The climate action group[1] is an initiative of the Environmental Education team of Pamplona City Council that has brought together a group of 15 people on a monthly basis, with the aim of accompanying and empowering citizens to address the environmental crisis; the activities have a workshop format addressing different topics affecting climate change, such as energy, food, consumption, mobility, etc.
The main objective of the activity is to raise awareness of climate change and its negative effects, as well as to encourage changes in consumption habits in order to reduce energy consumption and the negative effects of climate change. It is addressed to residents and local associations of Rochapea district.
During this process, the participants have taken on collective and individual challenges and have also disseminated the learnings in their immediate environment. In total they committed to 42 individual challenges and 18 collective challenges. Among the challenges achieved, the following stand out:
- Participation in an Energy Community
- Investment of financial savings in an Energy Community
- Membership in an organic and local food consumption group
- Participation in a food sovereignty NGO
- Reducing heating hours in their appartment buildings
- Participating in a shared electric mobility co-operative
For this initiative the following aspects have been evaluated: content, methodology, organization and general degree of satisfaction. The participants of the Climate Action Group activity have rated these aspects with a high degree of success, and they have identified the following opportunities for improvement:
- To organise workshops for people who do not yet intend to attend the full course
- Receiving some information about the content before the sessions.
- Send their recomendations to the City Council, so that their concerns can reach the local politicians.
- Some topics are too difficult to be addressed completely in one session: e.g. energy and food sessions should be longer
- Ecological footprint of new technologies: Apps, multiverse, social networks, etc.
- Extending the vision to developing countries
- Implement more groups and examples in our near context.
- Create a challenge for this group.
Besides raising awareness on the problem of climate change, this activity proved to deliver also other additional benefits for the society: the group, with its personal commitment and engagement, influences its environment and acts as a catalyst in the awakening of social awareness at a higher level.
From this group, a group of people called “SOS Ekintza Clima” (SOS Climate Action) has emerged, acting independently to carry out actions in the neighbourhood to tackle climate change. They have carried out, for example, a diagnosis of the state of the tree wells in the neighbourhood, geolocating empty or covered tree wells, which they have presented to the City Council.
[1] https://educacionambiental.pamplona.es/grupo-de-accion-climatica
