City day calls for anti-heat alliance

Climate researchers are certain: 40 degrees and more will generally not be uncommon in the future. “We have to protect people from these extreme temperatures,” says Helmut Dedy, General Manager of the German Association of Cities. The municipalities need more money from the federal and state governments to implement heat action plans. Otherwise, there is a risk that projects that have already been worked out will “become a paper tiger and disappear in a drawer”.

The cities in particular are affected by extreme temperatures due to their high degree of sealing. “Especially for children, the elderly, the chronically ill and the homeless, record summer temperatures could be a real health hazard,” says Dedy. The municipalities are already providing cooling with more trees, plants and areas of water in the city area: “We set up drinking fountains, keep fresh air corridors free, have facades and roofs greened.” In some cities there are also apps that display heat islands and warn people in good time would. “Despite many measures, there is still a lot to be done when it comes to heat protection,” added Dedy.

When asked, the city of Essen stated that a long-lasting heatwave was one of the scenarios in the municipality’s disaster protection plan. In some scenarios, the means and resources are still needed to implement further precautionary measures. Gregor Berghausen, General Manager of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Industry and Commerce, referred to the strategy paper “City of the Future”, which had been developed by the companies in the IHK committees and in which questions of “resilient urban development played a special role”. It is also about concrete measures, including building greening. Berghausen cited the Kö-Bogen II as an example.

Assurances that a lot has already happened are viewed critically by the social association VdK. For years, this has been calling for better heat protection not only in large cities, but also in districts and communities. “Since 2018, the municipalities have had suggestions from the Federal Environment Agency on how they could position themselves better when it comes to heat protection,” Horst Vöge, state chairman of the social association, told our editorial team. “That has not played a major role in many municipalities to this day. Not much has happened in the past five years.” Last summer, the VdK wrote to 35 towns and districts on the Lower Rhine and asked them about their heat protection efforts. There were either no answers at all or very cautious answers, occasionally the assurance that measures were planned. There were no reports of success. “That was very sobering for us,” said Vöge. In particular, people in the age group over 60 years are through heat endangered. The demands of the VdK: “Heat protection must finally play a real role in urban planning,” says Vöge. Specifically, you have to get away from the “car-friendly” city and focus on pedestrians. There must be drinking water dispensers in the inner cities, benches and much more extensive and shady greenery.

The City Day calls for better cooperation to get the consequences of heat waves under control. “Heat protection is only possible in a broad alliance,” emphasized Dedy. Municipalities, health insurance companies, doctors, rescue services, as well as planners and architects would have to sit down at one table. The federal and state governments also expect the municipalities to draw up heat action plans by 2025. “As sensible as that makes sense, the cities need more support for the implementation on the ground for this ambitious timetable,” said Dedy. “It would be helpful to have a central office at the federal level that advises the municipalities.”

The City Council has now adopted a position paper on how more heat protection can be achieved in the municipalities – “so that heat does not make you ill”, is the title. Action plans are an effective tool to prepare people and infrastructure for the extreme heat. They included both long-term measures such as adjustments in housing construction and plans for courses of action in health and care facilities.

In the paper available to our editors, it is emphasized that municipalities such as Düsseldorf, Cologne, Lüneburg, Leipzig and Schwerin have already carried out extensive climate analyzes and taken adaptation measures – more shading, green roofs, unsealing or the creation of water areas. “In recent years, considerable efforts have been made in the cities in municipal heat prevention,” says the paper. In particular, the expectations of the federal states that municipalities would have to have drawn up heat action plans by 2025 “must be dampened”. This requires considerable human and financial resources. According to the city council, this would not be possible across the board without further support at state and federal level.