Urban Klima 2050, an example of multi-level local governance at ‘LIFE Innovates Climate Action’

10/11/2022

The LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project presented its multilevel and local governance actions at ‘LIFE Innovates Climate Action’ international conference in Aarhus (Denmark) on 8 and 9 November 2022.

On Wednesday 9 November, Iñigo Urrutikoetxea Alvarez, a member of the Urban Klima 2050 coordinator team, took part in the session on ‘Improving multilevel and local governance by innovating the system’. During his speech, Urrutikoetxea outlined the main lines of action of the largest climate action project of the Basque Country for the coming years. He stressed that it is "a model of share responsibility among all the partners to implement 40 specific actions".

He explained that Urban Klima 2050 is “on the one hand, a space for cooperation between different levels of governance, research centres and regional environmental, energy and water agencies; and, on the other hand, an active listening space for Basque local councils to address the different municipal needs".

Furthermore, the technician stressed "the work carried out to revise the climate and energy polices, and to integrate both in a roadmap to 2050, which will be embodied in a climate change and energy transition strategy up to 2030”. He then went on to give examples of actions of the project being implement in three intervention areas (urban & peri-urban, coasts and river basins). "We have installed early warning and videometric systems to monitor swell along the Basque coast; we have analysed the status of the port of Ondarroa and have proposed reinforcement measures for possible large wave events," he said.

Urban Klima 2050, a before and after in Basque climate action

Urrutikoetxea stressed that “Urban Klima 2050 is based on the transferability and replicability of its actions. It is therefore a clear catalyst for new projects”. Furthermore, the project is embodied in actions such as "working with different Basque stakeholders to create a plan to raise citizen awareness of climate change in an innovative way. We are reaching out to different psychological profiles to help them to progress to being more environmentally responsible," he explained.

Participation and awareness, key aspects in the climate challenge

During the conference, organised by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), and by the LIFE NEEMO project monitoring team and the LIFE Coast to Coast Climate integrated project, different LIFE projects and programmes funded by the European Union discussed how innovation can improve climate action.

The messages stressed the need to establish synergies, new alliances and networks to share knowledge, foster co-decision processes, and involve stakeholders from different levels of administration. Awareness of the citizens and of decision makers was also included to enhance skills and common understanding.