Difu report: Major differences in sustainability in German municipalities

The new National Progress Report on the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda shows the state of sustainability in urban development in German municipalities. The report was prepared by the German Institute of Urban Affairs on behalf of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR).

Berlin. Sustainability issues have become increasingly important in politics as well as in the public sphere in recent years. With the New Urban Agenda of the United Nations, there has been an international roadmap for more sustainability in urban development since 2016.

Through the New Urban Agenda, the Federal Republic of Germany has undertaken to submit a progress report on its implementation every four years. The aim is to document the areas in which German municipalities have achieved successes in terms of sustainability in recent years and where there is still room for improvement. In addition, it is intended to show what hinders the implementation of sustainability goals in the sense of the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda. The first progress report now available shows very clearly that in many German cities - regardless of size and location - the first steps have been taken towards a sustainable transformation. The report focuses on climate change and mobility as well as digitalisation as a cross-cutting issue.

The report and its indicator-based data analyses illustrate that municipalities' sustainability efforts vary widely. For example, some municipalities prepare inventories on the question of where municipal work can link to goals of the New Urban Agenda. Other municipalities produce detailed sustainability reports based on extensive monitoring of a wide range of indicators.

It is a challenge to try to do justice to this diversity of municipalities with standardized monitoring. Therefore, the monitoring process must be continuously developed in the future and embedded in the context of the sustainability efforts of the federal and state governments. However, there are considerable incompatibilities here - especially with regard to statistical collection methods and available data stocks. With regard to the cities and municipalities themselves, the first progress report on the New Urban Agenda also makes clear that it is often a lack of human resources that prevents municipalities from further expanding their sustainability activities. It also becomes clear that the different framework conditions - demographic, social, economic and fiscal - in the municipalities have a direct impact on the prioritization and implementation of sustainability activities.

Despite these methodological challenges, the systematic recording of sustainability activities in municipalities, as promoted by the New Urban Agenda, can hardly be underestimated. For in essence, it lays an important foundation stone for raising the awareness of the administration and the population for the important topic of sustainability.

Publication & further information:
difu.de/16642