German official calls for national plan to tackle heatwaves in 2027

Following the record-breaking temperatures Germany experienced this summer, a senior official from the Federal Ministry for the Environment stated that the country needs a national action plan to tackle heat during the upcoming summer.

Jochen Flasbarth, the State Secretary for Climate Affairs at Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, told the public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday: “I believe the lesson we have learned from this summer is that we need a national action plan next summer that brings together and encompasses everything at the level of the German federal states.”

He added that the federal government is working very closely with the state governments, many of which already have heat action plans in place.

Nearly 10,000 people across Germany died due to high temperatures by mid-July, according to estimates by the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health agency. This figure is higher than in any full year since 2016.