Climate protection

Climate protection depends to a large extent on international and national agreements and goals, but cities and regions can also take the lead in this regard and set examples. Freiburg took climate protection seriously long before the issue was on the general political and economical agenda and as a result, in matters related to climate protection, Freiburg is nowadays considered a role model far beyond Europe.

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Climate Protection Concept 1997

In 1996, the municipal council decided to reduce CO2 emissions by 25 percent before the year of 2010. The successes achieved were remarkable. By applying a well-designed package of actions, emissions could be markedly reduced, particularly in the traffic and energy sectors. The share of nuclear power electricity was reduced by over half, from 60 to less than 30 percent. Almost 50 percent of the city's electricity is generated by combined heating and power plants.

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Continuing into the Future

Despite best efforts, Freiburg will presumably fail to reach its original goal of 25 percent less greenhouse gases by 2010. However, this is regarded as an incentive by the city to redouble climate protection efforts. In the summer of 2007, resulting from a climate protection report by the Eco-Institute in Freiburg, the municipal council decided to proceed with its climate protection concept and raised the benchmark even higher for the next phase: 40 percent less CO2 by 2030. This goal is ambitious, but not unrealistic, since the national and international conditions for climate protection have improved considerably last year.

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Targeted Investments

A strong local climate protection policy must by no means be limited to mere gestures or lofty declarations of intent. Realistic political and financial commitments are of huge importance. In the coming years, ten percent (1.2 million Euro) of the concessions that the regional power supply corporation badenova AG pays to the city will be invested in climate protection projects, especially in the transport and building sectors.

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Motivation and Cooperation

However, the climate protection programme can only be a success if the city goes beyond its role model function and gets as many other actors as possible on board - companies, power suppliers, private households, the university, the media. Climate protection affects groups across society. Everyone who fails to do something today, will have to pay dearly to make up for mistakes tomorrow.

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Freiburg's CO2 Diet

Targeted information and public awareness campaigns have been launched to mobilise the inhabitants. The project "Freiburg's CO2 Diet" is but one example. It gives interested citizens an easy tool to calculate their own climate balance - so that they can determine their own share in CO2 emissions, through the interactive website, and compare their values with those of others, receiving CO2 "diet" suggestions in return.

With campaigns like CO2LIBRI Freiburg's citizens are encouraged to reduce CO2 emissions.