Urban Klima 2050 advocates the importance of “bringing innovation down to a local level to achieve greater climate resilience” in Valencia
07/07/2023
Ihobe's Director of Climate Action, Mari Mar Alonso, took part in a technical workshop entitled 'INNOT 23: climate resilience in urban planning', where methodologies for integrating climate risk into spatial and urban planning were discussed.
On Thursday July 6, the INNOT 23: climate resilience in urban planning technical workshop, which was organised by Tecnalia together with the Chair of Valencian Territorial Culture and the collaboration of the LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project, the Spanish Office for Climate Change (OECC), and Fundicot (Interprofessional Association for Spatial Planning), was held in Valencia.
The workshop covered methodological approaches for integrating climate risk into spatial and urban planning, as well as governance structures for improving territorial and urban climate resilience. The main focus of the workshop was the application of the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition on spatial and urban planning instruments, with the participation of experts and researchers, as well as representatives from different levels of public administration and other actors linked to spatial planning and climate change.
Representing Ihobe and Urban Klima 2050 was Mari Mar Alonso, Director of Climate Action of the Basque Government's public environmental management company, who took part in the round table entitled ‘Local experiences of planning instruments that have managed to respond in a solvent manner to the requirements of the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition’.
During her speech, Alonso stressed the importance of “bringing innovation down to a local level to achieve greater climate resilience". In this regard, Alonso pointed to the LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 as “a collaborative project that allows us to work at all levels, strengthening ties between the Basque administration and the various municipalities that will promote pilot actions that can be replicated in other localities”. As a specific example, Alonso described one of the seven pilot projects that Urban Klima 2050 is carrying out in urban areas: the creation of an urban wetland in Bakio (Bizkaia) to prevent the risk of flooding in the municipality. In relation to this action, Ihobe's Director of Climate Action went on to mention the participation of citizens in carrying out "the regeneration of an urban wetland and a floodable forest".
She also talked about the various tools for adapting to climate change that the Basque Government is developing through Ihobe. These include the Klimatek R&D, innovation and demonstration projects, which are producing solutions for adapting to climate change at a local level in the Basque Country and, as she pointed out, “have developed collaborative instruments and innovative projects that have created local climate knowledge and a culture of work and climate governance among the different actors”. As she explained, these projects involve analysing regionalised climate scenarios, for example, and drawing up vulnerability and risk information sheets for the 251 municipalities in the Basque Autonomous Community “with a range of environmental and socio-economic indicators”.
Alonso also highlighted the work carried out by Udalsarea 2030, the Basque Network of Sustainable Municipalities, which she explained is “a network that has been working collaboratively on sustainability for 20 years, and has focused on climate action in recent years”. Other measures she mentioned included the guide for drawing up local plans and energy plans, instruments for climate action and natural heritage, and the application of natural solutions in 42 Basque municipalities through subsidies to local entities and local climate eco-innovation projects.
