Workshop “Municipal Climate Partnerships“

Following that, it was the turn of the invited speakers. The first talk was presented by Dr. Kouakou Bernard DJE, National Focal Point of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Dr. Yro Hyacinthe TIE, National Focal Point of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in Côte d'Ivoire. Their joint talk discussed the potential of ecosystem-based services and their practical implementation on the local level in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. They also reported on a workshop conducted jointly by IPBES and IPCC in December 2020 on the interactions of the science on biodiversity and climate change, which dramatically highlight the importance and the urgent necessity of an integrated perspective on the two crises.

Next, Russell Galt explained the holistic approach of nature-based solutions for reconciling cities with nature. Galt, who is active for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and as head of the Urban Alliance, sees his task as facilitating the debate and the exchange of knowledge, catalysing projects and partnerships and developing tools and knowledge products. This also includes development of the IUCN Urban Nature Index, an instrument for measuring the ecological performance of municipalities.

The third speaker, Sabine Lachenicht, explained the link between biodiversity and climate protection and adapting to climate impact from the perspective of German municipalities. Sabine Lachenicht is head of the Office for Environmental Protection, Trade Inspection and Energy of the City of Heidelberg as well as Chair of the urban biodiversity alliance “Kommunen für biologische Vielfalt”. Among other aspects, her talk focused on the issue of reconciling conflicts of interest in the context of municipal planning as well as intermunicipal collaboration on the national and international level.

With this latter point, she handed over directly to Valerie Kapos, Director of the Climate Change and Biodiversity programme at the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP-WCMC), who illuminated the issue from the international perspective.

Valerie Kapos then set the parameters for the subsequent podium discussion, in which the audience was able to ask questions via chat. Three aspects for attaining biodiversity and climate objectives formed the basis for the subsequent discussion:

• The role of land use planning on the municipal level and across municipal boundaries
• Improving and promoting municipal collaboration
• Financing and the involvement and role of the private sector

Russell Galt emphasised that cities cannot be regarded as isolated islands but rather as cultural spaces that interact with other cities. It is thus essential to look beyond city boundaries.

Under the headword of multi-level governance, Sabine Lachenicht noted that cooperation across various levels – both nationally and internationally – is extremely important. She also addressed the existing parameters for environmental protection and biodiversity. She sees the greatest obstacles on the German national level, as the laws governing the parameters for biodiversity and environmental protection do not adequately support municipalities. She emphasised the urgent need to provide for adequate staffing and funding for biodiversity efforts in municipalities.

In Côte d’Ivoire, as in many other countries and regions, urban green spaces are frequently accorded little importance; often, the city administration seeks to convert them to trade and business use, Dr. Yro Hyacinthe TIE, noted. The relationship between humans and nature and thus the importance of air purification are being increasingly neglected. However, adequate green spaces within urban areas are decisive for urban dwellers’ quality of life.

“The natural resources in cities are a public or communal good that can be used for free,” declared Russell Galt. The municipalities or NGOs must insist on these spaces. The value of nature needs to be given greater weight and play a key role in planning processes in future.

For Valerie Kapos, the key to achieving biodiversity and climate targets is to enlist the private sector. Even though the fundamental conflict between social and economic development and the preservation of biodiversity remains unresolved, particularly in the global south, she believes it is important for the private sector to take an interest in this development. A general understanding needs to be fostered that the targets are ultimately to everyone’s benefit.

In this connection, Dr. Yro Hyacinthe TIE was able to report on highly promising cooperation concepts in Côte d’Ivoire. There, both the private sector and non-governmental organisations are participating in biodiversity protection projects, for instance on development plans for specific regions that build on biodiversity concepts for wildlife.

Sabine Lachenicht highlighted inadequacies of the system in Germany: She noted that urban land use has changed and that the preservation of natural spaces and thus biodiversity is being neglected because the federal government only funds the expansion of urban infrastructure as a function of a municipality’s population, and not parks or green space. In Heidelberg, the civic engagement alone proved to be inadequate to resolve the land use conflict. Sabine Lachenicht emphasised the urgent need to provide for adequate staffing and funding for biodiversity in municipalities. Dr. Klaus Reuter pointed to a general need to revise the tax system for financing municipalities. At present, there are too many incentives to acquire funding for light-industrial and construction zones, at the expense of green spaces and biodiversity.

Russell Galt speculated that culture creators will trigger the “Great Green Enlightenment” – just as they’ve initiated so many political and ideological changes in the past. Activists must thus appropriately collaborate with artists in order to work toward transformative change.

Sabine Lachenicht underscored the great importance of generating empathy with nature, biodiversity and environmental protection. Education for sustainable development, she noted, plays a key role, and working with children and supporting their access to nature is beneficial. Additionally, individual lifestyle choices, as in what foods to buy, play an important role.

As Russell Galt explained, people need to be educated and cross-sectionally qualified if biodiversity is to be embedded in municipal planning issues. Sabine Lachenicht also called for continuing education seminars, climate change-appropriate building methods and green architecture. Biodiversity and conservation must be granted greater weight in German building law; these interests have not been asserted sufficiently strongly in the legislation to date. According to Valerie Kapos, it is essential to involve both experts and interest groups that ultimately have an interest in the outcomes. She called for a multi-sectoral dialogue.

The speakers all agreed on one thing: the key to success lies in targeted communication, consultation, leadership and integrative planning. Education and awareness engender responsibility. Local civil society must become involved and communication channels improved. In essence, a shared vision is needed.

The Municipal Climate Partnerships thus have a role model function, as the collaboration promotes increased awareness for climate protection and biodiversity. This issue is conveyed to the public, as they see the consequences of climate change directly.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Klaus Reuter once again underscored the urgency of action and the need to take decisions on fundamental steps. He also called for solutions that have proved throughout the world to be implemented on a systematic basis. It is now time, he declared, to define a new, participative orientation framework – as everything that humans touch and change will have long-term consequences for the ecosystem.

In her closing remarks, Jessica Baier emphasised that in this anniversary year of Municipal Climate Partnerships, the task must also be to inspire existing or budding partnerships and generate renewed momentum in the network of climate partnerships. The workshop offered plenty of opportunity for facing the challenges of biodiversity and climate protection and working on joint solutions for municipalities in both the global north and the global south.