Officer for Climate Protection and Sustainability

Both climate protection and sustainability can be seen as resource issues. According to the principle of climate protection and sustainability, a person may produce as many exhaust gases per year as the earth can decompose within a year, and consume as many resources as are newly created within a year. This is also based on the idea of fairness: Everyone in the world, no matter where, has the same right to his share of resources.
At the moment, however, we in Germany consume three times our share (Earth Overshoot Day) with increasingly serious consequences for our environment (What are the consequences of climate change? Click here). Promoting climate protection and sustainability both in our thinking and in our actions counteracts this and contributes to a world worth living in for all.

Climate protection targets are negotiated and adopted at various political levels: at the international or EU level (e.g. through the UN climate conferences), at the national level (e.g. with the Climate Action Plan 2050), and within Germany at the Länder level (in the case of Berlin with the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme BEK and the Berlin Energy Turnaroung Act).
These initiatives, programmes and legislation result in fields of action for local climate protection. This includes integrating climate protection into everyday life, on the one hand through advice and cooperation with local people, and on the other through projects that involve the whole of public life.

Climate protection as a cross-cutting issue

Climate protection measures often overlap with other areas of life: less car traffic, but better functioning public transport and safer cycle paths mean at the same time less stress and less exhaust pollution along the roads, as well as higher road safety. Energy-saving measures also lead to lower costs after the first investment. The promotion of products with short delivery distances strengthens the local economy. Climate protection and sustainable development shake hands in climate-friendly food production and nutrition.