Germany joins the Peatland Breakthrough as a Champion Country

11/20/20253 min read

This week at COP30, Germany joined Peru and Uganda in becoming a Champion Country for the Peatland Breakthrough.

In Germany, more than 90 percent of peatlands have been drained and are now used for agriculture and forestry or as land for settlements and transport infrastructure. Germany’s decision to join the Peatland Breakthrough complements its National Peatland Protection Strategy, a step towards achieving climate neutrality by 2045. Germany is convinced that their strategy can be successful only if it is enacted in close collaboration with local residents, land owners and farmers. Their strategy is based on cooperative approaches and robust public outreach activities with the aim of supporting a transformative shift to sustainable land use practices such as paludiculture that preserve peatlands.

In an official side event at COP30 titled ‘The Peatland Breakthrough: A Global Call to Unlock the Power of Peatlands’, Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany, stated that Germany is prioritising rewetting its degraded peatlands as a quick way to reduce emissions and achieve climate neutrality by 2045.

"In Germany we drained 95% of our peatlands, and today we see the consequences. Peatlands now account for 7.5% of our national greenhouse-gas emissions, which makes restoring them one of our biggest challenges — and essential to reach our 2045 net-zero target. Rewetting is one of the fastest ways to stop emissions from drained peatlands, and in the future rewetted areas may even contribute to negative emissions. This is why Germany is investing billions in rewetting and why we are working closely with partners around the world, from Eastern Africa to Patagonia, to accelerate peatland restoration." - Jochen Flasbarth - State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany

Jochen Flasbarth

"Germany’s decision to become a Champion Country for the Peatland Breakthrough sends a strong signal: that investing in peatlands is one of the highest-impact climate solutions available today. Restoring peatlands is not just about climate, but also about water security, nature, and people. With this commitment, Germany is helping to turn science-based ambition into practical, large-scale action." - Eva Hernandez - Programme Head, Peatlands, Wetlands International

Peatlands are unique and rare ecosystems that, despite only covering around 3-4% of the planet’s land surface, contain up to one-third of the world’s soil organic carbon – twice the amount of carbon as in the world’s forest biomass. But when drained or degraded, peatlands shift from carbon sinks into carbon emitters. Currently, drained and degraded peatlands contribute to 4-5% of annual global human-induced emissions, equivalent to the combined emissions from the aviation and shipping industry. Keeping this carbon locked away is absolutely critical to halt climate change.

Coenraad Krijger (CEO of Wetlands International) and Jochen Flasbarth (State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany) with the letter announcing Germany will be the newest Champion Country of the Peatland Breakthrough. © Peatland Breakthrough

The Peatland Breakthrough is a collaborative effort to accelerate and mobilize action to conserve, rewet and restore, and enable the sustainable, wise use of the world’s peatlands in ways that maintain their essential functions to support climate goals, water security, biodiversity, and people’s livelihoods.

The Peatland Breakthrough is led by Wetlands International, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Greifswald Mire Centre, developed in close alignment with the Global Peatlands Initiative, and in collaboration with the Convention on Wetlands. The growing list of partners includes: the Global Environment Centre, Landscape Finance Lab, RE-PEAT, and The Nature Conservancy.