Preparing Maribor, Slovenia, for hotter days through heat action planning

Key Learnings

• Strong municipal ownership: The Maribor City Council officially adopted the Heat Action Plan in January 2025, demonstrating leadership and political commitment. This ownership is further reinforced through the Council’s annual progress review, carried out as part of the reporting on the implementation of the Local Energy and Climate Concept for the City of Maribor.
• Citizen Engagement: Engaging Maribor’s local population in various information campaigns has raised citizen awareness about the challenges associated with rising temperatures and promoted behavioural change.
• Extensive collaboration with partner cities: Peer exchanges enabled shared insights and best practices with other partner cities, such as Worms (Germany), Weiz (Austria) and Hajdúböszörmény (Hungary), as well as from experts.

Summary

Maribor, Slovenia’s second-largest city, is preparing for a future with almost twice as many hot days and more frequent tropical nights. The city’s Heat Action Plan, developed with support from the Interreg Ready4Heat project, focuses on vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and children. Heat and climate maps based on Copernicus data now highlight areas at heat risk. The project prepared climate maps, which show the locations of sensitive infrastructure to heat. The measures include providing shade for playgrounds with green pergolas, planting over 3,000 trees, reviving urban vineyards and creating nature-based cooling areas at bus stops. Greening public spaces, parks and schoolyards and establishing health services and voluntary organisations helps support vulnerable populations. Officially adopted in 2025, the heat(-response) strategy demonstrates strong city ownership and political commitment. By combining Nature-based Solutions, innovation in governance (through a stakeholder involvement approach in decision-making), and community networks, Maribor offers a model that other Central European cities facing rising heat stress can replicate.

Contact

Allison Le Corre: allison [dot] le-correeumayors [dot] eu (allison[dot]le-corre[at]eumayors[dot]eu)