On June 08, the participants of our 45th UNEP/UNESCO/BMUV International Postgraduate Course on Environmental Management for Developing Countries (EM45) visited Pirna and had the chance to meet two of Pirna’s representatives to exchange on climate action within the field of renewable energy. Participants Mustika Aji Hertanto from Indonesia and Jolly Kayiita from Uganda submitted an insightful report about what they took away from the meeting:
“On Wednesday, 08 June 2022 at 9.15 am, the participants of CIPSEM’s EM45 course arrived in Pirna, a town located 17 km away from Dresden, a place that would further surprise us on how they are involved in climate protection through their management in the energy sector. Before arriving in Pirna, we never thought that a beautiful small town with 40,000 inhabitants and 53 km2 area would teach us a lot with their achievement despite their minimum resources. It reminded us of an old saying that said “revolutionaries come from minimum resources”. Yes, Pirna is the real example of that, they restore our faith in the positivity, something that is very expensive lately, since we are too busy to deal with politics and interests.
We were warmly welcomed by Markus Dreßler, the deputy mayor of Pirna, and Thomas Freitag, Pirna’s climate protection manager at 10 am in front of the town hall. They kindly told us about a brief history of Pirna before inviting us to the meeting room inside the town hall. The friendly atmosphere at the time was blurring us that those two people in front of us were two of influential persons in Pirna, the persons who bring change to that beautiful small town.
Mr. Dreßler, in his welcoming speech explained that Pirna has been involved in the climate protection and focus on the energy. Recently, they also joined the European Energy Award (EEA) because it allows the structure of the municipality to deal with climate protection and its external guidance. They worked very hard to make sure that the city can contribute to the betterment of the world through renewable energy. This line was punching right on our face. How could a small town that was slowly left by its people to other cities for a better life, work really hard? They devote themselves as much as they can regardless the minimal resources they have and political interest they found in the process. The way they work is to avoid distraction and not to spend too much energy in analysis but in the implementation to achieve the target. As a result, Pirna is in a good way to receive a gold category in European Energy award (EEA). They have many milestones since 2008 and recently in 2021, they received a certification with EEA gold. They focus on their renewable energy in the heating system and to light the city.
Another learning we get from Pirna is on how they mix the top-down and bottom-up approach by considering the balance of the environmental impact and the financial balance. This is very important because as environmentalists we sometimes are too research-based and do not consider other interest. This is surprising because to their knowledge, this approach is effective to convince people that still do not believe in the climate change. Again, we learn how a small resource can be a revolutionary if they have an inspiring leader. Lastly in Mr. Dreßler’s closing remark, there is still a target that is difficult to achieve. It is to implement more PV in new building and the establishment of wind energy. The economic reason and many conflicts of interest become the reasons why such a good initiative is hard to implement.
In brief, we also learned a lot about the development of climate protection work in Pirna. In overall score, they have 79.4% assessed based on 6 actions of EEA:
- Development and spatial planning energy
- Municipal buildings and facilities
- Supply and disposal energy, water, waste water and waste
- Communication and cooperation
- Internal organization energy team
- Mobility public transport
In the process, they apply a municipal energy management which is a systematic and continuous development of non-investment and low-investment savings potential in the operation of municipal buildings. There are three main reasons why Pirna applies municipal energy management:
- Reduction of energy consumption
- The increasing costs for energy
- The increasing demand for energy
To not burdening the people, the municipal has a smart initiative by implementing leasing model in the photovoltaic system. They also have many environmental programs such as E-carsharing for the municipality fleet, city gardens Breite Straße, energy projects in school, exchange of experience with twin towns and many more.
Before finishing the excursion, we were invited to go to Carl Friedrich Gauß Schule, an exemplary of the passive house, a place that has a very low energy consumption. Built in 2013, the school implements 4 heating systems:
- Heating pump below the ground
- Heat and power plant combination
- Air exchange
- Heat capture system
The school has a very good control of air control, the running cos is even cheaper. Yes, there is a challenge in the investment cost, but compared to long term financial benefit, it is economically efficient. Another challenge is that there should be a zero error in the building planning. It needs collaboration between the architect and energy consultant.
In the return to CIPSEM, we were wondering that we were very lucky to have a chance to visit one remarkable town in the saxony. Somehow, we also reflect to ourselves that we may complain a lot about resources that hamper us in achieving the goals, even we sometimes use it as our justification why our target is not achieved. Pirna realizes us that we should not complain with the resources we have; Pirna reminds us that hard work combined with smart initiative are the key of a successful action; and lastly, Pirna inspires us that no matter how hard the challenge, everything is possible.”
by Mustika Aji Hertanto (Indonesia) & Jolly Kayiita (Uganda)
UNEP/UNESCO/BMUV course program 