Ekoetxea Urdaibai manages to involve 191 people to reduce emissions with the #UrdaibaiErronka challenge

02/08/2023

The citizens of Urdaibai have carried out a total of 1,591 actions against climate change: changes in habits aimed at tackling the consequences of the climate emergency.

The #UrdaibaiErronka challenge has achieved more than 1,581 commitments thanks to the participation of 191 people in this initiative that Ekoetxea Urdaibai launched in March to achieve the reduction of CO2 emissions in the Biosphere Reserve. The initiative focused on changing certain habits in the daily lives of citizens through a mobile app that also offered training itineraries on the Reserve itself and the fight against climate change and its consequences, with high-quality content, assessment and traceability of learning results.

Participants have helped to reduce 44.98 tonnes of CO2 emissions thanks to the 8.32 actions or commitments made by each participant. The most popular actions have been shopping responsibly; consuming local and seasonal products; taking the stairs instead of the lift; avoiding the use of tumble dryers; covering pots, pans and casseroles when cooking; using the dishwasher only when it is full; minimising food waste and driving smoothly while watching fuel consumption.

As for courses and training itineraries on the app, users have completed a total of 2,196 training pills, with an average of 11.87 pills per user. At the end of each short training session, 83% of the exercises with questions on the lessons learned were completed satisfactorily.

Most of the participants in #UrdaibaiErronka are between 40 and 51 years old (37.8% of the total), followed by the 26-39 age group, accounting for 37.3%. The municipalities with the highest participation were Gernika Lumo (18.9%), Bermeo (16.8%) and Busturia (9.7%), which together accounted for 45.4% of the total number of participants.

Citizens have a key role to play in tackling climate change and its consequences. Awareness-raising alone is not enough and it is essential to know how to act when faced with a climate emergency. As well as raising awareness, Ekoetxea Urdaibai will continue to work to achieve commitment and training, inviting citizens to join the challenge of reducing more CO2 emissions through different experiences. Thanks to actions like #UrdaibaiErronka, the Ekoetxea Network has become a key tool at Ihobe for getting citizens involved through local environmental centres that encourage participation to tackle major environmental challenges.

Ekoetxea Urdaibai, located in Busturia, is part of the network of environmental centres of the Basque Ministry for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment and is managed by Ihobe (Basque Government's public environmental management company).