Hamburg
Overview
Hamburg: A modern city
Foreign trade has been at the heart of Hamburg’s existence since the time of the Hanseatic League, the mercantile association of medieval German and Baltic towns. Now the leading German city for foreign trade, it has a GDP per cent double that of the general German population.
Hamburg is both a city and a state: the second largest city in Germany with 1.7 million inhabitants, and one of the 16 states of the German Federal Republic, with a Metropolitan area of over 3.5 million citizens. Every day the city is host to more than 150,000 visitors.
The municipal area is 755 square kilometres, seven times the size of Paris and two-and-a-half times that of London. Citizens enjoy an exceptionally high standard of living: there is an average of 30 square metres of living space per person, the largest personal living space of all cities, and 14 per cent of the city consists of parks and recreational areas.
With a total of 97 consulates based in the city, Hamburg remains a thriving and outward-looking trading and commercial centre, thriving on business with the rest of the world and forming a base for the European headquarters of many foreign corporations. Primary industries are banking and insurance, transport and manufacturing. The seaport, the second largest in Europe by container turnover, is a hub of East-West trade because of its shipping access to Eastern Europe and Scandinavia and the inland waterways and rail connections with central Europe.
Hamburg is a largely modern city. The city has been transformed by a combination of urban conservation and architectural innovation, with whole new areas built round the former industrial port. It boasts magnificent promenades and shopping malls as well as the old warehouse quarter on the canals.
Model region for climate protection
Under the motto “Understanding climate change – reducing climate change – master the effects of climate change“, the city is pursuing an integrative approach incorporating many areas of society, political and business activity. Last year Hamburg’s state parliament passed their highly ambitious Climate Protection Program, a concept comprising of over 170 single projects & measures aiming to reduce the CO2 footprint of Hamburg by more than 2 million tons until 2012. This means a reduction of such emissions by approximately 20 percent as compared to 1990.
In line with their open minded and outward looking culture, Hamburg always strived for international exchange on important topics. Therefore, it was a logical step for the city to join the Connected Urban Development program to globally discuss smart solutions and cutting-edge technologies while striving for sustainability through connectivity.
Further details about the climate protection plans of the City of Hamburg can be found at; http://www.marketing.hamburg.de/Climate-protection.143.0.html?&L=1
In addition, an overview of the Hamburg Climate Protection Concept is available at; www.klima.hamburg.de and at the website of the Ministry for Urban Development and Environment; http://www.hamburg.de/bsu