Past projects
Protecting and restoring Europe’s peatlands
An unsung climate hero, healthy peatlands store twice as much carbon as the world’s forests, as well as being key to climate adaptation efforts. Yet, instead, degraded peatlands are responsible for around five per cent of global emissions each year. This trend must be reversed to achieve a just, prosperous future for all.
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Our project in numbers
95
15 business and investor organisations and 80 CEOs urged EU decision-makers to protect nature.
50
We brought the topic of peatlands to 50 business and investor organisations not yet working on the topic.
130
We shared a new messaging guide on peatland with over 130 individuals from civil society organisations.
5 million
Our co-designed social media campaign on the topic of peatland protection reached 5 million citizens across Germany.
Our project in a nutshell
2023 was a key year for peatland restoration in Europe. The much anticipated Nature Restoration Law (NRL) – landmark legislation setting legally binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems – was making its way through the European Union’s legislative process. Meanwhile, in Germany, a Natural Climate Protection action programme was being launched in which rewetting peatland played a major role. We seized this moment to build much-needed momentum for peatland restoration.
Our goal was to “catalyse enabling conditions for ambitious policy change in the EU to protect and restore peatlands.” We aimed to do this by:
- Putting the EU on track to deliver the NRL regulation, including ambitious targets on peatlands.
- Catalysing the implementation of peatland restoration in Germany.
- Bringing together a set of first-mover private sector actors to be champions for peatlands.
- Catalysing the power, leverage and funding potential of organisations working on peatlands.
“Climate Catalyst has brought a huge contribution to our campaign for a strong EU restoration law. They have injected a coordinated package of financial and human resources, know-how and contacts that has really powered up our work. They also bring drive, focus and systematic thinking which are very much welcome.”
Ariel Brunner
Regional Director, BirdLife Europe & Central Asia
Project highlights
- The European Council and Parliament reached an agreed position on the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) in late 2023, including language requiring Member States to take measures to revitalise peatlands; a significant success for our collaborative efforts. This came despite the NRL coming under intense pressure and attack from a negative, public campaign led by the European People’s Party. However it wasn’t smooth sailing for the Law as it went through the trialogue process when at the Council-level, some Member States again changed their position on the NRL, which is a rare scenario at that late stage. Nevertheless, as a result of tireless efforts from European civil society and far-reaching public support, the NRL was finally adopted as legislation in June 2024.
- Business support was cited as an important driver for momentum behind the law, following efforts by us and our partner Corporate Leaders Group Europe to mobilise the business community in support of the NRL.
- We saw increasing attendance and participation from business and investor organisations, financial institutions and others in learning events and workshops over the lifetime of our programme. Participants actively sought out opportunities to learn more.
- The collaborative public awareness campaign run by Greifswald Mire Centre, Eurosite and Climate Catalyst effectively bridged the gap between the scientific community and the public and brought new voices and perspectives into the conversation, like the communities actively living and working on or around peatlands.
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