Agenda for climate protection: out of the niche

The flood disaster in West Germany made it clear: the climate crisis has long since reached us. First heat waves and drought, then heavy rain and floods - extreme weather conditions that show that we have to act. But politics is always lagging behind the developments. For too long, the role of the climate crisis in extreme weather events has been ignored and too little has been done to protect the climate. With fatal consequences: even with radical savings, the climate crisis can no longer be averted. Because due to the inertia of the atmosphere, our emissions today will only contribute to the climate crisis in 20 to 30 years.

The last IPCC report warns unequivocally: If all states were to implement the requirements of the Paris Climate Agreement and switch to a path of "only" 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius in the case of global warming, we will still have to live with noticeable climate changes - including in Germany .

So it takes more than just climate protection measures: we have to learn to adapt to the consequences of climate change.

Strategies and knowledge are there, but implementation is lacking

What is rarely mentioned in the current debate: In 2008 the federal government adopted a strategy for adapting to the climate crisis. Over the years, cross-departmental action plans have been forged and progress reports have been submitted. A lot of money went into research: The federal government has examined the risks of climate change, created competence centers and funding programs and published a large number of information systems and tools on the subject. These impulses were picked up especially in the cities: around 68 percent of all major German cities have developed strategies for adaptation, 30 percent have a heavy rain hazard map - many of them in North Rhine-Westphalia, by the way.

The knowledge is there, but why is it not acted accordingly? Why is it still allowed to build in floodplains with a special permit? Why is urban sealing still increasing? Why does the number of heat deaths remain so high? Although pilot projects to deal with heat or heavy rain are being promoted in many municipalities, all too often the topic remains stuck in a niche despite the efforts of committed actors. And investors are still allowed to obstruct fresh air corridors - even municipal climate adaptation managers with a vulnerability analysis in hand cannot prevent that.

What are the reasons for that? Climate adaptation is often about the use of land. These are used for infiltration and water retention, but also to create cold air, which as fresh air improves the urban climate. Urban and regional planning is required here. But what if politics sets the wrong priorities and prefers to promote the expansion of settlement and traffic areas? The soil sealing is increasing more and more, which further exacerbates the negative consequences of the climate crisis. A course correction is therefore more than overdue.

This wrong focus is also reflected in the lack of binding force in existing regulations.

The revised building code, for example, stipulates that climate adaptation measures must be taken into account in development plans - but only as one of many bases for weighing and without any priority.

In practice, the potential of this instrument is far too often unexploited.

Political will looks different.

There are no binding guidelines in the land of rules

The same picture can also be seen in standardization, which regulates so much in our country - but not in matters of vital climate adaptation: only about eleven of around 34,000 DIN standards explicitly address the consequences of the climate crisis.

A revision of the relevant standards is therefore urgently required.

For example, the technical regulations in water management still force planners to drain rainwater through expensive sewers when building new buildings instead of holding back water on site.

This contradicts the currently so often praised Sponge City principle, according to which rainwater should be temporarily stored where it falls.

This is crucial for the design of climate-resilient cities, as we not only have to reckon with more heavy rain, but also with more periods of drought.