Germany

Progress towards the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda

Country

Germany

Status

Submitted

Year

2021

Focal Point

Antonia Milbert and André Mueller

scientific advisers, Federal Institute for Research on Building Urban Affairs and Spatial Development

National Report 2021

Awareness of sustainability issues among politicians and the general public in Germany has grown significantly in recent years and is now expressed in various guiding principles and strategies that are continuously developed. With the adoption of the New Leipzig Charter urban development policy realigns in the sense of transformative urban redevelopment and thus in the sense of the New Urban Agenda. Municipalities are increasingly obliged to embed their planned urban development measures conceptually in corresponding sustainability strategies. After all, the settlement structure, topography and demographics as well as the social, economic and fiscal framework conditions of the more than 11,000 municipalities in Germany reveal considerable heterogeneity. Due to the federal structure of Germany, urban development policy is shaped partly by shared and partly by autonomous responsibilities of the individual federal levels. This increases the need for political and administrative coordination in a cross-cutting policy area such as urban development policy with its various interfaces to other policy areas. It is not uncommon for the topic of sustainability to be advanced in municipal administrations by individual forerunners. In view of the technical and practical challenges involved in implementing the New Urban Agenda, municipalities mention a lack of resources as an obstacle to the accelerated expansion of their sustainability activities.