A new chapter on my climate resilience journey

Those who know me know that open and honest communication is very important to me. Openness creates trust and connection, and we need that especially in times of change. I would therefore like to share my thoughts on my new chapter, what I have learned over the past few years, and what lies ahead.

It has now been 10 years since I started working in city administration. At that time, I was with the City of Munich in the Department of Health and Environment. Later, I moved to the City of Regensburg to work in the Climate Resilience Management Unit. I actually worked in administration for exactly 10 years to the day. Of course, that wasn't planned ;-).

During this time, I learned and experienced an incredible amount. I always wanted to understand how the dynamics in a city work and what makes a healthy city. I think Regensburg is doing so many things right in many ways, and I am very happy to have been part of shaping the city for six years.

I was able to learn how to develop a strategy, how to contact the relevant departments and motivate them to also develop climate adaptation measures and increasingly establish the topic in their own areas. I was in contact with citizens who are very concerned about their city and their well-being, especially during extreme weather events. But I was also in contact with organizations that are committed to the issue, as well as the press, which provides the public with information and bears a great responsibility in this regard. I have seen what and how my projects and topics are ultimately conveyed and what impact the type of reporting can have. The media bears a particularly great responsibility here, as it is trusted and believed in to a great extent. I also learned how to best support city leaders and other officials and decision-makers in their decisions and how to work closely with politicians. You can develop many great projects and measures, but if they are not approved, they are of course not effective. I was able to learn how to develop a large, multi-year federal funding project in collaboration with specialist departments and an external research institute, and how to successfully carry out participation processes. Ultimately, I was able to gain experience in what promotes momentum in climate adaptation and what is more detrimental.

I could mention so many other topics and aspects that I have encountered in my many years of work. But that would go too far here. I have always enjoyed sharing my experiences, which is why I have decided to start a new chapter in my life and on my climate resilience journey. I would like to support municipalities, institutions, and organizations in developing and implementing climate adaptation strategies. I do this as a consultant, speaker, and trainer. The focus here is primarily on communication, sharing knowledge about strategy development, and motivation.

That's why I've launched a new website with a blog and a page with resources. You can find it at katharinaschaetz.com. I would like to share some useful tools and experiences there from time to time. I firmly believe that we can turn things around, even if time is running out. We all know that things cannot continue as they are and that we are already clearly feeling the effects of climate change. Humanity has incredible intelligence and power when it matters. We have always been great innovators, especially in Germany. And we love order and strategy. These are actually very good prerequisites for change, aren't they? I believe that if we developed a much stronger drive to implement change and let go of our fear of change, we could achieve a lot and bring even more momentum to the overall process.

I warmly welcome all new visitors to my new website and am delighted about your interest and the possibility of working together towards greater climate resilience!