Record temperatures reignite debate about climate adaptation funding in Germany

A major heatwave across much of Europe has pushed temperatures in Germany to all-time highs and reignited a debate about how the country can ensure sufficient funding for climate change adaptation.  

André Berghegger, managing director of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB), told news network Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) that climate protection and adaptation are a task for society as a whole, making federal and state funding indispensable. He renewed a long-time demand for the introduction of a so-called “joint task” for climate adaptation in Germany's constitution, which would ensure the federal government and states contribute to financing for the task on a permanent basis.

Climate adaptation is legally binding in Germany, but experts see financing as one of the most pressing issues for it to become effective. In Germany, the federal states and municipalities are responsible for implementing adaptation measures to protect against consequences of climate change such as extreme heat. They do receive support from the federal government, which is permitted to fund individual pilot projects, but permanent funding would require a constitutional amendment.

The government of chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD) said in its coalition agreement that it would examine the possibility of introducing such a joint task, but little has happened since then. Such a change would require a two-thirds majority in parliament. 

“I am working on this, but getting a two-thirds majority is a high political hurdle,” environment minister Carsten Schneider told public broadcaster ARD. Schneider said that the federal government was not able to supply funding beyond its legal responsibility, and that the states had already received more leeway due to a constitutional amendment from last year allowing states to take on more debt. “At the beginning of our term we provided the states with an additional 100 billion euros for the coming years and in my view this is sufficient to fund all this,” Schneider told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. 

The German Weather Service (DWD) called the heatwave “historic”, arguing that “never before, since weather records began, has there been such a long and intense heatwave so early in the summer, not only in Germany but also in many parts of Europe.” According to preliminary measurements, the all-time temperature record for Germany was broken on Sunday (28 June), with a temperature of 41.7 degrees Celsius (°C) recorded in the eastern state of Brandenburg. 

Environmental NGO NABU called on chancellor Merz to increase action on climate mitigation and adaptation, and set up a multi-stakeholder commission comprising governments, civil society, business, and research to develop climate adaptation solutions. 

Even as Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, it is often still ill-prepared to deal with the effects of climate change. The heatwave has re-opened discussions about Europe’s low uptake of air conditioning systems to protect the population from high temperatures. The German statistical office said that only four percent of new buildings in the country in 2025 were equipped with a cooling system, a doubling over the past ten years.