📋 Tender Overview
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke welcomed sustainability managers from regions affected by the coal phase-out in Berlin today. The pilot projects in the lignite mining areas of Lusatia, Rhenish mining area and Central Germany were selected for the funding programme "Municipal Model Projects for the Implementation of Ecological Sustainability Goals in Structural Change Regions", KoMoNa for short. The German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) promotes the development of municipal sustainability concepts and finances the necessary staff position of a sustainability manager. The BMUV is providing a total of 200 million euros for the programme. To date, a total of more than 85 pilot projects have been selected from all areas of the funding programme.
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said: "The far-reaching structural change poses major challenges for the lignite mining areas in particular. At the same time, the energy transition and the phase-out of coal offer new opportunities for the municipalities in the coalfields: Together, they can become more involved in sustainable development. It is precisely here, in the municipalities and cities, that we decide how we position ourselves for a sustainable future. After all, the implementation of sustainability concepts means in concrete terms: better air, more urban greenery that cools and stores water even in summer, and an overall better quality of life. We therefore provide targeted support to municipal sustainability managers so that they can implement good ideas together with the local people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt and thus contribute to putting structural change on a sustainable, ecological and thus future-proof path. In this way, we want to jointly secure and further develop the quality of life and attractiveness in the regions."
Currently, more than 20 sustainability managers from four federal states are being funded in all three lignite mining areas of Lusatia, Rhenish mining area and central Germany. The content spectrum and the goals of the KoMoNa projects are diverse. With the help of integrated sustainability concepts, municipalities want to increase their resilience to the climate crisis, species extinction and pollution crisis and anchor their sustainability goals more strongly. For this purpose, the necessary personnel position of a sustainability manager for the creation of the sustainability concept is financed by KoMoNa. The local people are actively involved in this, because ecologically sustainable structural change can succeed especially if the will to shape comes from the regions themselves. The sustainability concept will make it possible to systematically identify specific challenges and opportunities in the municipalities, such as in the areas of urban green, climate protection and climate adaptation, resource conservation, environmental health, mobility and construction transition. The sustainability managers are meeting today in Berlin at the BMUV for a transfer laboratory to exchange knowledge and experience as well as to improve networking.
The first two KoMoNa calls for funding met with a great response in the regions. By the end of this year, a total of more than 85 pilot projects will be funded with a funding volume of around 80 million euros. The third call for funding is currently being prepared for the beginning of 2024.
