The Climate Adaptation Act is expected to come into force in mid-2024 after successfully passing the Bundesrat in mid-December. The Act obliges the federal government, federal states and local authorities to develop plans for the consequences of climate change in order to be better prepared for climate events such as heavy rain, heat or drought in the future. The Climate Adaptation Act is divided into three core elements:

• Adaptation concepts and measures are to be drawn up at local level on the basis of risk analyses. According to the law, the federal states must develop and implement appropriate strategies and monitor how many municipalities and districts have taken action and report on this to the federal government.
• The federal government is legally obliged to present a precautionary climate adaptation strategy with measurable targets. According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the first climate adaptation strategy in its new form is to be adopted by the federal government by the end of 2024.
• The Climate Adaptation Act also stipulates that all public authorities must take the goal of climate adaptation into account in their planning and decision-making across all disciplines. For example, they should ensure that sealed soils are restored and unsealed if the sealing is no longer necessary for the utilisation.

However, the law says nothing about how the measures and programmes for climate adaptation are to be financed. The communication from the Federal Environment Ministry merely states that, in parallel to the legislative process for the Climate Adaptation Act and the development of the Climate Adaptation Strategy, „the federal and state governments are to discuss how reliable funding for adaptation measures can be organised within the framework of the Conference of Environment Ministers.“

The contact persons for all legal questions relating to environmental and climate protection in our practice are the lawyers  Janko Geßner, Dr Jan Thiele and Tobias Roß.