Think globally, act locally: The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce is presenting its strategy on the path to a climate-neutral city and economy at the World Climate Conference in Baku.
The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce is also taking part in the world climate conference COP 29, which is taking place in Azerbaijan's capital Baku until November 22nd. Chamber of Commerce Managing Director Malte Heyne will present the chamber strategy “Hamburg 2040 – how do we want to live in the future – and from what?” at a discussion next Wednesday.
Saskia Möller, who is responsible, among other things, for sustainability issues at the Hamburg trading company Gebr. Heinemann, will also appear at the event with Heyne, as will Max Webers, head of the startup company Colipi. Also taking part is Andrew Wilson, deputy secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) based in Paris. “We are showing on site that company-driven climate protection strengthens Hamburg’s competitiveness – in contrast to bureaucratic laws and regulations,” says Heyne.
With its “Hamburg 2040” strategy, the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce – which currently represents 180,000 member companies – wants to help decarbonize everyday life and the economy in the Hanseatic city by the beginning of the decade after next. The Chamber of Commerce assumes that Hamburg's economy can become significantly stronger as a result of this fundamental structural change – for example by making Germany's largest seaport into an internationally networked hub for renewable energies and hydrogen or by developing and marketing environmental and climate protection technologies.
At the beginning of this year, at a climate conference in the presence of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the chamber presented a study that the chamber had developed together with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), based in Paris. It was the world's first cooperation between the OECD and a city chamber of commerce. “The OECD has made it clear that Hamburg, with its port and location within Germany, offers the best conditions for this,” says Heyne. “That’s why we want to position Hamburg as a pioneering location for combining competitiveness and climate protection on the international stage of the COP.”
Heyne had already presented the Chamber of Commerce strategy “Hamburg 2040” at the World Climate Conference in Dubai in December last year. “We want to exchange experiences with other locations and present our initiatives,” he says, “for example through concrete projects, such as the conversion of the truck traffic in the port to electric drives, the opportunity for small and medium-sized companies to purchase green electricity together or to establish a circular economy in the manufacturing sector in Hamburg – with more recycling and fewer waste products.
The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce assumes that small and medium-sized companies in particular have a lot of specialist knowledge to advance climate protection – but that smaller companies in particular need support in order to be able to bring such products and services to market more quickly.
Olaf Preuß is a business reporter for WELT and WELT AM SONNTAG for Hamburg and northern Germany. One of his main topics is climate protection in industry and the energy sector.
