Tailor-made IMS approaches for German cities

In Germany, local constitution is a matter of the 16 federal states. This is why the implementation of local sustainability is highly connected with the federal state level. Therefore the German CHAMP Partners – ICLEI and the Lake Constance Foundation – anchored action not only at national but also at Federal State level. These Federal States particularly support training and coaching to individual cities, which led to an adapted CHAMP-training approach in Germany.

One good example for this successful cooperation is the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate with the city of Speyer. During the CHAMP project Speyer has started its integrated sustainability management system. Actually they are elaborating the indicator set for their Baseline Review. There is a ppt available about the local development of Speyer in the cities solution section.

Another German example using IMS fighting Climate Change is the City of Nordhausen in Thuringa. Stakeholder Integration and public participation are crucial for the local responsibles. Therefore they organised in cooperation with ICLEI, two stakeholder fora and a public information event. Further information you get here.

An interesting source for further information on local sustainability in German is the webportal nachhaltigkeitkommunal.eu.

Do you know any other good examples of German cities being active fighting climate change and fostering a sustainable future?

Local governments recognized as key actors against climate change in Cancun

The international climate negotiations held in Cancun on 29th November - 10th December ended up with an agreement that gives hope to reaching a global post-Kyoto agreement in the next negotiations in Durban, South Africa.

What was agreed on was forest protection and the establishment of a Green Fund to deliver funding to developing countries. The agreement also officially recognises that the goal should be to halt global climate change to 2°C. Although there was still no agreement on emission cuts, the result can still be considered as a milestone for the negotiations.

Local governments have been struggling to get their voice heard in the global climate negotiations. After all, it's them that implement the agreed mitigation or adaptation measures in practice. As the press release by ICLEI puts it, "Local governments have to deal with the problem as it’s on their door step – whether there is a global agreement between national governments or not". In Cancun, local governments were finally recognized by states as governmental stakeholders and got observer status which nine other groups such as farmers, youth or women's organisations have earlier obtained.

Photo: Jan Golinski, UNFCCC