Jena faces up to the summer heat - city council adopts heat action plan

On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, the city council of Jena adopted the municipal heat action plan. This is a comprehensive package of measures to prevent the health and infrastructural consequences of increasing heat stress. The heat action plan is a key instrument of municipal climate adaptation and focuses in particular on protecting vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children and people with pre-existing conditions.

Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche emphasizes:
"Climate change has long since become part of our everyday lives - and with it the responsibility to act with foresight. The heat action plan is not symbolic politics, but concrete care for our urban society. With measures such as additional drinking water points, cool retreats or a support network for older people living alone, we are creating very real relief for people."

The plan comprises four central pillars: Heat prevention, risk communication, acute measures and monitoring. Immediate measures are to be implemented in the short term, such as setting up cool places in the city, more public drinking water dispensers and additional public toilets for the summer months.

Another example is the measure to set up a support network for older people living alone. Noticeable improvements are also to be made to public spaces: Greened areas are to be expanded and made more heat-tolerant, common areas are to be shaded and local public transport is to be adapted to the heat.

Kathleen Lützkendorf, Head of the Department for Social Affairs, Health, Immigration and Climate, says:
"We don't just want to react when the heat is here - we want to prevent it, educate people and create structures that are also sustainable in crisis situations. The heat action plan is the basis for this. It is particularly important to me that we focus on prevention so that health problems do not arise in the first place. This can only be achieved together - with information, participation and an urban society that cares for each other."

A central component is the establishment of an internal administrative steering group ("heat team"), which will monitor implementation and report regularly to the city council. In future, citizens will be able to use existing tools, such as the defect detector, to point out places that are particularly susceptible to heat.

The plan was developed with the broad participation of the administration, external stakeholders, the city's community and with scientific support from the Thuringian Institute for Sustainability and Climate Protection (ThINK). It is mainly financed from existing budget funds and state funding programs.

With the adoption of the Heat Action Plan, Jena is the first city in Thuringia to take this consistent step and set standards for other municipalities.