Climate protection management

The pilgrimage town of Kevelaer laid an important foundation stone for climate protection in the town in 2016 with the creation of an integrated climate protection concept for the entire urban area. The climate protection concept serves as a decision-making and planning aid in municipal climate protection management. This guideline is the basis for the planning, development and implementation of future climate protection measures and the working basis for the climate protection manager of the pilgrimage town of Kevelaer.

Mr. Leon Schlüter started working in the Urban Planning department on 01.04.2024 and is looking forward to an interesting and successful collaboration with local stakeholders and the development and implementation of many climate protection projects in the city.

Implementation of the integrated climate protection concept

The climate protection concept consists of various components. The first step was to draw up a city-wide energy and _{CO2 balance sheet}. Based on these results, reduction potentials were calculated and identified. The participatory measures process is the most important component. Workshops and a climate café were held to develop the climate protection measures. The measures and projects were summarized by topic area in a catalog of measures and listed with prioritization, costs, timeline, stakeholders involved and reduction potential. A concept for updating and performance evaluation serves as a guideline for the implementation, evaluation and impact of the measures. The climate protection manager will implement the developed measures and projects together with the stakeholders involved.

Funding through climate protection initiative

With the National Climate Initiative, the Federal Environment Ministry has been initiating and funding numerous projects that contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions since 2008. Its programs and projects cover a broad spectrum of climate protection activities: From the development of long-term strategies to concrete assistance and investment support measures. This diversity is a guarantee for good ideas.

The National Climate Initiative helps to anchor climate protection on the ground. It benefits consumers as well as companies, local authorities and educational institutions.

The integrated climate protection concept was funded by the Climate Protection Initiative of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection from 01.05.2021 to 30.04.2023 under the title "KSI: Follow-up project for the implementation of further climate protection measures from the integrated climate protection concept in the pilgrimage town of Kevelaer". The funding code is 03K06950-1. Project Management Jülich was responsible for the implementation and supervision of the funded project.

Once the funding has expired, the implementation of the concept will be continued by the climate protection manager Leon Schlüter.

Climate protection monitoring in Kevelaer

To support climate protection activities in Kevelaer, an energy and greenhouse gas balance has been drawn up regularly since 2011. This shows, for example, in which sectors a particularly large amount of_CO2 is released or energy is consumed. It thus provides information on the key areas of action and offers a basis for the further planning and evaluation of measures in municipal climate protection.

The first balance sheet was drawn up for 2011. The most recent balance sheet relates to 2020.

Results of the 2020 energy and greenhouse gas balance:

• Energy consumption fell by around 11% between 1990 and 2020 - the largest decline was in the business sector
• In the private household sector, there was a reduction of around 7 % in the same period
• In a comparison of the sectors, energy consumption in households is the highest at 37% (see chart)
• In 2020, 119% of electricity consumption was already produced using local renewable energies. Most of this electricity comes from wind power, followed by photovoltaics and finally bioenergy
• The share of renewable energies in heat consumption was only around 8%. The most important energy sources here are still natural gas (52 %) and heating oil (33 %)
• Greenhouse gas emissions fell by around 32% between 1990 and 2020
• Per capita emissions have fallen from 12 tons (1990) to 6.7 tons (2020)_{of CO2 equivalents}