Warsaw: Climate protection despite tight budget

Warsaw is warming up for the UN climate negotiations: to deepen the bilateral cooperation, Federal Minister of the Environment Peter Altmaier and his Polish colleague Marcin Korolec had agreed on carrying out a series of talks on climate protection. At the opening of the “Warsaw Climate and Energy Talks” on 25.09.2013 in Warsaw, adelphi climate protection expert Christian Kind gave a presentation on “Financing emission reductions in German cities and municipalities.”

The participating government representatives from Poland and Germany discussed the topic “Climate protection at the local level” with representatives from communities of both countries. It became clear that air cleanliness and the fine dust in particular are of great concern to Polish cities. The German contributions focused especially on measures to achieve national climate protection goals.
Christian Kind presented innovative approaches to the financing of emission reductions in German municipalities, which adelphi has analysed within the project “Climate protection despite tight budgets”. The approach of the city of Ingelheim was of particular interest to the participants: in Ingelheim, the authorities gave a local company the permission to install a photovoltaic systems on the roofs of municipal buildings. The eleven systems were funded primarily by the citizens of the city who in turn receive a share from the payments for the electricity supply. Annually, the feeding-in of electricity saves about 230 tons of CO2. Furthermore, the city also generates additional revenues from the use of the roofs on the basis of a lease agreement.