Prospects for climate action in city districts: Ten years of KfW’s “Energy-efficient Urban Rehabilitation” programme

• Municipalities are playing a key role in the energy transition
• 1,300 city districts supported with over EUR 130 million in KfW grants
• Energy efficiency investments of more than EUR 1.3 billion

The climate crisis and the war in Ukraine make it clear: The energy transition has never been more urgent than it is today. To achieve the climate targets up to “Klimaneutralität 2045 [climate neutrality 2045]”, significant greenhouse gas savings must be made in all economic sectors. Municipalities play a central role in this because they generate a large proportion of climate emissions. At the same time, there is a great deal of awareness about climate action in the municipalities. According to the KfW Municipal Panel 2021, more than one in three municipalities states that they expect more investments in the area of climate protection and adaptation in the future. In addition, municipalities have an important coordination and motivational function to involve local citizens and companies in climate action. The relevant actors are working on together on a local basis and can leverage synergies through intelligent design and coordination of energy-efficiency measures.

This is where the KfW promotional programme “Energy-efficient Urban Rehabilitation” comes into play, which was created 10 years ago in cooperation with Germany's Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building. Since then, municipalities with the support of the German Federal Government and KfW have implemented 1,300 neighbourhood projects and 550 district-related energy projects. A total of EUR 130 million in grants and EUR 1.3 billion in investments were involved in the promotion. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary, a Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building conference will take place in Berlin on 26 April 2022.

Stefan Wintels, Chief Executive Officer of KfW, said: "In this decade, it is up to us to decide what consequences our actions will have for future generations. The transition to a sustainable society is the primary task. Cooperation with municipalities as a key conveyor of forward-looking solutions is particularly important to us. With this programme, KfW has been making an effective contribution to exploiting this potential at municipal level for ten years now."