Fuentes Hutfilter

COP18: Germany promotes local decarbonisation strategies

COP18 (01/12/2012) – Dr. Ursula Fuentes Hutfilter from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety describes her work presenting the German national climate initiative to support local authorities develop and implement climate strategies.

She says that at a federal level, Germany has very ambitious decarbonisation targets in the transition of their economy to renewables. She says there are lots of policies in place at the national level to help fund small business and local authority initiatives moving towards a low-carbon future, including funding climate managers in local authorities to implement climate strategies like incentivising energy efficient technologies.

She says the German government wants to reach out to the diverse range of 12,000 local authorities across urban and rural, developed and more impoverished areas in Germany. She describes how the funding programme is adapted every year, based on the feedback of the needs of different communities every year, and highlights the example of Hanover, where the city has successfully worked with the regional authorities to move towards decarbonisation.