Ten Years of Municipal Climate Partnerships

Bonn/Online, 5-6 October 2021 and 13-14 October 2021. It is 10 years since the Municipal Climate Partnerships project was launched in 2011. Apart from the network meetings, various activities have been held this year to mark the anniversary. These included creating an anniversary website with interviews from the climate partnerships, holding workshops on climate-related themes and running an international photography competition. Climate partnerships involved in the first seven project phases took part in the competition, which included the publication of a photo album.

Due to the ongoing worldwide travel restrictions, the network meeting was split into two parts: a face-to-face event for the German municipalities and a virtual event open to all climate partnerships. This enabled municipalities in the Global South to participate too. The virtual meeting was also divided into two events in order to take account of the different time zones of our partners in the South. So, in addition to the virtual network meeting for the German-African and German-Asian climate partnerships, a separate online network meeting was held for the German-Latin American partnerships.

On 5 and 6 October 2021, around 60 participants from 26 German municipalities from all eight project phases attended the network meeting in Bonn. On the one hand, the celebrations provided an opportunity to look back on the previous ten years. During this period, 77 climate partnerships were established under the programme, in which over 100 partnership projects were (or are still being) implemented with support from the Service Agency, using BMZ funds. On the other hand, we also took a look ahead: How can we draw inspiration from creative ideas, and ensure that climate partnerships succeed in the future?

A discussion round was held with Jens Martens, Executive Director of the Global Policy Forum, Stefan Wagner, Head of the Department for International Affairs and Global Sustainability of the City of Bonn, Bernd Fuhrmann, Mayor of Bad Berleburg, and Moritz Schmidt from the North-Rhine Westphalian Working Party on Agenda 21 (LAG 21 NRW). They discussed the changing role and importance of municipalities in the debate on sustainability and the climate.

The speakers underlined the pioneering nature of all the municipalities working in the project since 2011. They pointed out that although many municipalities were now active in this area, there was still a long way to go before climate action became a binding municipal task. The 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has clearly put municipalities at the centre of activities for a sustainable and climate-neutral world.

Following the discussion, it was the turn of the delegates from the municipal climate partnerships to work in groups. Here, the task was to identify factors conducive to successful and sustainable climate partnerships. These success factors are also to be made available as a possible source of motivation to future climate partnerships.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Municipal Climate Partnerships project, the Service Agency Communities in One World invited all those involved in the project to date to take part in an international photography competition. From the entries submitted, an album was produced with 30 photos from 25 partnerships between German municipalities and their Latin American, African and Asian counterparts.

The anniversary album was presented at an evening ceremony held in the café of the museum of art in Bonn.

On day two of the network meeting the focus was on the future. The project and the resulting climate partnerships have been working together successfully for 10 years. The question now is: How should we proceed in future?

Christoph Bals, Policy Director of Germanwatch, approached this question by examining the possible role of climate (partnerships) in shaping the future and by putting forward a vision for 2035. Following on from this, Birgit Wildt, Head of the Coordination Office for Climate and Energy in the City of Münster, and Sandra Spöttl, Head of the Sectoral Department for Europe and International Affairs of the City of Munich, explored the question further and discussed the potentials and limits of the municipalities.

In the subsequent group work, the question of successful climate partnerships in the future was examined in greater detail. Various themes were touched on, for example long-term commitment, the transfer of good-practice examples, extending stakeholder structures, harnessing synergies in the area of biodiversity and climate action, and anchoring international commitment in partnerships.

Thanks to the stimulating discussions and the success factors and potentials that were identified, it was possible to collect some very promising approaches with a view to further developing municipal climate partnerships.

Just over a week later, on 13 and 14 October 2021, two anniversary network meetings were held online for the German-African, German-Asian and German Latin-American climate partnerships.

These virtual events were also well attended. Over 35 climate partnerships took part in the network meeting of the German-African and German Asian climate partnerships, and participants from around 20 German-Latin American climate partnerships attended the second meeting.

The German-Latin American meeting was integrated in the third municipal partnership conference between Germany and Latin America plus the Caribbean, which was held online from 12 to 21 October 2021.

As in the face-to-face meeting in Bonn, the two events started with a review of the activities undertaken in the preceding 10 years. This included a discussion with selected delegates from the climate partnerships in the project network, as well as the project team.

Thematically, the biodiversity and climate nexus was in the spotlight. A motivational presentation on “Nature as an ally in the fight against climate change” given by project staff set the stage for this programme component. In addition, dedicated staff from the climate partnerships presented examples of biodiversity measures that were making a contribution to climate-change mitigation and adaptation. This was followed by a panel discussion. Here, the connection between the two themes became evident – as did the necessity of considering these in tandem in order to achieve the transition to a sustainable world.

With the network meeting marking 10 years of Municipal Climate Partnerships, one of the key activities of the anniversary year reached its conclusion. For those attending the face-to-face and virtual network meetings on the 10th anniversary of the project, this means returning home with renewed motivation, fresh ideas and valuable contacts: These will support their continued work with their partners in all areas of climate-change mitigation and adaptation, and the preservation of biodiversity.

We look forward to working with Municipal Climate Partnerships for many years to come and to taking part in (further) exchanges with dedicated individuals – both old and new!