HUE-4: Adaptation to climate change at the municipal level | Umweltbundesamt

HUE-4: Adaptation to climate change at the municipal level

Federal government supports municipalities, towns and districts, for example via the National Climate Protection Initiative and the DAS programme in developing concepts and implementing measures ensuring good adaptation. The outflow of funds awarded by those programmes has increased. The proportion of survey respondents giving a favourable answer to the question whether their municipal authorities were sufficiently engaged in adaptation, lately increased again.

Municipalities receive funding for adaptation purposes

Municipalities are key players in the adaptation to climate change, as many climate change impacts materialise at the local level. Accordingly, measures have to be developed and implemented in cooperation with municipalities. Some of these are, for example, measures in connection with urban greening and housing developments as well as the adaptation of urban infrastructure or precautionary measures in the construction sector or preventative measures for health protection (such as the preparation of heat action plans). It is true to say that the adaptation to climate change as a municipal task is a relatively new but increasingly recognised action field in Germany. Federal government therefore attaches great importance to supporting municipalities in the adaptation process: The information and advisory service offered by the ZKA launched by the BMUV in 2021 is aimed specifically at persons in authority and stakeholders in municipalities. In addition, there is substantial financial assistance available. It is currently not possible to present a general overview of the way in which Federal government provides assistance to municipalities in these respects. This is because different departments provide assistance in different ways. However, the award of funding within the framework of the DAS funding programme partially reflects the Federal government’s commitment in this regard.

In the period from 2011 to 2019 funding was disbursed within the framework of the NKI and the Municipal Directive for the preparation of municipal adaptation concepts in the form of ‘Climate Protection Sub-Concepts for Adaptation Purposes’. These concepts are used by municipalities as strategic planning and decision-making tools; they identify the demand for adaptation, make statements on the participation of relevant stakeholders and indicate options for action at a local level. Between 2011 and 2021 a total of 44 towns, districts and regions were awarded funds totalling just short of 3.5 million Euros for the preparation and implementation of adaptation concepts. By comparison, the proportion of funds disbursed for adaptation – awarded by 2021 within the framework of the Municipal Directive – was very low, amounting to less than 0.5 %. One reason for this is that the NKI cannot be used for taking any investment-related – and thus expensive – adaptation measures. Since the beginning of 2019, NKI funding opportunities have again been restricted solely to activities relating to climate protection. The funds dedicated for use by 2025 are reserved solely for the completion of projects already under way.

Since 2012, adaptation measures are also supported within the framework of the DAS programme entitled ‘Promotion of Measures for Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts’ operated by the Federal Environment Ministry. Until 2021, the programme created incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises, including municipal companies, to draw up adaptation concepts, it supported the implementation of municipal lighthouse projects as well as inter-municipal or regional alliances in establishing cooperation, drawing up concepts for adapting to climate change and implementing them on a pilot basis. The first-named funding priority with focus on these enterprises was taken up to a very limited extent. This is why the indicator illustrates only the outflow of funds to flagship projects and adaptation concepts. In the period 2012 to 2021, the Federal government awarded funds totalling just short of 28 million Euros for these projects. A new Funding Directive was last issued in July 2021. The new round of funding within the framework of the DAS programme is focused on the establishment of sustainable adaptation management in municipalities and on innovative model projects for the adaptation to climate change. The establishment of a sustainable adaption management in towns and municipalities was aided by funding from December 2021 until end of January 2022. By doing so, targeted incentives were created for local authorities to strategically think climate adaptation and manage it themselves. The requisite overall concepts were devised by local climate adaptation managers whose employment was funded by the BMUV. These sustainable adaptation concepts provide the foundation for concrete activities within a given municipality. As of 2022 municipalities can apply for funding to support innovative model projects. This is particularly aimed at local projects – which can serve as good examples for other municipalities – that are designed to provide protection from damage by extreme weather events such as heavy rain or heatwaves. In complement to the DAS programme, the Federal government supports municipalities by means of the emergency programme entitled Climate Adaptation. Valid until 2026, a budget of 60 million Euros as well as specialist advice have been made available. The programme was created in response to the flood disasters of summer 2021 as well as recurring heatwaves and droughts.

EU structural funding represents another opportunity to obtain funding for municipal adaptation projects. In the case of operational implementation measures in promotional programmes, the management of climate change impacts is often just a secondary objective which – although influencing the design of the measures concerned – is not usually a distinct item of calculation which can be extricated from the overall funding. The European LIFE programme includes the sub-programme ‘Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation’, as part of which large-scale strategic projects are funded, in which municipalities may also be involved.

In addition, there are specific funding programmes available at Länder level which support climate change adaptation at the municipal level. These include for example KLIMOPASS in Baden-Württemberg, Klima Invest in Thuringia, the ‘Kommunales Qualitätsmanagement- und Zertifizierungsverfahren zur Klimafolgenanpassung’ in North Rhine-Westphalia or the ‘Förderung von Vorhaben zur strategischen Neuausrichtung des Wassermengenmanagements und klimafolgenorientierten Ausbaus von Infrastrukturen der Wasserversorgung und –nutzung’ in Lower Saxony.

In the representative survey entitled ‘Environmental awareness in Germany’²³⁸ citizens have been asked since 2012 to state whether the town or municipality in which they live has addressed the adaptation issue sufficiently and whether, in their opinion, the authorities are taking adequate precautionary measures. While in the 2012 survey, 58 % of respondents answered this favourably, by 2014 this proportion had diminished to 41 %, a distinctly lower percentage, and by 2016, the proportion had dwindled to only 30 %. In 2021 this value increased again to the 2014 level. However, as before, the population obviously still perceives notable deficits. Statistically speaking, the increasing efforts made in municipalities are possibly offset by increases in public awareness.

^{238 - infas – Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft GmbH 2022: Tabellenband – Zusatzbefragung im Rahmen der Umweltbewusstseinsstudie 2020. Themenbereich: Klimaanpassung. Bonn, 39 pp. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/2378/dokumente/tabellenband_ubs_zusatzbefragung_sept_2021_klimaanpassung.pdf}