Climate-neutral by 2035

The city of Jena has set itself the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2035. The city of Jena is thus backing and supporting the demands of the climate decision. A corresponding draft resolution is to be confirmed at the city council meeting on July 14, 2021.

Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche says: "The city of Jena has been committed to effective climate and environmental protection at municipal level for many years. It is important to me that we can be guided by very concrete and material resolutions when it comes to further development towards climate neutrality. Symbolic resolutions such as the climate emergency will not help us tackle the climate crisis."

Mayor Christian Gerlitz, whose department also developed the sustainability strategy and the energy and climate protection mission statement for the city of Jena, adds: "The climate action plan to be drawn up has the charm that it will clearly show which municipal measures are necessary to achieve climate neutrality and what financial resources are required for this. This clarity and honesty is needed if such an ambitious goal is to be achieved."

The citizens' initiative "Climate Decision Jena" welcomes the city of Jena's commitment to adopting the goals of the Climate Decision:

"As its initiators, we expressly welcome the fact that the city administration agrees with the content of our demands in this way. This decision opens up the opportunity to speed up the process enormously. If the appropriate majorities can now be found in the city council, the required climate action plan could be available a year earlier."

According to the initiators of the citizens' petition, this approach would also be desirable in view of the tight time horizon that would remain for necessary emission reductions in Jena.

The city supports the goals of the climate decision and, with its commitment to the goal of climate neutrality, anticipates the further procedural steps in the climate decision.

"We assume that the resolution in the city council will pave the way for us to quickly move on to concrete technical work after the environmental policy discussions. As with the sustainability strategy, we want to start a broad and participatory process in which the entire urban community can get involved alongside environmental associations and initiatives," says Mayor Christian Gerlitz.

However, the initiators of "Klimaentscheid Jena" also make it clear:

"Should the city council pass a resolution that is weakened in terms of content, we will of course continue to collect signatures for the petition."