The Basque Country will hold the fourth ASTEKLIMA Climate and Energy Week in September

31/07/2023

The Basque Country will be awash with activities between September 22 and October 1, 2023 to mobilise citizens against climate change with ASTEKLIMA 2023, the fourth edition of the Climate and Energy Week.

This initiative is promoted by the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government through its public entities Ihobe and EVE, and aims to raise awareness and mobilise citizens to get involved in the energy and climate transition, under one premise: that every action counts, no matter how small it may be.

ASTEKLIMA 2023 will deploy a calendar full of activities throughout the three Basque provinces in the form of workshops, talks, interpretive tours, games and other experiences that will be aimed at different audiences —in many cases, for everyone— in Basque society, allowing them to learn about the challenges posed by climate change and understand the importance of acting at a local level to tackle climate and energy challenges both now and in the future.

This will be the fourth Basque Country Climate and Energy Week, an initiative that started in 2019 to raise awareness and mobilise citizens to make a personal commitment to combat climate change.

In 2022, the commitment made by 58 town and city councils, a community of municipalities and three governing bodies to climate action –in addition to three associations and five entities in the private sector– made it possible to organise more than 200 activities that focused on the actions of municipalities and citizens as a means of mobilising and getting the challenge of climate change and energy transition onto the public agenda. The activities included presentations about local climate eco-innovation projects, such as Natur Eskola in Oñati (Gipuzkoa), which was completely refurbished by implementing bio-construction and nature-based solutions; workshops on climate change, reusing, recycling, robotics, natural cosmetics, composting, etc., and citizen volunteering initiatives such as cleaning the seabed, plantations and collecting rubbish, excursions and tours to learn about and understand our environment, and cultural events: theatre, concerts, storytelling and painting murals

Another of the most important activities at last year’s ASTEKLIMA was the conference entitled “Instruments for driving climate action on natural heritage”, at which the public company Ihobe presented a new collection of tools (methodologies, analysis tools, calculation tools and case studies) to promote climate action on natural heritage, simplifying the process of diagnosing the effects of climate change on the Basque Country’s natural heritage.

Grants for local entities

ASTEKLIMA 2023 returns with the aim of increasing the participation and involvement of both local entities and citizens and the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment of the Basque Government will allocate up to 200,000 euros in grants to facilitate the organisation of activities to mobilise citizens.

This call for applications will subsidise actions such as talks, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, storytelling, cinema, theatre, video and photography competitions, guided tours and open days, among many others, which are in line with the objectives of the Basque Green Deal for fair and sustainable development, and any local council, district office, community of municipalities or development agency in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country will be eligible.

Only actions that start after September 22, 2023 and end before October 1, both days inclusive, will be eligible. The deadline for applications is open from July 7 until August 7, 2023, although all the information about the call for applications is already available at the following link.

Moreover, all updated information on ASTEKLIMA 2023, including news of interest and the calendar of activities, will be posted over time on the official website of the Basque Country Climate and Energy Week, asteklima.eus/.