Make Berlin climate resilient
via referendum!
Preserving Berlin’s Trees
Berlin’s parks, forests and trees by the roadside give the city life. Many people have a special tree that they’ve known since childhood or moving to Berlin. Today, more than twice as many trees are cut down as are replanted. Almost 60% of the trees along the roadside are struggling. Over time, we will have fewer and fewer trees. We say: We feel at home among our trees. Let’s protect them now and plant more.
Preventing heat-related deaths
According to the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistics Office, 416 Berliners died of heat-related causes in 2022. That means 12 times more heat-related deaths than those resulting from traffic accidents! The number is more than four times higher than the annual average over the previous period since 1985 – 98 heat-related deaths per year. March 2024 was the hottest March in Berlin and Brandenburg since weather records began. As temperatures rise, these deaths will increase if we do nothing. We must take action to avoid heat-related deaths starting immediately to create a Berlin that’s comfortable to live in in the future!
Creating a right to trees
We all deserve a summer with shade. And yet access to green spaces and shade-giving trees is unevenly distributed in our city, as Berlin’s Environmental Justice Atlas shows. The publication makes it possible to identify heat hot spots where people suffer significantly from high temperatures. We want everyone, regardless of where they live or their financial situation, to be protected from extreme weather and to have green spaces within walking distance.
Strategic approach
Berlin’s Environmental Justice Atlas shows that in many Berlin districts summer temperatures rise to dangerous levels. This affects lower-income districts in particular. People living there have less means to protect themselves from the effects of extreme weather.
The areas outlined in white on the map show urban planning areas with a so-called low social index. The measures of our bill will be implemented there first.
Source: Stefan Lehmkühler based on Berlin’s Environmental Justice Atlas 21/22
Would you like to know more? On these slides we explain
we explain the reasons for the tree decision in detail -->