In this project, Ecologic Institute, Öko-Institut and Schnittstelle Boden develop legal options for revising the German Federal Soil Act and draft potential corresponding amendments. This is one of the objectives in the German Government's 2021 Coalition Agreement and the research is funded by the German Environment Agency.

Current federal soil law has major flaws and is not equipped for addressing challenges such as climate change and protecting biodiversity. It is subordinate to other laws in several crucial areas, focuses on averting immediate risks and ex-post clean-up, and is difficult to implement in practice.

The project team combines technical with legal expertise. Based on a white paper of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, and with input from workshops, expert interviews and literature review, the team elaborates different options for addressing deficiencies in the law in several crucial areas, assesses their pros and cons and provides draft text for  potential legal amendments. The papers serve as input for a broader dicussion and to the Ministry in elaborating and further developing a draft bill.