Voluntary Local Government Review 2025
In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as a comprehensive global roadmap for sustainable development. It has long been clear that the sustainable transformation is also shaped to a significant extent at the local level. In many German municipalities, this is already a reality, as evidenced by the growing number of sustainability strategies and reports being developed, as well as the increasing number of municipalities signing voluntary commitments, such as the Agenda 2030 model resolution. Nevertheless, local governments also face specific challenges: limited financial and human resources, increasing demands resulting from legal requirements, and the need to systematically integrate sustainability goals into sectoral strategies, budgets, and planning processes.
This year, the German government will once again report on nationwide progress in implementing the 2030 Agenda as part of its third Voluntary National Review (VNR). For the first time, the local government level is being taken into account to a significant extent. To actively support this process and highlight the perspectives of local governments, the cities of Bonn, Hamburg, Mannheim, and Stuttgart have initiated the preparation of a Voluntary Local Government Review (VLGR). The purpose of this accompanying report is to provide a comprehensive overview of the wide range of sustainability initiatives in German municipalities and, at the same time, to serve as a basis for the summary in the VNR, thereby giving the local level a strong, coordinated voice in the national sustainability discourse.
The VLGR 2025 was developed by the German Institute for Urban Studies (Difu) in cooperation with the national associations of local authorities. At the heart of the report are contributions from 15 German municipalities that have already published their own progress reports to the United Nations, known as "Voluntary Local Reviews" (VLRs). These profiles provide a concise overview of the progress, challenges, and innovative approaches being pursued in the respective cities, counties, and municipalities. Difu rounds out this assessment with an evaluation of the current framework conditions for local sustainability efforts and an analysis of SDG indicators for municipalities in Germany.
