German municipalities to get more support for climate adaptation
Clean Energy Wire
Germany’s municipalities and the federal environment ministries have agreed that municipalities will receive better counsel and support for efforts to adapt to a changing climate. The government will implement a national advisory centre by summer 2021 to provide information and suggestions to municipalities, and it will support the deployment of so-called local adaptation managers. Environment minister Svenja Schulze said each municipality needs tailor-made solutions. “One city is experiencing more frequent flooding, another municipality is struggling with water scarcity, and in the third, elderly people are suffering from the heat of the big city,” she said. Burkhard Jung, president of the Association of German Cities, said the measures can only be a start, and more need to follow in the coming legislative period.
The average air temperature in Germany has risen by about 1.6°C from pre-industrial times and the effects of global warming are becoming increasingly felt in the central European country. In October 2020, the government’s progress report on its climate change adaptation strategy highlighted worsening effects, such as more frequent periods of extreme heat in summer, low groundwater levels and rising water levels in the North and Baltic Seas.
