Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has made a vehement plea for the “strength of democracy” in view of the challenges of climate and environmental protection. “This approach will always remain superior to populism and the arbitrariness of an autocracy!” said Steinmeier today (Sunday) at the award ceremony German Environmental Prize by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) in Mainz. The DBU awards the award worth a total of 500,000 euros once a year. It is one of the most highly endowed environmental awards in Europe. This year, moor researcher Dr. Franziska Tanneberger and e-mobility pioneer qualified engineer Thomas Speidel the price.
Bonde: It’s simply about preserving our livelihoods
DBU General Secretary Alexander Farmer called for “courageous, energetic and day-by-day efforts to protect the climate, environment, resources and biodiversity despite multiple wars and crises worldwide. It is simply about preserving the basis of life for people, but of course also for animals and plants. ” Bonde continues: “Business and science are always the source of clever and innovative ideas to tackle this future task. Such findings and role models in turn have what it takes to inspire other people to groundbreaking ideas.” In times of increasing false news on climate and environmental issues, such encouragement is even more important “so that we don’t let up on climate and environmental protection.”
“The classic combustion engine will come to an end”
The Federal President referred to Thomas Speidel and his work with reference to Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler as “two of the most visionary German inventors” who, like Speidel, came from the German southwest and who made “individual mobility possible for the entire world” have a clear position. Steinmeier: “The classic combustion engine on which this mobility was based will come to an end.” Because of the “climate-changing” emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) “from car and truck traffic, there can be no reasonable doubt about this.” But how quickly e-mobility becomes a reality across the board depends on “whether we find ways and means to overcome the technical and factual obstacles that still exist in everyday life.” According to Steinmeier, this is exactly where “the strength of democracy” lies: Because it makes it possible to “repeatedly correct dead ends, weak points and mistakes that are inevitable on the unknown path to comprehensive and sustainably effective climate and environmental protection.” Only in a democracy can we negotiate “how quickly and how decisively we want to go this or that way – or, more precisely, have to go.” Equally important is “what balance is fairly necessary for those who are facing serious upheavals and cannot cope with them as easily as others.” Prize winner Speidel, for example, found a solution for new ways in electromobility: how to charge an electric car in the shortest possible time, even in places where there is no developed power grid for charging infrastructure.
Intact moors are important for a good climate and biodiversity
Peat researcher Tanneberger, who, among other things, contributed to the first global peatland status report, will be awarded the German Environmental Prize by the DBU because, according to Bonde, she “has been a driving force in advancing the revitalization of peatlands and at the same time managed to build bridges between science, politics and… to build agriculture”. The Federal President also acknowledged Tanneberger’s achievement with a clear stance – including a rhetorical excursion into poetry. The moor was “often an underappreciated landscape,” said Steinmeier. Among other things, this led to “the moors being little valued, carelessly sacrificed, drained and used for agricultural purposes.” Drained moors result in large quantities of climate-damaging greenhouse gases escaping. According to Steinmeier, moor is hardly a topic in stories, novels, songs and poetry – and when it is, it tends to be in darker versions, such as that of the Westphalian poet Annette by Droste-Hülshoff. However, Tanneberger succeeded in creating awareness of “how important intact moors are for a good climate and also for biodiversity.”
Daring to radically transform: from a supplier of combustion engines to a pioneer of e-mobility
Electrical engineer Thomas Speidel (57) is managing director of the company, which is now listed on the stock exchange ads-tec Energy in Nürtingen near Stuttgart with further locations including Klipphausen near Dresden and Auburn in the US state of Alabama. His portfolio includes more than 60 German and international patent applications. On the one hand, the DBU awarded him the German Environmental Prize because of his innovations in battery-backed fast charging systems ChargeBox and ChargePost enables electric vehicles to be recharged in minutes instead of hours, thereby increasing the pace of the expansion of electromobility. On the other hand, because he has dared to undergo a radical transformation with his company: from a supplier of combustion engines to a pioneer of e-mobility. Moor researcher Tanneberger (46) is co-head of the Greifswald Moor Centrums and works tirelessly for the rewetting of moors. Your voice has great weight nationally and internationally, for example at the 2023 World Climate Conference in Dubai. For them, moor protection and moor use are not a contradiction. Tanneberger has managed to “get farmers on board to better protect the climate and biodiversity, because moors can also be used wet,” said DBU General Secretary Bonde.
Background:
The DBU German Environmental Prize, which will be awarded for the 32nd time in 2024, honors the achievements of people who make an exemplary contribution to protecting and preserving the environment. Candidates are recommended to the DBU. Employers’ associations and trade unions, churches, environmental and nature conservation associations, scientific associations and research communities, media, trades and business associations are eligible to do so. Self-suggestions are not possible. One of DBU-Curatorium appointed Jury Independent experts from business, science, technology and social groups recommend award winners for the respective year to the DBU Board of Trustees. The DBU Board of Trustees makes the final decision. Information about the German Environmental Prize and winners: https://www.dbu.de/umweltpreis.