Bavarian Greens demand 200 million euros for air conditioning in schools and care homes as heat records fall
Green party faction leader Katharina Schulze has called for 200 million euros in immediate spending on air conditioning in public facilities after June became the second-hottest on record. The demand targets federal money that Bavaria will receive this year from an interstate equalisation package.
A historic heatwave
Bavaria experienced its second-hottest June since weather records began, the German Weather Service reported. Only 2003 was warmer. The latter half of the month brought a prolonged heatwave and a new all-time temperature record for the state. The extreme conditions prompted a sharp political response from the Greens.
Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and more intense.
The 200 million euro demand
Katharina Schulze, leader of the Greens in the Bavarian Parliament, urged the state government to use 200 million euros in newly expected federal funds to install air conditioning in schools, daycare centres, hospitals and nursing homes. She said the money should be passed directly to municipalities and districts without bureaucracy.
Bavaria is set to receive an extra 200 million euros from the federal government this year alone. This money must not disappear into the state budget. The state government must finally provide cooling for children, the elderly and the sick. These millions must be sent to municipalities and districts so they can equip daycares, schools, care homes and hospitals with air conditioning.
Schulze added that solar panels already installed on rooftops could power the new cooling systems, turning each unit into a self-sustaining heat defence.
Federal cash injection
The demand follows a Bundestag vote late Thursday that approved a multibillion-euro support package for states and municipalities. The law provides one billion euros annually from 2026 through 2029. Of that, 250 million euros per year is earmarked directly for cash-strapped municipalities to fund daycare centres, swimming pools or libraries. A further 350 million euros is allocated to eastern German states, while 400 million euros flows into the interstate fiscal equalisation scheme, benefiting wealthier donor states such as Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse.
Schulze wants the entire 200 million euros Bavaria expects from that mechanism in 2026 to be deployed immediately for cooling measures.
Health and economic protection
The Greens framed heat protection as both a public health and economic necessity. Schulze noted that children cannot learn properly when classroom temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius, workers suffer under the heat, and families come under strain when facilities are forced to close. She argued that the government can choose whether to prepare for the next heatwave.
People cannot choose whether the next heatwave comes. The state government can choose whether it is prepared. So far it has unfortunately opted to look the other way.
The Bavarian state government has yet to comment on the proposal.
