Vote25: Next gov't must solve climate adaptation financing challenge as topic gains traction – think tank
***Please note, this interview is part of CLEW's 2025 preview series, covering the German national election and relevant climate and energy topics in Europe. Read all interviews here.***
CLEW: During this legislative term, Germany announced it would set national binding targets for climate adaptation for the first time and presented the first heat-protection plan. At the same time, the country experienced devastating floods this summer, first in the West, then in the South, then in the East. In your view, what are the most notable successes of the outgoing government in the area of climate adaptation?
Andrea Fischer-Hotzel: The biggest success of the outgoing government in the area of climate adaptation was the passing of the Federal Climate Adaptation Act. This act sets a binding legal framework for climate adaptation in Germany on the federal, state and municipal level. The federal government is now obliged to set binding targets for climate adaptation and has already started doing so with a broad participatory process.
The federal states are obliged to establish their own climate adaptation plans and to set a framework for municipalities to establish climate adaptation plans at their level. Municipal climate adaptation plans are the central instrument of the act, but it’s up to each state to specify which municipalities, or municipal level, will be tasked with drawing up adaptation plans and explaining how they will be paid for. In addition, starting from 2025, all bodies carrying out public functions are required to give due consideration to the objective of climate adaptation in their planning and decision-making.
In general, how would you assess the progress of climate adaptation in Germany over the past three years?
Fischer-Hotzel: During the past three years, Germany has made a lot of progress in terms of climate adaptation. The federal government set up the Zentrum KlimaAnpassung, a nationwide advisory centre for local authorities and social institutions that provides advice, training and networking on the topic of climate adaptation, with a wide range of services and products.
The Climate Adaptation Act sets out a framework for the federal states and local authorities over the coming years. At the same time, the federal states have demonstrated their own initiative: North Rhine-Westphalia already presented its own Climate Adaptation Act in 2021 and Brandenburg implemented its own plan for dealing with extreme heat, with Hesse and other federal states following suit.
Local authorities are also becoming increasingly active, with many municipalities showing an awareness of the risks of flooding, drought and heatwaves. Some have already implemented plans for addressing extreme heat. As a result, a broad awareness of the consequences of climate change and the need for action has been established.
A lot of work is still needed, both to adapt Germany to a changing climate and also to reach 2030 climate and energy targets. What challenges are particularly pressing for the new government to tackle? What about longer-term goals?
Björn Weber: Many measures have already been implemented to meet the 2030 climate and energy targets, especially on the municipal level. While the share of renewable energies in electric power is consistently growing at reasonable rates, the proportion of renewables in heating must be rapidly increased, which led the federal government to pass the heat planning law. Together with retrofitting, the law will help to reduce energy consumption and decarbonise the heat supply for buildings, since this sector has not reached its climate targets in the past.
The same holds true for the transport sector, where more effort is needed to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions. This includes support for the transition from fossil fuels to e-mobility and to initiate a modal shift away from motorised individual transport to climate friendly means of transportation. The speed of climate mitigation activities must be increased by a factor of two or three in order to reach Germany’s target of being climate neutral by 2045.
What topics or events do you expect will be important for the national and international debate around climate adaptation beyond the federal election in the coming year?
Fischer-Hotzel: One of the most pressing issues will be the financing of climate adaptation. In Germany, the issue of financing municipal climate adaptation plans has not yet been resolved. However, implementing measures is very expensive and most municipalities do not have sufficient funds for the major investments. If the new Bundestag (Germany's parliament) adopts the constitutional amendment that was actually announced for this legislative period, and adaptation becomes a "joint task", the federal government could provide more financial support.
Internationally, the financing problem is much more acute. The 300 billion U.S. dollars per year pledged by industrialised countries at COP29 won’t be enough for developing countries to adapt to the consequences of climate change and compensate for unavoidable losses and damage. As the 1.5°C threshold will in all likelihood be crossed, the need for adaptation will also increase. Sufficient financial resources are currently not available for this, neither globally nor in Germany.
