Biodiversity vs. construction, the sinews of war

Perhaps 2021 will be remembered as a pivotal year in the understanding of climate risk in Luxembourg. The country has realised that it, too, has entered the era of extreme and brutal climatic phenomena. It experienced flooding in the Moselle in June 2018, a tornado in the south in August 2019, monster storms last July, in the middle of a particularly rainy summer, as in other Western European countries, while Southern and Eastern Europe was suffocating under scorching heat fuelling devastating fires.

The effects and manifestations of climate disruption are not limited to poor countries and/or those located in remote areas of Asia or Latin America. They are now being felt here too, in a country accustomed to the comfort of its temperate climate, mostly complaining about a little lack of sunshine. However, some indicators have been flashing for several years. They were laid bare in the 2015 biodiversity report commissioned by the Ministry of Sustainable Development and convinced the DP-LSAP-déi gréng government to thoroughly review the 2004 law on the protection of nature and natural resources, knowing that several European directives had passed calling on member states to ensure genuine protection of animal species and their natural habitats.