Tecnun makes progress with climate governance models through three workshops on urban and peri-urban areas, river basins and the coast

30/09/2021

Facilitating climate governance and the observation and monitoring of climate change is one of the objectives of the LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project. To this end it has set in motion the initiative C9.3 “Design of new governance models for climate change action” led by Tecnun, the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra.

The models must address the current situation in the Basque Country and their objective is to enable and facilitate the deployment of the Basque Country's climate change strategy, Klima 2050. For this purpose three different types of intervention have been mapped out, urban and peri-urban areas, river basins and the coast.

The process has been approached from a participatory perspective in which the aim has been to involve all the relevant actors. This has led to the organisation of several co-creation workshops with the aim of understanding the governance models that are being adopted in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (CAPV) in the fight against climate change, and to jointly develop new improved models for three levels of intervention.

The first workshop that focused on the urban landscape was held on 13 May, followed by workshops on river basins and the coast on 22 and 29 September. A total of 51 people from the following organisations participated in this process: Basque Government, Provincial Councils of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, 10 city councils (Donostia, Bilbao, Vitoria, Errenteria, Irún, Legazpi, Balmaseda, Zarautz, Basauri and Bermeo), regional entities, Naturklima Foundation, Public Society of Environmental Management, Basque Water Agency, Basque Organisation of Energy, Tecnun, BC3, Azti, Tecnalia, SOS Deiak, Goiener, port authorities of Bilbao and Pasajes, Euskal Kirol Portuak and the Basque Association of Civil Engineers.

The workshops were based on the idea of reflecting on the ideal governance models and addressing the following main objectives:

• To map the most relevant actors for climate change governance with their roles at the different intervention levels, urban, river basins and the coast.
• To identify governance structures and instruments that can contribute to improving leadership and the strategic management of climate action.
• To identify mechanisms for the shared management of climate action.
• To identify needs and barriers, as well as opportunities that lead us towards climate action governance that is integrated, coherent, participatory, adaptive, efficient and sustainable over time.

The information obtained through the workshops will be used to shape the first version of the models that will be tested via pilot projects in the next phase of the project.