The Lawsuit Machine That Made German Cities Clean Their Air

Deutsche Umwelthilfe was founded in 1975 as a small nature conservation association and now combines environmental and consumer protection. It uses litigation to make authorities obey air-quality law, with clean-air lawsuits in 40 German cities to enforce nitrogen dioxide limits, all successful so far by its own account. Its most recent news reports that the Federal Administrative Court referred the DUH clean-air case to the European Court of Justice. The organisation also campaigns on protected cycle lanes, building policy and balcony solar.