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On the occasion of the meeting of the EU Ministers for Urban Development and Territorial Cohesion on the "New Leipzig Charter", Daniela Wagner, Spokesperson for Urban Development of the Alliance 90/The Greens in the German Bundestag, explains:
We welcome the "New Leipzig Charter". Without the transformational power of cities and the ideas and energy of their inhabitants, we will not be able to meet the challenges of the climate crisis. Nevertheless, the Charter contains considerable gaps. The guiding principle of the resilient city is missing. The development of robust and resilient cities is important in order to better assess risks and to be able to recognise and prevent dangers in good time. Nor is the model of the healthy city mentioned - despite the heat waves caused by the climate crisis, a never-ending stream of air pollutants from fossil combustion engines and the current challenge of a global pandemic.
In addition, there is a huge gap between the claims of the "New Leipzig Charter" and the actions of the Federal Government, which after all helped to develop the Charter. It would be nice if the content of the Charter were reflected to some extent in the policies of the Federal Government. For example, it is hard to understand why the paper talks about reducing land consumption, but the Federal Government does the exact opposite and reintroduces the land-grabbing paragraph 13b in the Building Code, which is highly questionable in terms of environmental and housing policy, or pushes through the construction of age-old plans from the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan.
If the federal government is serious about affordable and well-designed housing being fundamental to urban development policy, then it should finally provide more affordable housing, double federal funding for social housing construction and introduce the New Housing Community Benefit. The energy turnaround in existing buildings should finally be advanced. With the "Fair Heat" action plan, we have presented a package of measures that financially incentivises investments in energy modernisation of housing with energy savings and the switch to renewable heat and significantly lowers the hurdles for the investments.
The statement in the Charter that urban transport and mobility systems should be efficient, climate-neutral and multimodal is also correct. Unfortunately, there is a considerable lack of implementation of the transport turnaround. What the federal government has done so far in terms of strengthening bus and rail pales in comparison to the billions in subsidies for the automotive industry. At the same time, the federal government is putting the brakes on the expansion of electromobility and has parked the topic of charging stations on the hard shoulder.
Source: PM of BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN in the German Bundestag from 30.11.2020
Keywords:
Soil & land consumption, DE-News, Mix of uses, Resource efficiency, SDG 2030, City, Environmental policy, Housing policy
More green flat roofs and open spaces planted as insect-friendly as possible in new building areas - these are the key points of a local law that the building and environment deputation is dealing with today. For new buildings with flat roofs of 100 square metres or more, greening will be mandatory. Row houses and hall roofs, for which greening would cause unreasonably high costs, remain exempt. The greening of new flat roofs serves, among other things, to reduce flooding caused by heavy rain. Likewise, the planting of open spaces will be obligatory in new buildings in order to create more habitat for endangered insects in the densely populated city and to promote the infiltration of water. "With more green roofs, Bremen is preparing itself for the consequences of climate change," says parliamentary group leader Maike Schaefer, "we Greens have been campaigning for this for a long time and are pleased with the decision. Extreme precipitation will hit Bremen more frequently as a result of climate change. We have to contain the danger of flooding caused by prolonged heavy rainfall. Flooded cellars and flooded streets affect people's lives and threaten the logistics location. In order not to leave Bremen out in the rain, we will henceforth prescribe more green flat roofs. Green roofs retain precipitation. A large part of the water evaporates, the rest runs off with a time delay and thus relieves the sewage system. Walk-on flat roofs can also be used as attractive recreational areas with the plants. Last but not least, green roofs filter pollutants from the air, provide a pleasant building climate during heat waves and serve endangered insects. Insect protection must be given more weight. The dramatic loss of bees, butterflies & co. due to agricultural toxins and sealing is threatening an ecological disaster: flowers lack pollinators, birds lack food, pests lack natural enemies. Small insects are ecological giants. We must stop the loss of insects. Green roofs are just as suitable for this as insect-friendly planted areas in new development areas."
See also:
"Bremen wants to be the first major city with more than 500,000 inhabitants to stipulate that larger new buildings must be greened with flat roofs" (1. 4. 2019)
http://taz.de/Pflanzen-auf-Flachdaechern/!5582020/
"Plants on flat roofs are to become obligatory in Bremen. SPD and the Greens have agreed on this" (3.1.2019)
http://taz.de/Pflanzen-auf-Flachdaechern/!5559895/
Source: Bremen Greens PM of 21 March 2019
Keywords:
News Blog Bremen
City planners present two new scenarios for Patrick Henry Village at the IBA Citizens' Forum. Both plan with more residents.
Read article from 17.12.2016 on:
www.rnz.de/...
Keywords:
Expo, IBA, Barracks conversion, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, Quarters, Resource efficiency, Settlements
"In key policy areas, it is not enough to take additional steps; instead, a fundamental transformation must be initiated - the Federal Government recognises this with its dialogue version of the German Sustainability Strategy. The momentum for this transformation is now, and it needs tailwind from all ministries," explained Dr. Werner SchnappaufChairman of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE). "The version of the dialogue brings important innovations that will allow the policies of the coming years to be more closely aligned with the guiding principle of sustainability. The designation of transformation areas such as the energy and transport transition or the transition to a circular economy is an important step forward. At the same time, we believe that there is still room for improvement in some areas," said Schnappauf.
The Sustainability Council today publishes its Opinion on the further development of the German Sustainability Strategy and then presents it to Chancellor's Office Minister Prof. Dr. Helge Braun in a virtual exchange. The Council expressly welcomes the newly defined transformation areas, but these must be supplemented by concrete, interministerial strategies and roadmaps as well as ambitious and binding targets. Based on the transformation areas, the German government should develop a new set of key indicators for German sustainability policy and thus focus on the most important challenges of the future.
The Council's recommendations cover the following ten topics:
- Strengthen coherence
- Advancing sustainable finance
- Changing course for a sustainable economy in the sense of the SDGs
- Readjustment in the event of foreseeable missed targets
- We need a new narrative!
- Launching sustainability as a joint effort
- Prepare the report to the United Nations rapidly
- Emerging sustainably from the crisis
- Taking forward the European contribution
- For an ambitious German contribution to SDG implementation at international level
"Unfortunately, the international dimension falls short of the global challenges in the dialogue version and thus also of the Council's expectations," said Prof. Dr. Imme Scholz, Deputy Chair of the Council and Deputy Director of the German Development Institute (DIE). "The way we live and do business has a significant impact on others, especially on the countries of the Global South. That is why the SDGs must become the guiding principle in Germany's and the EU's multi- and bilateral relations as a whole. And for this to happen, the international dimension must also be adequately reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals and their indicators - in our statement, we make concrete suggestions for new goals and indicators," said Scholz. Many countries in the global South have been particularly hard hit by the economic and social consequences of the Corona pandemic, he said. "We must therefore support these countries in the upcoming transformation processes. Only together will we achieve the global climate and other sustainability goals," emphasized Imme Scholz.
In its statement, the Council also recommends publishing an abridged version of the new sustainability strategy in order to "introduce the topic into the discourse in the run-up to the Bundestag elections and the formation of a new government". To this end, renewed recommendations by the Council are also planned for the first half of 2021, which should place the guiding principle of sustainability more strongly than before at the centre of government action. In the Council's view, this also includes the inclusion of sustainability as a state objective in the Basic Law.
Source: PM of the Sustainability Council of the Federal Government dated 2.11.2020
Keywords:
DE-News, Sustainable management, SDG 2030, Environmental policy
