27 climate protection recommendations for the far north

As part of the Schleswig-Holstein Climate Conference on 3 July 2024, the members of the Citizens' Climate Forum presented their recommendations to Minister-President Daniel Günther and Energy Minister Tobias Goldschmidt. At the conference, representatives of associations and organisations from Schleswig-Holstein discussed the draft of the Climate Action Programme 2030. On the afternoon of the conference, the members of the Citizens' Forum presented their recommendations and discussed them with Minister Goldschmidt, State Secretary Knuth and members of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament.

Right to a say for citizens

In the area of housing and heating, the Citizens' Forum recommends that cities and municipalities draw up technically sound drafts and plans for municipal heating planning before the affected citizens are involved. "Public participation should take place after expert drafts are available to ensure that citizens are adequately informed. It must be ensured that citizens have a say in the alternative solutions and that all options for implementation are presented, including a cost-benefit analysis," states the citizens' report from the mini-public.

It also calls for "a transparent presentation of the financing of the connection to heating networks as well as a realistic outlook on the cost development". The municipalities are called upon to "provide information on municipal heating planning that is appropriate for the target group at an early stage, e.g. through direct mailings and information events".

Compulsory advice on energy-efficient refurbishment

The forum participants would like to see a general obligation to provide free, qualified and easily accessible initial advice on possible energy-efficient refurbishment for all existing properties and new builds. Funding for energy efficiency measures should be guaranteed in the long term and staggered according to income.

The state of Schleswig-Holstein should lobby at federal level for increased taxation of fossil fuels. In order to increase the attractiveness of heat pumps, the Citizens' Forum is calling for a reduced electricity price for the operation of heat pumps. The use of solar systems should be mandatory on suitable public and commercial buildings, areas and car parks. Subsidies for photovoltaic systems should be increased in order to accelerate the expansion of solar energy.

Utilising natural CO₂ reservoirs

Schleswig-Holstein should work towards adjusting the feed-in tariff to the grid in order to significantly reduce the difference between the energy price and the feed-in tariff for solar power. Germany should store CO₂ generated from emissions that are difficult to avoid on German territory in all suitable areas. "Natural alternatives for CO₂ storage sites should be favoured. Projects for the reforestation and rewetting of moors should be promoted.

There should be an information campaign on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology with the aim of taking the fears and concerns of the population seriously. Advantages and disadvantages as well as alternatives should be named. The citizens' forum is also calling for "further research into CO₂ avoidance and alternative forms of CO₂ storage and utilisation to be driven forward, as the potential impact of CCS on the environment is not sufficiently known". An independent assessment of the environmental consequences should be carried out before CO₂ is injected.

Expand local public transport

In the transport field of action, the forum participants advocate the increased expansion of local public transport and the entire rail network in Schleswig-Holstein. The state is called upon to "initiate the necessary measures at federal and local level to massively expand the cycle path infrastructure. It also calls for "a needs-based and comprehensive expansion of on-demand and car-sharing services, particularly in rural areas, in order to reduce the need for car ownership". More direct and cross-connections are needed in local public transport.

Climate-damaging subsidies, such as those currently in place for fuels like diesel and paraffin, should be gradually phased out. The money released should be channelled into promoting climate-friendly alternatives. The company car privilege should be adjusted so that environmentally friendly means of transport are promoted. The Citizens' Forum is calling for the reprioritisation of tax revenue in the transport sector towards climate-friendly alternatives, such as the expansion of public transport. Social aspects should not be neglected in the process.

Paraffin tax called for

In order to reduce domestic German flights, the forum participants are calling for the introduction of a paraffin tax. However, this is an issue for the European Union level.

In the field of CO₂ pricing, the Citizens' Forum is in favour of transparency and education on the topic of CO₂ pricing and individual options for end consumers to save CO₂ and thus reduce costs. When using the CO₂ price revenue, the mini-public recommends a mixture of promoting climate-friendly measures and a climate allowance for low-income households or supporting cases of social hardship.

Invest income in CO₂ reduction

The CO₂ price revenue should be reinvested in climate-friendly or CO₂-reducing measures. Preference should be given to measures that noticeably reduce the burden on the general public. For the Citizens' Forum, these include the expansion and subsidisation of public transport, the promotion of solar systems and heat pumps, electric cars and electricity from renewable energies as well as the promotion of CO₂-saving manufacturing processes for industry.

The recommendations of the mini-public are now to be taken into account by the ministries responsible for the respective fields of action when finalising the Climate Action Programme 2030. In addition, once the final Climate Action Programme 2030 has been adopted, the responsible ministries will provide feedback to the members of the Citizens' Forum on how the recommendations have been dealt with. This means whether and, if so, in what way the recommendations were taken into account in the revision of the climate protection programme.

Two-stage sortition procedure

Participants were selected in a two-stage process. In the first stage, 3,000 addresses were drawn from the population registers of randomly selected municipalities from every district in Schleswig-Holstein. This ensured that all residents of Schleswig-Holstein potentially had the opportunity to take part in the Citizens' Forum. People were invited to register for participation. In a second step, the final line-up was then randomly selected from all the responses, taking socio-demographic criteria into account. The participants received an expense allowance of 200 euros.

In the composition of the 49 participants, value was placed on the greatest possible diversity of socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, local origin, age and educational qualifications. Citizens provided this information themselves when they registered their interest in taking part. The most balanced possible urban-rural distribution was also emphasised by specifically selecting large, medium-sized and small municipalities.

The age range of the participants extended from 16 to 100 years: Four participants were between 16 and 24 years old, 19 participants were between 45 and 64, 15 people were between 25 and 44 and twelve participants were over 65 years old.

Kick-off in May 2024

The launch of the Citizens' Forum took place on the first weekend in May 2024. After that, there were weekly online meetings. On 9 June 2024, the citizens finally agreed on recommendations for climate protection at a face-to-face meeting. The mini-public will present its recommendations to the state government at the state climate conference in early July 2024. They will be incorporated into the process of finalising the 2030 climate protection programme.

A draft for the 2030 climate protection programme has already been developed on the basis of action plans from the ministries responsible for the emissions sectors. The Citizens' Forum will discuss these measures of the climate protection programme in order to formulate recommendations to the state government for a realistic and successful climate protection policy. In addition to the question of which suitable climate protection instruments should be implemented in Schleswig-Holstein, social aspects such as the distribution of the costs of climate protection will also be the subject of discussion.

Four fields of action

In the Citizens' Forum, topics were put up for discussion that play a central role in the climate protection programme and where there is still scope for action. These belonged to the following four fields of action:

Field of action 1: Energy generation/sinks: Expansion of photovoltaics/utilisation of sinks

Field of action 2: Buildings/heating: Municipal heating planning / climate-neutral housing of the future

Field of action 3: Transport: Prioritisation of mobility offers / financing of climate protection in transport

Field of action 4: Social/consumption: Distribution of climate protection costs / CO2 pricing and redistribution options

The Nexus Institute, which has already organised numerous other citizens' assemblies and citizens' forums, had been commissioned to plan and implement the Schleswig-Holstein Climate Citizens' Forum.

Learn more:

• Climate Citizens' Forum Schleswig-Holstein
• Climate action through citizens' assemblies?
• Climate assemblies worldwide

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