Carinthia Allocates Four Million Euros for Heat Protection in Schools and Kindergartens

Funding and Procedure of the Subsidy

The state covers up to 80 percent of the costs. Funding applications must be submitted digitally to Department 3 of the state. For technical advice, municipalities can contact the climate coordination unit of Department 8. This is intended to keep the bureaucratic burden low and speed up implementation.

Municipal Affairs Councillor Lagger-Pöllinger emphasized that the goal was to enable suitable solutions on site quickly: "Damit helfen wir den Gemeinden, rasch wirksame und zum jeweiligen Standort passende Lösungen umzusetzen." She also pointed out that initial experience was already available: "Wir beginnen nicht bei null. Jetzt setzen wir gezielt dort an, wo die Belastung noch besonders groß ist", so Lagger-Pöllinger.

Education Councillor Reichmann stressed that the state was responding to demands from parents' associations, which, in addition to reconsidering school hours, had also called for structural measures. Instead of discussing responsibilities, the focus was on "ins Handeln zu kommen und gemeinsam an einem Strang zu ziehen: Denn wenn speziell Elternvereine in den vergangenen Tagen gefordert haben, dass neben einem Überdenken der Unterrichtszeiten auch bauliche Maßnahmen notwendig sind, dann zeigt das Land Kärnten, was bewegt werden kann."

Reichmann Calls for a Nationwide Framework

Reichmann linked the state initiative with a supra-regional demand: new schools should be planned nationwide according to climate-resilient standards. Passive cooling, shading, green spaces, and energy-efficient building technology must become the standard, "damit klimafitte und nachhaltige Bildung gesichert wird." In his view, this requires a nationwide heat protection framework for schools as well as corresponding adjustments to school construction guidelines.

With the package, Carinthia is responding to the experiences of the past hot summers, in which temperatures in classrooms and group rooms repeatedly reached critical levels. The funding is intended to relieve particularly smaller municipalities, which often do not have the necessary own funds to finance shading, ventilation systems, or building greening in the short term.

Background: Heat Stress in Carinthia's Schools

Overall, the state sees the heat protection package as a complement to other measures such as the discussed earlier start to summer holidays. Fellner emphasized that both – short-term structural assistance and longer-term adjustments to the school year rhythm – must interlock in order to reliably protect children and teachers from extreme heat in the coming years.

According to the state government, the exact start of the funding acceptance period as well as the first approved projects are to be communicated in the coming weeks. The climate coordination unit of Department 8 is already available for inquiries from municipalities.