Ihobe outlines In Barcelona its governance actions in the territorial planning of the Basque Country and local solutions
08/11/2024
Iñigo Urrutikoetxea Alvarez, Ihobe’s climate action expert, took part in a technical seminar on adapting to climate change and renaturing, where he presented some of the actions carried out by the LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project.
On Friday, November 8, Iñigo Urrutikoetxea Alvarez, Ihobe’s climate action expert, took part this in the ‘Cycle of technical seminars on climate change adaptation and naturalisation’ organised by Barcelona Provincial Council, the Network of Cities and Towns towards Sustainability and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.
More specifically, Urrutikoetxea took part in the session dedicated to ‘Experiences of successful cases of naturalisation in Spanish cities and towns’ with his presentation on ‘Governance in the territorial planning of the Basque Country and local solutions’. During his presentation, the climate action specialist described some of the risks faced by the Basque Country due to climate change and highlighted the territory's track record and commitment to climate adaptation.
Urrutikoetxea explained that the Basque Country has a sound set of tools and mechanisms in place to tackle these challenges, in which multilevel governance will play a key role, involving different tiers of administration.
He went on to discuss some of the resources that underpin the territory's capacity to adapt. These resources include the Klimatek projects, which have made progress in regionalising climate scenarios for the Basque Country, and in knowledge about critical infrastructures, water resources and blue carbon sinks, among other things. There are also diagnostic climate tools available, such as the climate scenario viewer, information on municipal vulnerability and risk, and the Kostaegoki viewer, which analyses the vulnerability and risk of the Basque coast to rising sea levels.
Urrutikoetxea also presented various climate instruments aimed at providing support for action, such as the good practice guides on nature-based solutions, and the guide for drawing up local climate and energy plans. Other resources for deploying climate action include subsidies to local entities totalling more than 72 million euros to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. This has resulted in local climate eco-innovation projects, which have made it possible to roll out 67 climate and energy plans and almost 100 nature-based solutions (NBS) projects in municipalities across the Basque Country.
The climate action expert went on to stress the importance of collaborative projects such as LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050, as an example of working together in climate governance, involving different levels of public administration, research centres and public agencies with competences in matters related to mitigating and adapting to climate change. He also outlined some of the actions carried out as part of this project, including recovering the Tonpoi natural area in Bermeo for public use, the actions planned in Bakio for flood protection and improving the environment of the River Estepona, and renaturing the Artikutza Dam in Donostia/San Sebastian.
Another transformative project supported by Ihobe is Regions4Climate, which works collaboratively towards a socially just transition to climate resilience. This collaboration takes the form of specific actions such as recovering Txingudi Bay (Irun) to increase climate resilience.
In relation to the regulatory framework, Urrutikoetxea pointed to the new Basque Law on Energy Transition and Climate Change, and the roadmap for 2050 planned for early 2025 as instruments that will provide a stable, yet ambitious framework for adaptation aimed at making progress on energy and climate targets.
