Is climate protection actually working in Aachen? Heiko Thomas, Head of the Climate Department of the City of Aachen, answers this question: "Yes, and we are showing it transparently and honestly from now on. Unfortunately, 2030 cannot be kept as a target year. We will certainly not achieve all the targets, but we will have implemented and initiated a great deal, partly because we have succeeded in getting a large part of the city's society to take action. Together, instead of individually." Thomas continues: "We want to openly present our climate protection activities with all the problems, but also make visible what we have achieved."

Detailed and easy to understand: the city of Aachen's digital climate dashboard at www.aachen.de/klimamonitoring shows where the city of Aachen stands on the road to climate neutrality and what measures the city administration is taking. The software solution from ClimateView graphically processes complex data from which greenhouse gas emissions can be derived, providing a quick overview of climate protection in Aachen. Those who want to know more will also find what they are looking for: Greenhouse gas emissions can be viewed in detail using the monitoring system. "In Aachen, we have already made significant progress on the road to climate neutrality. With the new digital climate dashboard, we are now making the city's successes to date in reducing CO₂ transparent and comprehensible. In the future, the data of many other stakeholders and additional climate protection measures will also be incorporated.

"The dashboard therefore provides a comprehensive data basis for agreeing new, realistic targets as part of the political work. This offers the opportunity to reformulate the climate targets, which has become necessary. With digital support, we are nevertheless continuing to work vigorously," says Aachen's Lord Mayor Dr. Michael Ziemons, describing the benefits of the digital tool. He states: "This allows us to visibly show what Aachen has really achieved. But climate protection is good for the city because it improves the quality of life and makes the city more resilient overall." In addition to the city-wide reduction, individual sectors such as buildings, transport or industry, their development and their share of the emissions trend are also shown.

Showing perspectives and defining goals
"The climate protection monitoring tool can and should show more than just the current situation in the future: ClimateView enables the city administration to set various target values for the further path towards climate neutrality and thus weigh up scenarios. With the help of this function, we are currently working on a reduction pathway, which will be published in the course of the year. We want to show the people of Aachen in concrete terms how we can achieve the goal of a climate-neutral Aachen," explains Heiko Thomas.

The introduction of "digital climate protection monitoring" is a measure of the city administration's IKSK2.0. The aim of this measure is to make the progress of climate protection in Aachen and the effects on the carbon footprint in the Aachen city area transparent. The Climate and Environment Department is responsible for implementation.

IKSK 2.0 and the Climate City Contract
The Climate Protection Concept (IKSK 2.0) was adopted by the City Council in 2024. The 30 prioritized climate protection measures form the city administration's contribution to the Climate City Contract, which was developed as part of the EU's "100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities" (100 CNSC) mission. The Aachen Climate City Contract thus bundles the strengths of local stakeholders from business, science, civil society and administration and describes a concrete plan of measures and financing for the path to climate neutrality by 2030. The EU recognized Aachen's concept as a viable path to climate neutrality and awarded it the "Mission Label" in October 2024.

Further information on the city's climate protection target and strategy can be found at: www.aachen.de/IKSK