Germany has already exceeded its annual ecological limits

Germany has already exceeded its annual ecological limits

Berlin: Just over four months into the year, Germany has already exceeded sustainable consumption limits for the year, according to the US-based environment NGO Global Footprint Network.

According to its calculations, if everybody in the world behaved like the Germans, humanity would need three Earths to provide enough resources to sustainably accommodate their consumption.

So-called overshoot days occur when a country's demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what the planet can regenerate in that year.

The worst offenders, such as Qatar and Luxembourg, already exceeded their limits in February. Other countries, such as Cambodia and Madagascar, will likely stay well below their limits and not overshoot.

Last year, Germany overshot its limit on May 4 — one day later than 2024, taking into account the leap year difference.

"The German Earth Overshoot Day is a reminder to change the underlying conditions in all sectors now so that sustainable behavior becomes the new normal," Aylin Lehnert, education officer at German environmental NGO Germanwatch, said in a press release. "We need a new debt brake, a debt brake in relation to the overloading of the Earth."

According to Greenwatch, meat production and consumption in Germany is one of the main drivers of its