![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/dpa_international_526\/d9baaba9ee157c06ed3b7bc2cec33b7e.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nGermany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are pressing their conservative coalition partners to step up measures to protect the country from heatwaves, low water levels and other consequences of climate change, including through a change to the constitution.<\/p>\n
Effective adaptation to the climate crisis requires a nationwide effort that “sets priorities, pools resources, intensifies coordination and enables rapid action,” according to a policy paper drawn up by SPD-led federal ministries and seen by dpa.<\/p>\n
The ministries want the government to pursue a constitutional amendment during the current parliamentary term to establish climate adaptation and nature conservation as a joint responsibility of the federal and state governments.<\/p>\n
The proposal, prepared ahead of a Cabinet retreat at the end of August and first reported by Der Spiegel, would allow the federal government to provide long-term funding for climate adaptation measures carried out by Germany’s states and municipalities.<\/p>\n
The measures could include heat protection measures in hospitals and other social facilities, creating more green spaces in cities, removing paved surfaces, making water and wastewater infrastructure more resilient to climate change and improving flood protection.<\/p>\n
Until the new framework is established, the SPD ministries are calling for an immediate programme to improve funding for climate adaptation and heat protection, including at nursing homes, daycare centres and hospitals.<\/p>\n
National heat action plan proposed<\/p>\n
SPD co-leader and German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said this summer’s heat-related deaths, low water levels and wildfires showed the need for political action.<\/p>\n
“This has nothing to do with bad weather. This is climate change, and something must be done about it politically,” Klingbeil said at an event in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate on Sunday.<\/p>\n
“We want to protect nature, people and jobs,” he added.<\/p>\n
The SPD-led ministries are also proposing a national heat action plan to protect public health.<\/p>\n
Heatwaves have contributed to an estimated 12,500 deaths across Germany so far this year, according to the country’s RKI public health agency, significantly more than is usually recorded over an entire year.<\/p>\n
The proposals also address the impact of extreme heat on workers. The paper says collective bargaining agreements providing compensation for heat-related work stoppages could help prevent workers from losing income.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A view of an outdoor thermometer. (is associated with: \u00abGermany’s SPD calls for constitutional action on extreme heat\u00bb) Jens B\u00fcttner\/dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are pressing their conservative coalition partners to step up measures to protect the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54432,1359,54431,54433,37848,5,54430,3623,49712,3781],"class_list":["post-73368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-adaptation","tag-climate-change","tag-consequences-of-climate-change","tag-constitutional-amendment","tag-extreme-heat","tag-germany","tag-heat-protection","tag-lars-klingbeil","tag-national-heat","tag-spd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}