Life eCOadapt50 organizes a participatory workshop within the framework of the local CONAMA in Viladecans - Life eCOadapt50

In the different meeting spaces, administrations, experts, companies, social entities, universities and citizens gathered with a common goal: to promote dialogue, generate knowledge and accelerate action for sustainability. Within this framework, the Life eCOadapt50 project organized the workshop: “The role of rural municipalities in climate adaptation: from challenge to action” on December 2 from 12:00 to 14:00 at the Ateneu de Cultura Popular Can Batllori.

The session, facilitated by Momentum Natura, gathered about thirty attendees who were able to share experiences and challenges on how rural municipalities can advance in climate adaptation policies. The objective of the workshop was to put on the table both the needs and difficulties of rural municipalities in relation to adaptation and to collect ideas and proposals on how the Life eCOadapt50 project can address them in the coming years, in which it will work to promote adaptation to climate change in local and supra-local policies.

The first 15 minutes of the session were dedicated by the participants to writing on the Experience Wall all those barriers and challenges that as a municipality or entity they face in their daily life in relation to the implementation of climate change adaptation actions. They had to classify them according to the state of maturity, that is, whether they had already implemented adaptation initiatives and policies, and whether or not they knew the Life eCOadapt50 project. Next, Núria Parpal, director of Life eCOadapt50, explained the objectives, the partners involved, the LL4CC as participatory structures, the actions that are being implemented so far, and the next steps of the project.

Next came the first dynamic of the workshop, the Inspiring Tables, lasting about 45 minutes, where two municipalities, L’Espunyola and Els Garidells, which are already working on climate change adaptation, were able to share their experiences with the rest of the participants, to inspire especially those who have less expertise in this field. Here the attendees had a template where they could write down everything that could be useful to them, answering the questions “What inspiration do I take from these experiences of climate change adaptation policies?” or “What is my next action considering what has just been shared?”

Then came the second dynamic of the day, which lasted about 30 minutes, where the objective was to identify solutions to the challenges raised on the Experience Wall at the beginning of the session. Among the barriers identified were political will, bureaucracy, local knowledge, citizenship, coordination, capacity for action and impact measurement. The attendees tried to respond to these barriers and look for solutions based on their experience, which was reflected on the shared Experience Wall.

To close the session, Judit Vilà, technician from the Diputació de Girona, explained the next steps of the project, especially in relation to work package 7 (WP7 Incorporating adaptation into public and private plans and policies), which aims to integrate adaptation into public policies and the strategies of entities and companies, such as the joint seminar that will be organized in 2026 for Catalan municipalities to share experiences and practical cases to integrate climate change adaptation into policies, budgets and investments, among many other activities.

On the other hand, Sílvia Castañé, technician from the Diputació de Barcelona, explained what can be done as a municipality, entity or citizen from now on, within the framework of the project: participate in a living lab (LL4CC) of the project (they can be consulted here), attend one of the interterritorial meetings or sectoral days organized by the project (they can be consulted in the Agenda section of the project website), follow the project’s social networks, disseminate the project and subscribe to the newsletter (by clicking here).

The attendees valued the session very positively and were willing to participate in new workshops to continue advancing in this topic. The ideas that emerged from the workshop will contribute to defining the actions and next steps of the Life eCOadapt50 project from now until 2030. The full report of the session can be consulted here. The report includes both the presentations and the results of the dynamics and the evaluation of the session.