The Environmental Appeals Act (Umwelt-Rechtsbehelfsgesetz, UmwRG) regulates the rights of environmental associations to bring lawsuits.
However, the current Act is not in line with international and European law. For this reason, the Act is to be amended. Green Legal Impact Germany e.V. published its own improved draft law in June 2023. In the course of the two consultations with associations (2024 and 2025), we also submitted statements in collaboration with other organizations.
An improved Act was actually supposed to be in place by October 2024. However, due to the change of government, this deadline was not met and the amendment process is still ongoing.
Green Legal Impact, working with member lawyer Dr. Franziska Heß, has drafted a new Environmental Appeals Act. The draft is supported by Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUND), ClientEarth – Anwälte der Erde e.V., Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V. (DUH), Deutscher Naturschutzring e.V. (DNR), Germanwatch e.V., Greenpeace e.V., Naturschutzbund Deutschland e.V. (NABU) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Amendments to the Environmental Appeals Act are urgently needed based on international and European law. In recent years, rulings by the European Court of Justice and a decision by the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee have shown that the current Environmental Appeals Act is incompatible with international and EU law.
Our draft law (German only) ensures that the Act is compliant with the Aarhus Convention and European law and creates legal certainty for the courts.
The current Environmental Appeals Act is also a “prime example of confusing and incomprehensible legislation.” Our draft makes the Act easier to understand.
Our draft also speeds up administrative court proceedings in environmental matters. This means that the courts no longer have to deal with many pages on legal standing and admissibility, which reduces their workload. As a result, the proceedings will also be faster.
In August 2025, a hearing was held for the new draft legislation with the federal states and associations. As part of this process, on August 12, 2025, we submitted a joint statement on the draft legislation together with BUND, ClientEarth, DUH, DNR, Germanwatch e.V., Greenpeace e.V., and NABU.
The current draft legislation from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety of July 2025 provides for a revision of the Environmental Appeals Act. The draft legislation fails to implement the general clause required by European law and the Aarhus Convention. Only a general clause would solve some important problems of the current Environmental Appeals Act and help this law to comply with European and international law. Moreover, compared to the draft legislation, it would significantly improve the legibility and comprehensibility of the law. It would also lead to greater legal certainty and speed up administrative court proceedings. Incidentally, the draft legislation fails to seize the opportunity to fundamentally improve an indecipherable and unclear law. In particular, it does not make use of important potential for speeding up administrative court proceedings when it comes to the commencement of the period for filing a statement of claim. On the other hand, the removal of the requirement for internal democracy and open membership for environmental associations, which is mandatory under international law, is to be welcomed.
The first of two hearings with the states and associations on the draft legislation took place in May 2024. We submitted a joint statement on the draft legislation on May 24, 2024, together with BUND, ClientEarth, DUH, DNR, Greenpeace e.V., NABU, the Republican Lawyers’ Association (RAV), and WWF.
In our draft law and statements, we call for, among other things
The list in Section 1(1) of the Environmental Appeals Act, which exhaustively enumerates possible grounds for legal action, is too restrictive and leads to massive legal uncertainty. The Aarhus Convention and European law require that this list be abandoned and general clauses introduced. Voices from the fields of jurisprudence and the judiciary have already spoken out in favor of this.
The Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee and the Conference of the Parties have explicitly stated that this is incompatible with the Aarhus Convention and recommended its deletion. For an environmental association to be recognized, it should no longer be a prerequisite that anyone be allowed to join and have full voting rights in the general meeting.
The deadline for filing a lawsuit in its current form leads to considerable practical difficulties. We therefore call for the deadline to begin upon receipt of the administrative file.