Everybody knows them, everybody uses them - the city tram. Now climate researchers have started an initiative to bring climate change into our everyday life when we use the tram. Scientists for Future and the Berlin transport company BVG initiated the so-called project "ClimateTram": Three trams received the design of the well-known warming stripes which show the average global temperature per year and visualize the global temperature rise. Inside the trams passengers will receive information about climate change, renewable energies and sustainability. The goal of this project is to make climate change visible in the daily life of citizens and to use public spaces to inform people about what they can do to reduce their carbon footprint. The three trams will run on different tracks in Berlin so that sooner or later everyone in Berlin will have been on one of them.
The first tram started operating in Berlin on the 17th of October, which was celebrated with an opening ceremony featuring speeches from a.o. Berlin Climate Senator Betting Jarasch as well as PIK-RD2 scientist Julia Epp who gave a statement about Berlin's pathway to climate neutrality. Julia is currently working in the Dialogues-project dealing with the broad participation of citizens in the energy transition. Julia Epp: "In my opinion, this is a great measure to reach out to more people about climate change while they are anyhow in a waiting position to travel somewhere. This way travel time can be used meaningful." We also see that the necessity for new formats to communicate about climate action to motivate people to look at their energy and consumption behavior. The initiators of the ClimateTram plan on developing interactive formats about sustainability in the trams like Science Slams or energy consultations.
