André Berghegger, the CEO of the German Cities and Municipalities League, is urging for a constitutional amendment to better fund climate adaptation and heat protection measures across the federal and state levels.
Berghegger pointed out that the necessity of adapting to increasingly frequent extreme weather events-such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and severe storms-is rapidly growing. Recent days, marked by record temperatures, have underscored this point. While cities and municipalities have already initiated various preventative measures, the necessary adaptation to the effects of climate change is complex and extremely costly.
He emphasized that in an era marked by severe financial distress among local governments, it is often impossible to cover all the essential measures required to protect the population. Consequently, he argued for the establishment of a new financial mechanism to ensure these critical actions can take place.
As climate protection and adaptation are described as a societal task, the League insists that funding from the federal government (Bund) and the states (Länder) is absolutely crucial. Therefore, the League is renewing its proposal to establish a new joint task, “Climate Protection and Climate Adaptation,” through an amendment to Article 91a of the Basic Law. This structure would allow the Bund and the Länder to allocate funds proportionally to finance vital population protection efforts and the climate-adapted restructuring of city centers and town cores.
Berghegger noted that the existing special assets are insufficient for this purpose. Considering that municipalities currently face an investment deficit exceeding 230 billion euros, the approximately 66 billion euros in additional funds expected in the coming years would still fall far short of the necessary requirements.
In a related development, the CDU, CSU, and SPD parties had agreed within their coalition contract to examine the introduction of a “Climate Adaptation Joint Task.” However, the Federal Environment Ministry could not provide any specific timeline for this review during a press conference on Monday.
