On 13 January 2026, the bdla kicked off its political year with a meeting at the Federal Ministry for the Environment. A constructive discussion with Parliamentary State Secretary Carsten Träger focused on key environmental and planning policy issues.

Attention turned to two key areas of action for the coming months:

• Climate adaptation: What policy initiatives are currently being prepared, and what is the BMUKN’s stance on the specific measures? Particular attention was paid to the forthcoming implementation of the EU Recovery Regulation. Prof. Stephan Lenzen, President of the bdla, outlined the association’s technical positions and presented the latest bdla Essentials for climate-just urban planning legislation.

• Future Infrastructure Act / Planning Acceleration: In principle, there is a shared goal of making procedures faster, simpler and more efficient. At the same time, it was made clear that, from a technical perspective, some of the proposals put forward so far are dysfunctional and need to be amended – particularly with regard to nature conservation and landscape development, as well as the public acceptance of the transformation. These points were addressed by Vice-President Gudrun Rentsch.

The open exchange has shown that dialogue between policymakers and practitioners is not only necessary but also effective – particularly when it comes to complex transformation processes.

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