Local climate protection projects set national standards

Projects on municipal climate protection often remain within local limits, generate a low level of public awareness, and do not involve all the stakeholders. As a result, a municipality or region’s potential relating to climate protection and energy savings often goes unused. Energy committees in 28 municipalities jointly created local climate protection projects and set national standards.

The relationships between administrators and initiators of projects on climate protection is often extremely hierarchical and the projects are specified by administration. Frequently, there’s a lot of talk and not much action. Citizens have extensive knowledge and understanding of the specific situation in their community. Initiators and representatives of administration require support in collecting knowledge and making it accessible, both for their own municipality and for the entire federal republic, in the form of guides and manuals. With the energy committees, IFOK offers a place to exchange information, clarify facts, and plan long-term projects on municipal climate protection. The energy committees work like this: 20 to 25 citizens, either independently or as representatives of an action group, meet several times and share information on a jointly selected topic. The focus is on actively reducing CO2 emissions. They agree on project goals, which are then implemented with the help of administration, consumers, and businesses. Energy committees have already been successful in numerous municipalities. Participants in the energy committee in Speyer, for example, have launched projects on the careful use of electricity and on changes to waste water disposal, which have saved a total of 2000 tons of pollutants and approximately 150,000 euros within one year.