Supporting local governments’ energetic urban redevelopment to step up climate action

• Study validates approach of KfW promotional programme to integrated energy-efficient urban redevelopment strategies
• Pooling energy-efficient redevelopment measures at district level promises higher savings potentials
• Around one thousand district strategies and redevelopment management plans supported with EUR 56 million in grants from 2012 to 2017

Local governments in Germany can step up their contribution to climate change action by linking various energy-efficient redevelopment measures with the various actors in whole districts. This requires an approach across all types of buildings that systematically combines energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy use and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The German Federal Government and KfW have been providing grants to support the development of such strategies and their implementation by local governments since 2012.

The Swiss economic research institute Prognos AG has evaluated the KfW programme "Energy-efficient Urban Redevelopment" on behalf of KfW. The programme’s low-threshold access, openness and flexibility enable municipalities to develop integrated energetic redevelopment strategies that help better take into account specific local conditions.

The Prognos evaluation rated around three fourths of the analysed strategies as good to very good. The institute regards this as a noteworthy success for the programme. The analysed strategies conveyed a good impression of the possible energy saving potentials in districts over and above the level of individual building refurbishment.

Dr Ingrid Hengster, KfW Executive Board member responsible for domestic promotion, said: "The local government sector plays a significant role for the climate action targets of the Federal Government because this is where great potential lies for reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. In order to leverage this potential we need to look beyond individual buildings and consider whole districts. Put simply, municipal energy efficiency is achieved at district level."

Results of the evaluation demonstrate that very different conditions exist in local governments and districts. KfW’s support therefore deliberately allows them broad flexibility to choose the approaches to fit the location. In the surveyed period up to 2017, some EUR 56 million was provided to support the preparation of over 700 district strategies and implementation of energy-efficient redevelopment measures in almost 200 redevelopment management plans.

In addition to the development of energy-efficient urban redevelopment strategies, KfW also promotes the energy-efficient refurbishment of public, commercial and private buildings, the avoidance and use of waste heat in the commercial sector, and the use of renewable energy under dedicated promotional programmes.

Note:
The final report of the evaluation is available at www.kfw.de/research. Interested municipalities can obtain information about the programme at www.kfw.de/432