At the beginning of June, two important Bonn climate conferences will be held simultaneously for the first time: While UN delegations in the World Conference Center will be wrestling with global climate protection measures, 100 randomly selected citizens of Bonn will be working together with around 50 representatives from Bonn organizations and companies in the Beueler Brotfabrik on the road to a climate-neutral city.
Friday, June 10, 2022, and Saturday, June 11, 2022, will focus on a crucial question: "Climate-neutral living and mobility by 2035 - how do we do it?" The city administration and the people of Bonn are serious: The goal is to present a roadmap for the next 13 years to politicians and the administration in September 2022.
A Bonn without traffic jams and concrete towers
The upcoming double climate forum will focus on two key topics: housing and mobility. For good reason: these two areas are responsible for the most CO2 emissions in the federal city. The event will kick off with speeches by Lord Mayor Katja Dörner and Ugandan activist Joshua Omonuk, who will make the global urgency clear in their welcoming addresses.
Keynote speeches by experts in the housing and mobility transition create the knowledge base for the second day. Then, in creative idea workshops, the participants dive into concrete scenarios and measures on how the change can succeed from their point of view. At the end, the recommendations of the participants from all of Bonn's neighborhoods - from the 15-year-old teenager to the 84-year-old pensioner - are presented.
Participants observe UN conference
The participants in the climate forums are looking forward not only to Bonn, but also to the work of the United Nations on the opposite side of the Rhine and the preparations for the major world climate conference in Egypt in the fall. "We are all doing our best in Bonn to achieve the goal we have set. But this also requires national and especially international efforts to create the right framework conditions for this," emphasizes Alex Wernke from Bonn4Future with a view to what is happening at the World Conference Center.
Bonn4Future - a unique cooperation between civil society and administration
At the end of 2019, the city council decided that Bonn should become climate-neutral by 2035. In 2020, the Bonn im Wandel association therefore launched the participatory process "Bonn4Future - Wir fürs Klima" (Bonn4Future - We care about the climate) - a cooperation with the city that is unique in Germany to date.
In four large climate forums, citizens who have been drawn by lot develop goals and building blocks for the Bonn Plan for Climate Neutrality. At the end it should be clear: Who has to do what to make our city climate-neutral and livable by 2035? Bonn residents can also participate with good ideas at www.bonn-macht-mit.de (opens in a new tab). As part of Bonn4Future, the digital participation platform "Bonn4Future - We make change" for a climate-neutral, fair and livable Bonn is also being created: www.bonn4future.de (opens in a new tab)
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