

2021<\/strong> Corporate Climate Action:<\/em> We supported the last farmer of L\u00fctzerath, Eckhart Heukamp, in his fight against appropriation of his land by the RWE coal company.<\/p>\n

2021<\/strong> Launch of our informative series of events together with our volunteer event coordinator Dr. Helmut Paschlau (until 2024).<\/p>\n

2022<\/strong> Dorothea-Laura-Janina-Sick Foundation for the Environment was founded.<\/p>\n

2023<\/strong> Successful citizen\u2019s referendum to preserve green spaces for effective climate-adaptation measures for Munich, as one of the cities with the smallest number of cooling green spaces and the highest percentage of land sealing.<\/p>\n

2023<\/strong> Successful \u201cBayernwind\u201d campaign by WindRat for greater acceptance of wind energy in the Bavarian state elections<\/p>\n

2024<\/strong> Support in filing constitutional complaint 2.0 (“Zukunftsklage” – future lawsuit) against the amendment to the Climate Protection Act that came into force on July 16, 2024, in cooperation with Germanwatch and Greenpeace. <\/p>\n

2024<\/strong> Joint project for a constitutional complaint for better biodiversity legislation in cooperation with BUND and Hannes Jarnicke<\/p>\n

2024<\/strong> Successful campaign \u201cBundesland Nr. 1\u201d (Federal State No. 1) by WindRat<\/em> for greater acceptance of wind energy in the state elections in Thuringia, in cooperation with the Thuringian Energy Agency (ThEGA), among others.<\/p>\n

2025<\/strong> Lawsuit filed to ban the extremely climate-damaging pesticide ProFume in cooperation with the Munich Environmental Institute as technical support for the DUH<\/p>\n

2025<\/strong> WindRat<\/em> video series featuring best practice examples of successful wind projects reaches half a million people on YouTube<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Our annual reports provide information about our projects, our successes, and internal matters at Protect the Planet. Click here to download:<\/p>\n