CCC welcomes focus on climate protection in Berlin
CCC welcomes focus on climate protection in Berlin and calls for investments in the main fields of climate protection and in science as a driver for climate protection innovations in Berlin.
The announcement by the negotiating coalition partners SPD and CDU to provide a total of up to ten billion euros for climate protection in the capital is a big step in the right direction. The Climate Change Center Berlin Brandenburg welcomes this clear focus. In addition to the urgently needed investments in the main areas of climate protection such as construction, energy, transport, investments in science as a driver for new solutions in climate protection and an administrative reform for more efficient processes are needed.
Climate protection must be a priority for the next Berlin government – the announcement by the negotiating coalition partners SPD and CDU that they want to provide five billion euros for this now and five billion euros later is a big step in the right direction. However, the announcement must not be enough; there must also be the will to make the necessary changes. Even the previous target of a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with 1990 levels by 2030 is in danger of falling out of reach unless all the players come together on climate protection in the next few years. Pressure from civil society – as demonstrated by the referendum on climate protection in ten days’ time – must not let up.
Central to achieving the existing 2030 targets are three areas of action: Transport, Heat, Building. Decision-making processes in the administration must also be significantly accelerated.
Image: Birgit Holthaus
“Investing in science as a driver and catalyst for innovation in climate protection is crucial for rapid implementation.” This is the reaction of Prof. Dr. Sophia Becker, spokesperson of the Climate Change Center Berlin Brandenburg, to the announcement by the future Berlin government. “We from the scientific community can use our numerous real laboratories to show very precisely for the Berlin-Brandenburg region how climate protection and climate adaptation can be implemented. To do this, we need permanent funding from the state so that we can cooperate closely with key players on the ground and attract further third-party funding.”
“Administrative reform is an important prerequisite for implementing climate protection. Years pass before a square meter of street can be rezoned, and in terms of building law, even open-minded architects face immense hurdles in getting sustainable additions in the inner city approved. The state of Berlin can achieve a great deal here through the uniform digitization of administrative processes and clear responsibilities for the authorities. Estonia’s digital administration is a model in this regard. At the same time, the state of Berlin must continue to lobby the Bundesrat to reform the road traffic regulations and allow timber construction as a standard. Administrative reform is necessary to turn the current snail’s pace into a sprint,” explains Prof. Dr. Felix Creutzig, scientific coordinator of the Climate Change Center Berlin Brandenburg.
“With the special fund for climate protection, resilience and transformation in the amount of 10 billion euros, a climate protection offensive for solutions supported by broad scientific, entrepreneurial and social know-how can be set in motion. The scientific expertise that is networked in the CCC can be a real game changer for this,” emphasizes Prof. Dr. Christian Thomsen, spokesman for the Climate Change Center’s Council of Experts.
The network of the Climate Change Center (CCC) Berlin Brandenburg, in which six major universities from Berlin and Potsdam as well as more than 30 non-university research institutions in Berlin-Brandenburg are represented, will receive start-up funding from the Berlin Senate for Science, Care, Equality and Health in the 2022/23 double budget. Research and transfer projects related to the sectors with the highest emissions in the metropolitan region were initiated. However, the CCC researchers are also taking a close look at flanking aspects in the field of environmental psychology, such as education, communication and art. In the future, the exchange with renowned public policy institutes at leading international universities will be further intensified with the support of the Einstein Foundation Berlin.
Further information: www.climate-change.center
Prof. Dr. Sophia Becker, spokesperson of the Climate Change Center Berlin Brandenburg, is Vice President for Sustainability, Internal Communication, Transfer and Transdisciplinarity at Technische Universität Berlin and Professor for Sustainable Mobility and Transdisciplinary Research Methods.
Prof. Dr. Christian Thomsen, co-spokesperson of the Climate Change Center Berlin Brandenburg and head of the CCC Expert Council, is Professor of Solid State Physics at the Technische Universität Berlin. He was president of the TU Berlin from 2014-2022.
Prof. Dr. Felix Creutzig, scientific coordinator of the Climate Change Center Berlin Brandenburg, is group leader at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin, professor for sustainable urban economics at the Technische Universität Berlin and member of the Berlin Climate Protection Council.