Climate protection in Hesse: winners of the Climate Platform 2025 honored!

Climate protection in Hesse: winners of the Climate Platform 2025 honored!

The start of the climate platform “K klima.Zukunft.Hessen” will take place on June 26, 2025 in the House of Logistics & Mobility (Holm) at the airport. This event sets an example for exchange and cooperation between politics, business and municipalities in Hesse. The evening will also be crowned by the award ceremony for Hessian climate communities, which honor innovative projects in the categories of climate protection, adaptation to climate impacts and quality of life. fr.de reports that there are several winners here who are convincing with their ideas and measures for a sustainable future.

In the climate protection category, the city of Kassel, the Werra-Meißner district and the municipality of Fischbachtal can be pleased about the honor. Kassel stands out with its “participatory construction site” for energy-efficient renovation. The Werra-Meißner district is also focusing on the future with a competence center for heat pumps to train skilled workers. Fischbachtal scores with its climate-friendly land use planning in cooperation with the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.

Award winners in focus

The city of Frankenberg (Eder) was honored in the climate impact adaptation category. Here the monastery environment is being redesigned, with the focus on nature conservation and a higher quality of stay. In the quality of life category, the city of Gudensberg, which is converting a supermarket into an intergenerational meeting center, and the Lahn-Dill district, which is rebuilding the Theodor Heuss School in a wooden hybrid construction, are convincing.

Karsten McGovern, Executive Director of the LEA, emphasizes the need for joint efforts to advance the climate transition. Volker Quaschning, Professor of Renewable Energy Systems, also shares this assessment. He warns of the social and political conflicts that could arise from climate changes. Quaschning also demands that Hesse urgently move away from gas heating and criticizes the use of green hydrogen as ineffective. Ultimately, Hesse is lagging behind in the national comparison when it comes to expanding wind power and solar energy. heatpump.de added that more than half of the energy consumed in Germany comes from the heating sector and space heating and hot water production are responsible for 40 percent of CO2 emissions.

Heat pumps in the energy transition cycle

Heat pumps promise an environmentally friendly approach to reducing these emissions. They can be operated CO2-free with green electricity and use environmental energy from soil, groundwater or air. Studies show that heat pumps can enable significant savings of CO2 equivalents per year compared to old heating technologies. The goal is to install 3.5 million heat pumps by 2030, which would only use a small portion of Germany's electricity needs. This could avoid up to 78 percent of CO2 emissions.

Of course, federal politics also plays a key role. The federal government has defined climate protection as a central task and plans to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045. The focus is on renewable energies, which is supported by the new climate protection program. This includes, among other things, measures in the areas of transport, energy, buildings, industry and agriculture. bundesgovernment.de reports that more than 10 percent fewer greenhouse gases were emitted in 2023 compared to the previous year.

This start to the climate platform is intended to serve as motivation for Hesse to actively address the opportunities and challenges of climate change. It remains to be hoped that the numerous positive approaches will continue to bear fruit in the coming years.