Viennese politics: Citizens' participation and climate protection in focus!

Viennese politics: Citizens' participation and climate protection in focus!

Wien, Österreich - On June 24, 2025, a meeting of the Vienna municipal council took place, in which the focus was on citizen participation and climate adjustment. Grin Sabine Keri (ÖVP) pointed out the large number of participation formats that the city of Vienna offers. Despite these offers, however, there are overlaps and perceived dissatisfaction among the citizens.

keri called for an evaluation of the existing formats to increase the appreciation of the citizens' participation. The petitions are a central component of this participation, which, however, are only recognized to a limited extent by the city government. Keri was particularly critical of the poor information policy in relation to the newly designed Praterstrasse and the extension of tram line 18, in which residents were not sufficiently integrated.

meaning of climate adjustment

grin Mag. Angelika Pipal-Leixner (NEOS) in her speech recalled the growing number of heat days and extreme weather events, which particularly burden vulnerable groups. In order to meet these challenges, the emergence of four new parks and the redesign of 40 existing parks are planned by 2024.

An important point is the novella of the tree protection law, which aims to better protect existing trees and to make replacement plantings more effectively. Pipal-Leixner announced that at least 20,000 new trees should be planted in the current legislative period, supported by creating a cross-departmental body for better heat protection.

political backing for climate protection

gr Kilian Stark (Greens) emphasized the need for stronger political support for adaptation measures in connection with the results of the “Second State Report on Climate Change”. He criticized the public representation of the city in terms of the importance of green spaces and called for the planting of 100,000 new trees.

Environmental protection is also in the foreground for GR Roman Schmid (FPÖ). He spoke about the challenges at the district level, where he complained about a strong construction and a lack of green space. For city policy, GR Thomas Mader (SPÖ) emphasized the central role of climate and environmental protection and referred to the first climate law in Austria and the support of planning projects through climate simulations.

The Viennese city gardens look after a large area, including over 1,000 parks and more than 506,000 city trees. Grin Mag. Barbara Huemer (Greens) closed the session with thanks to the 67,000 employees of the city of Vienna. She also addressed the challenges in the personnel situation and the gender pay gap of 10% and called for an expansion of partial retirement to ensure the quality of life.

The relevance of citizen participation is also becoming increasingly important in the context of climate adjustment. According to the climate tool box, the integration of the population into the planning and implementation of climate adaptation measures has positive effects on understanding and awareness of the effects of climate projections. Such participatory processes not only improve acceptance, but also the effectiveness of the measures by hearing the voice of the citizens and integrating them into decision -making processes.

In Mannheim, the population is already successfully involved in developing climate compensation concepts. This can also be seen in projects where citizens' forums and workshops promote the active dialogue and the participation of the residents, which is of crucial importance for sustainable urban development.

The establishment of committees for participation and the organization of public relations are exemplary approaches from other urban projects that could serve as orientation for Vienna