Observations from the cliamte district
The observations from the climate district Zähringen between January and May 2026 exemplified the difficulties climate change mitigation faces. Lack of funding, longevity, and building trust in the community are among the challenges they face.
Context Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg im Breisgau aims to be climate-neutral by 2035 (Projekte Klimaschutz, n.d.) in comparison to the German-wide goal of 2045 (Bundes-Klimaschutzgesetz, 2019). To achieve this transition, climate measures with targeted investments need to be taken into account (Projekte Klimaschutz, n.d.). Recent projects are here: the "so weit so gut" city-wide awareness campaign (So weit. So gut. Klimastadt Freiburg, n.d.) and the climate district Zähringen (Unser Klimaquartier, n.d.), where the main goal is to support local groups in starting projects that support CO2 mitigation and strengthen community belonging within the district.
Areas of Intervention
For the design thesis, there was the possibility to observe the current climate district initiative and, in addition, to support it to a limited extent within the project. To document observations, such as behaviors, structures, or event procedures from the meetings and events attended, a journaling approach was chosen. The main events that could be observed were (1) a multiplier workshop (Diekmannshenke, 2026a) where existing initiatives from the district and neighboring districts joined to collect existing initiatives and plan potential actions they and the residents from the district could take on. (2) A Vision and Action Workshop (Diekmannshenke, 2026b) where all residents from the district were invited to participate to explore the district's vision and new measures they could take on as residents. Prior to the workshop, all households received invitations by post, and posters advertised the workshop within the district.
Key insigths
So why is the model designed, and what risks may arise from this possibility? Let us explore this by using the prompt “I am conducting a workshop with citizens to define climate measures for the neighborhood and encourage them to implement these measures,” for a non-designed model and the Reflective System of the Chat Bot. First, the answer from the non-designed system will be analyzed and afterward compared to the results of the designed version. The non-designed system gives the author a 868-word-long, an overly descriptive response that’s 868 words long. The response consists of a detailed pre-planning of the workshop, a workshop structure including the schedule and methods, a post-workshop follow-up, and questions to dive deeper into the topic. These details demonstrate that the AI tries to pretend it already knows the author’s situation based on the system’s data and the pattern similarities with the prompt. However, even with that little information, the AI gives back a detailed list of tasks. Therefore, we could say that it is pretending to know the situation and how to navigate within the complex social context in which the workshop with people living in the district is planned to take place. It removes the author’s task of thinking about the setting and the details of designing the workshop, which may be crucial to its success, as they may have valuable implicit knowledge of the situation, the needs of the participants, and the neighborhoods.
Reflection
The Chatbot aims to build a local, safe environment where data remains on the running device to explore how interdisciplinary knowledge can be brought to bear on the operational fields of policymakers. By acknowledging the limitations of LLMs in social contexts and the background that AI should not be used as a replacement but instead as a specialized assistant, it was decided that the Bot will raise questions to actively engage in thinking about the Climate Communication Principles. These questions are further linked to normative values to better navigate within climate change mitigation.
Sources
Bundes-Klimaschutzgesetz, BGBl. I § 2513 (2019). [https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ksg/BJNR251310019.html](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ksg/BJNR251310019.html)
Diekmannshenke, S. (2026a, February 2). _Klima-Überblick_. wertedemokratie. [https://www.allwedo.eu/post/klima-überblick](https://www.allwedo.eu/post/klima-überblick)
Diekmannshenke, S. (2026b, March 26). _Visions- und Aktionswerkstatt_. wertedemokratie. [https://www.allwedo.eu/post/visions-und-aktionswerkstatt](https://www.allwedo.eu/post/visions-und-aktionswerkstatt)
_Projekte Klimaschutz_. (n.d.). Stadt Freiburg im Breisgau. Retrieved November 1, 2025, from [https://www.freiburg.de/pb/1552415.html](https://www.freiburg.de/pb/1552415.html)
_So weit. So gut. Klimastadt Freiburg_. (n.d.). Stadt Freiburg im Breisgau. Retrieved April 27, 2026, from [https://www.freiburg.de/pb/2452541.html](https://www.freiburg.de/pb/2452541.html)
_Unser Klimaquartier_. (n.d.). Stadt Freiburg im Breisgau. Retrieved April 27, 2026, from [https://www.freiburg.de/pb/1605138.html](https://www.freiburg.de/pb/1605138.html)