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Blue skies over Tübingen – municipal climate protection campaign changes the city
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 Optimism and and happy faces at the start of the campaign |
"Tübingen macht blau" is the feel-good motto of the municipal campaign for climate protection that Mayor Boris Palmer initiated in early 2008 (to „make blue“ in German means to skip work, so the campaign title combines the allusion to blue skies with the idea of fun and leisure). Since then, "Tübingen macht blau" has become a dictum in the city in the South of Germany. The campaign builds on a partnership with local networks and institutions and will invest over 100 mio. Euros over a period of ten years. With its actions and activities, it motivates the locals to save CO2 (and money!) and contribute personally to blue skies over Tübingen.
True-blue climate heroes in Tübingen are, for instance, over 7.500 green energy clients of the municipal energy supplier. To "make blue" means to share a care or take the bus. Blue are the thermal pictures of energetically rehabilitated buildings, there are blue reflections in the many solar panels on the roofs in the city. Merchants decorate their shops with "Tübingen macht blau" and 13 car dealers participate in a newly developed climate passport. The local administration "makes blue", too: it has rehabilitated its school buildings, equipped the town hall with energy saving connector strips and lamps and constructs new municipal buildings according to passive house standards. Public servants attended lessons in how to save fuel, and as Mayor Palmer travels by bike and train his official car has been abolished. Tübingen has changed street lighting and improves its cycling infrastructure, it has introduced a community energy management and offers its citizens and companies free energy consulting.
Tübingen has reduced the per capita CO2 emissions by 13 per cent
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Of course, such an energetic commitment for climate protection must be a success. The municipal balance programme, developed among others by Climate Alliance, shows the following results: between 2004 and 2009, Tübingen has reduced its overall energy consumption by 7%, per capita by 12%. The city's CO2-emissions sank by 9%, and per capita even by 13%. Hence, the Tübingen citizens have reached the aim set by Climate Alliance to reduce CO2-emissions by 10 % every five years! Mayor Palmer sums it up: "Tübingen macht blau – now and in the future. We will not rest. Rather, we will continue to set a good example, educate and motivate citizens."
Picture credits: Universitätsstadt Tübingen
