The City of Freiburg has been a leading example for municipal climate protection for many years. Its current Climate Protection Concept (German: Klimaschutzkonzept, or KSK for short), established in 2018, is oriented towards achieving its goals by 2050. However, this timeline is no longer aligned with the updated national climate targets. In response, the municipal council has resolved to advance the target year to 2035. Against this background, the city of Freiburg has commissioned the Gertec Ingenieurgesellschaft and the Wuppertal Institute to update the climate protection concept and adapt it to the new CO2 reduction targets. The revision aims to refine the existing framework, incorporate forward-looking themes, and consolidate as well as intensify single activities and potentials.
A central focus of the update is the systematic design of a foundational structure for the fields of action that integrates essential framework conditions and factors influencing the transition to climate neutrality. Special attention will be given to identifying and synthesising systemic interdependencies, ensuring they are aligned with the overarching objective of achieving climate neutrality. Translating insights from systemic analyses into a coherent and transparent target framework will provide a solid foundation and greater reliability for the implementation process.
Achieving this requires the development and negotiation of socially, economically, and politically sustainable guiding principles for Freiburg on the one hand and the formulation of technically sound and actionable target definitions on the other hand. The researchers are updating and expanding scenarios from the current climate protection concept, as well as the target development corridors and cost-benefit analyses derived from them.
The Wuppertal Institute contributes to this effort by addressing the fields of mobility and economy. Additionally, it assists in crafting a vision for a climate-neutral Freiburg by 2035 and formulates sufficiency-oriented measures across all key areas of action.