Friday, July 16, 2021
“It’s about billions of euros”
Municipalities demand “more political courage”
In view of the billions in damage caused by the flood disaster, the German Association of Towns and Municipalities is calling for climate protection to be accelerated. People should be better prepared for extreme situations, but climate protection measures should also take precedence over economic interests.
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities expects a high amount of damage after the flood disaster in the past few days. According to the magazine “Kommunal” Gerd Landsberg, managing director of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, quotes: “According to the damage pattern, it is billions of euros. Now it has to be a matter of “helping the people who have partially lost everything, but also the affected communities, whose infrastructure has been destroyed, quickly and unbureaucratically.” One trusts here in the promises of the federal government and the countries concerned.
Landsberg emphasized that the disaster was also a clear signal for more climate protection and more civil disaster control. “This includes preparing the population more and better for such extreme situations and also practicing this.” But “more political courage” is also necessary. This includes granting more floodplains along rivers against economic and civil interests, Landsberg said.
The municipalities had only recently spoken out in favor of a climate protection acceleration law that should facilitate the implementation of appropriate measures. In addition to legal regulations, a communication strategy is necessary that strengthens people’s willingness to change. “Climate protection will be the main challenge in the new legislative period,” said the President of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Ralph Spiegler. The decision of the Federal Constitutional Court to protect the livelihoods of future generations more clearly emphasized this again.
Dreyer: “Working at full speed on change”
“We have to push climate protection forward,” demanded the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, in the morning on ZDF. “Anyone who has not yet understood that climate change has its consequences can no longer be helped. We are all called upon to act, and very, very quickly.” The catastrophe is “more than an indication that we have to expand renewable energies more quickly, that we need the framework conditions so that we have to work flat out on the change.”
The hydrologist Bruno Merz from the Helmholtz Center Potsdam said on Deutschlandfunk that the probability of such extreme events has increased and will continue to increase in the future. “A connection to climate change can certainly be made here,” says Merz. Because of global warming, more water would be available for heavy precipitation. There are indications “that we have to reckon with prolonged extreme weather constellations” that either led to floods or droughts. There is still a lot of room for improvement, especially with regard to smaller rivers and streams. The hydrologist explained that the most effective way of doing this is to completely cut back settlements close to the river.
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