LOCC-GER - A georeferenced local climate policy database for Germany

Local climate action has increased massively worldwide. Germany is a noteworthy case in this respect, as local measures have been strongly promoted by the federal system over the past two decades. However, studying policies, their determinants, and consequences at this scale has been difficult so far due to a lack of centralized data. This article introduces LOCC-GER, the largest existing dataset of georeferenced local climate policy-making in Germany. The dataset currently covers 26,142 measures from 5,033 municipalities, including detailed descriptions of employed measures, funding sum, and duration from 2008 to 2023. It is extended with important local context variables on public opinion and civil society activities, as well as detailed weather and climate indicators. We demonstrate how it can be used to map and analyze local governments' actions on climate change. Finally, we discuss how LOCC-GER may be extended by academics and other users through our proposed workflow for user-specific linking with additional covariates, offering high spatial and temporal flexibility.