Urban Klima 2050 celebrates the International Day of Climate Action to raise awareness at local level of the impact of Climate Change

22/10/2021

• The Basque County’s largest climate action project is underway with sectoral planning and policy actions, along with pilot schemes in urban areas, on the coast and in river basins. It is also working on setting up governance structures.
• The International Day of Climate Action is celebrated on 24 October in order to mobilise and raise awareness among millions of people around the world about the effects of global warming.

The International Day of Climate Action is celebrated on 24 October, a day whose aim is to mobilise and raise awareness among millions of people around the world about the effects of climate change and the global warming that humanity is facing. The  LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project, the Basque Country’s largest climate action initiative in the coming years, will be taking part to raise awareness locally about the importance of implementing specific actions to offset the effects of climate change.

Since it was launched at the end of 2019, the LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050 project has made strides in different areas such as urban and spatial planning with the development, for example, of the “Weather-Climate Risk Indexing Tools”; in the application of climate action criteria in health policies with the start of a programme to monitor mosquitos as disease transmitting vectors; in energy, with the setting up of work groups with the participating municipalities; and in water, with the gathering and validation of flow and precipitation series. 

At urban and periurban level, work in being carried out on nature-based solutions. That has  already  allowed Vitoria-Gasteiz to increase it green and permeable surface area, its biodiversity and improve its ecosystemic services. 
The restoration of green infrastructures is another of the Urban Klima 2050 goals. This is already the case of Tonpoi (Bermeo) where work has started on the environmental restoration of this coastal area, along with the construction of a pedestrian path that will provide a transition between the town and rural countryside. 

Furthermore, work is being carried out to improve the farming belt in the Aramangelu/Basaldea Park (Vitoria-Gasteiz); in phytomediation studies of earth movements and as an environmental watch, also in the capital of Álava; in the reforestation of Mount Oberan (Gipuzkoa); or in the wilding of the Artikutza dam area (Gipuzkoa).

On the other hand, as regards climate governance, different workshops have been held online, where 51 experts worked on defining a model in three different levels of intervention: urban and periurban setting, river basin and coastal.
Furthermore, during ASTEKLIMA 2021-the Basque Climate and Energy Week, Urban Klima 2050 led one of the main activities  when it hosted the international seminar entitled  ‘Urban Klima 2050: multistakeholder cooperation to finance adaptation in Euskadi’. During this official PreCOP26 – All4Climate Italia 2021 parallel event, the main advances of the project were revealed to the more than 300 participants.

The Basque Country at the Glasgow COP26

The Basque Country is a region committed to climate change and will stress this at COP26 to be held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November. The Basque Government will reaffirm its climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments in its roadmap, the Basque Green Deal, a model for sustainable and fair development, with industry and technology as the main levers.

During the international conference, the Basque Government’s Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, will take part in different events where the Basque Country will assume the commitment to work towards a decarbonised industry in the context of the World Economic Forum. In the field of energy, the Basque case in offshore power strategies and clean hydrogen will be presented at the official meeting organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy. COP26 will likewise be an excellent opportunity for meetings of the international networks in which the Basque Country participates, such a Under2 Coalition or Regions 4, the network of regions which the Basque Country chairs.

About LIFE IP Urban Klima 2050

The Basque Country’s largest climate action project will transform Basque territory by means of coordinating 40 climate change mitigation and adaption actions between 2019 and 2025. It is led by Ihobe, answering to the Basque Government’s Ministry of Economic Development Sustainability and the Environment. It is working with twenty or so entities, including two other Basque Government areas (its Ministry of Health and the Directorate of Ports and Maritime Affairs), the three provincial councils and the local councils of Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Donostia/San Sebastián, Bakio, Bermeo, Gernika-Lumo and Zarautz, two publicly-owned companies of the Basque Government (EVE and URA), along with research and technology centres (AZTI, BC3, Neiker, Tecnalia and Tecnun) and the Naturklima Foundation.

With a budget of €19.8 million, it will also facilitate the effective deployment of the Basque Country’s Climate Change Strategy-KLIMA 2050.