A climate lawyer and a wastewater treatment worker have received the German Environmental Prize. Still, there was no real celebratory mood: “We are putting ourselves in immense danger.”
The climate lawyer Roda Verheyen and the membrane filter engineer Klaus Vossenkaul have received this year's German Environmental Prize.
Aachen. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for climate protection to be given high priority despite all the “current political circumstances”. "We know that we have to question our way of living and doing business. Why? In order to leave our children and grandchildren a planet worth living in," said Steinmeier at the award ceremony for the German Environmental Prize in Aachen.
Last summer showed what dramatic consequences global warming has for everyone: burning forests, hardly any shipping due to low water levels and 16,000 additional deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute. “The fever curve of our planet is clearly pointing upwards,” said Steinmeier. Climate change is hitting Europe particularly hard - “our continent is warming more than twice as fast as any other”.
The German Environmental Prize honors the achievements of people who make an exemplary contribution to protecting and preserving the environment. At 500,000 euros, it is one of the most highly endowed environmental awards in Europe. This year the prize goes equally to the engineer Klaus Vossenkaul from the Aachen city region and the Hamburg lawyer Roda Verheyen. Vossenkaul is being honored for his innovative developments in membrane filter technology for wastewater treatment in sewage treatment plants. Verheyen receives the prize for enforcing legal requirements for more environmental and climate justice.
Verheyen said she was very happy about the award, but at the same time she was “extremely sad.” The climate lawyer pointed out that, according to the United Nations, the earth is heading for 2.8 degrees of warming compared to pre-industrial times by the end of the century. “2.8 degrees – that means millions of deaths,” Verheyen told the German Press Agency. “We are putting ourselves in immense danger of wiping out ourselves - not the planet, but humanity.”
The major tipping points in the Arctic, Antarctic and Amazon could fall with such strong global warming. “I have to share with you this anger and this sadness.” What makes her angry is that people are putting themselves in this immense danger with their eyes open. "And why? Because we have been letting the fossil fuel industry lead us through the ring for at least 30 years. And at the moment we are acting as if we can just carry on."
Verheyen addressed the summer heat deaths. "16,000 heat deaths that hardly anyone talks about. In contrast to almost 3,000 traffic deaths in Germany. Those are incredible numbers." As a lawyer, you can actually only draw one conclusion from this: that both the state, society and large emitters acted unlawfully.
Verheyen described as a “completely false analysis” the representation that Germany must now first and foremost strive for a cheap energy supply so that the economy does not decline, and that climate protection must take a back seat for the moment. “No climate action is much more expensive than any climate action,” she said. The logistics industry alone is currently suffering billions in losses due to the draining of the Rhine. “This was all predicted by climate science.”
In 2021, a lawsuit largely pushed forward by Verheyen led to the Federal Constitutional Court ordering the legislature to tighten climate protection requirements. Verheyen was committed to anchoring climate protection in international law, said Steinmeier in his speech at the ceremony. The Federal President appealed: "We must arm ourselves as best we can against the consequences of global warming by reducing greenhouse gases and, above all, protecting natural resources. Resources that help to stabilize our climate: soils and forests, moors and seas. Let us use every opportunity to do this!"
The second prize winner, Klaus Vossenkaul, was described by the Secretary General of the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) as the Daniel jet engine of wastewater treatment. “We make membrane filters for sewage treatment plants to turn wastewater into clean water,” explained Vossenkaul to the dpa. Until now, this was very energy-intensive, but we have now managed to develop a method that reduces energy requirements by up to 90 percent.
“We are currently in the process of setting up a large production plant,” reported Vossenkaul. “The goal is clearly to be the world market leader in this area.” This added value should take place in Germany, but he is still looking for investors for it. Unfortunately, it is often the case that the ideas are developed in Germany, but the application and production then takes place abroad. Steinmeier said that Vossenkaul's work protects livelihoods and at the same time contributes to the country's financial consolidation.
Steinmeier, who will be leaving office at the beginning of next year, said the German Environmental Prize “has grown more and more dear to him every year.” He always “looked at the award ceremony with curiosity and excitement” and was happy to “get to know people with commitment and innovative ideas.” That's why it fills him with "a little sadness" that he can now hand it over for the last time.
