The first meeting of the working group for scientific support of the Master Plan for 100% climate protection – part of the "Strategic development of the National Climate Initiative (NCI)" project – was held in Berlin on 10 December 2012. The meeting allowed the participants to not only get to know each other but also provided them with the oppurtunitiy to exchange scientific input and discuss various ideas concerning the topic of climate change mitigation. Furthermore, the Master plan community was given the chance to discuss approaches and challenges to climate change mitigation with other municipalities, the Federal Ministry of Environment (BMU), and the scientific team put together to support the project.

Following a short introduction to the topic from the project’s team members, Ursula Fuentes-Hutfilter from the BMU took the floor and gave a quick overview of current developments in climate policy.

Hans Hertle (Heidelberg Institute for Energy and Environmental Research GmbH – ifeu) and Peter Pichl (BMU) spoke on the topic of "Exergy in municipal electricity and heat systems" followed by a presentation from Barbara Fricke (Solar Institute Jülich) on "the development of and transition to CO₂-free municipal energy supply". Dag Schulze (Climate Alliance) and Hans Hertle (ifeu) then continued the discussion with the proposal of a concept designed for municipal-level climate change mitigation planners.