Kulturinstitutionen & Klimaschutz

Context

The city of Zurich has set itself the goal of becoming climate-neutral and achieving net zero by 2040. In the Cultural Mission Statement 2024–2027, the City of Zurich has for the first time defined the objective that cultural promotion should contribute to achieving the city's climate target.

The focus is on subsidized cultural institutions. According to the Cultural Mission Statement 2024–2027, two measures are to be implemented: On the one hand, the funded cultural institutions are to be supported in better understanding where their levers lie and what measures they can take to reduce emissions (measure "Promotion of situation analysis and knowledge transfer"). On the other hand, funding is to be tied to certain conditions or criteria in the future (measure "Determination of funding criteria and requirements"), (cf. Cultural Mission Statement 2024–2027, p.44f).

In order to implement the "Promotion of situation analysis and knowledge transfer" measure, the City of Zurich provides two support services for subsidised cultural institutions:

"Climate accounting for cultural institutions": The support offer runs from December 2024 to September 2025. With the help of climate assessments and a collection of key figures (data, information), it should become clear how much greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) are caused by the cultural sector, which GHGs should be reduced as a priority and who is responsible for this.

"Counselling services for cultural institutions" : The support service will be set up from April 2025 and is expected to run until spring 2027. The advisory services are free of charge for subsidised cultural institutions of the City of Zurich and are intended to help them draw up action plans to reduce GHGE.