A climate check for city council proposals, taking into account the effects on the climate in the development plan process and the greening of schoolyards: these are three examples of steps that the city wants to take to mitigate the climate crisis. They deal with the no longer avoidable effects of climate change and are included in the update of the climate adaptation concept that the city council decided on Thursday, together with dozens of individual steps from four fields of action: urban development, green spaces and natural balance; city green and buildings; precipitation and water; Health.
The discussion was preceded by an unusual statement by climate advisor Christine Kugler: At the moment nobody is happy about rising energy prices, she said, “that’s not my attitude”. The only thing to be happy about are the measures that are being taken from the municipal to the federal level to avert burdens on the citizens.
Why did she feel compelled to clarify that? In a draft resolution on climate neutrality, Kugler wrote that the high prices for district heating and electricity and the resulting significant burden on consumers “set the impulse for significantly higher energy savings” and “have a positive effect on faster decarbonization of energy production”. could. The CSU and FDP in the city council had described this as “cynical and highly reprehensible” and “ice cold”.
The CSU also wanted to know from Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) whether he shared the speaker’s “joy” about the rising energy prices. He had announced that the wording was actually “very unfortunate”. Since he “in contrast to the specialist departments has to keep an eye on all the effects on urban society”, he sees the high energy prices “primarily as an extreme challenge for the people of Munich”.
The climate crisis is also an extreme challenge, and the concept that has been adopted is intended to help combat it. 80 employees from ten departments of the city administration were involved. “We are very happy about the submission,” said Mona Fuchs, leader of the Greens. In the past two years, first steps have been taken, for example with the greening of municipal buildings or with the planting of trees. This must now result in a city-wide strategy. Julia Schmitt-Thiel, environmental policy spokeswoman for the SPD, said the concept would help make the city more livable. In the future, climate adaptation will have to be considered from the outset, i.e. during urban planning.
“It should be a little faster”
Criticism of the paper came from the opposition. Nicola Holtmann (ÖDP) admitted that it contained a thick bundle of measures. However, there were no specific deadlines by which the steps should be implemented. The climate test for city council proposals, for example, was decided in July 2021; when it will be introduced is still not clear. “That annoys us.” A hearing on the subject of sponge cities is also a long time coming.
“It should be a little faster,” said Sebastian Schall (CSU). And Frith Roth (FDP) complained that how the good intentions should be implemented was “more than complicated”. For example, money should be spent on a study that should clarify how roof greening and photovoltaics get along. “It would be much more important that you get down to business.”
According to Roth, the template “does not leave the level of a medium-sized district town” for some topics, and one also gets the impression that the wheel is to be reinvented in Munich. He doesn’t see that people are learning from other cities here. “Take a look at Tübingen,” he advised the climate officer. She assured that her authority was very much in contact with other cities, also at European level. “That’s standard for us.”