CAIC24 | Conference review 2024
Below you will find a review our Climate Alliance International Conference 2024 in Cascais (PT) as well as all available materials. CAIC24 impressions can be found in our FlickR Album.
Pre CAIC offers
In preparation for CAIC24, Climate Alliance offered weekly workshops covering a wide range of topics – from municipal energy planning to communication campaigns and one-stop shops. Take a look back at the events here!
Wednesday, 9 October 2024
Climate Alliance General Assembly 2024 | 15 – 18
Climate Alliance members from all over Europe came together for the 2024 General Assembly onsite in Cascais and online via livestream. Together, we looked back on the past year and the network's activities. In addition to the board elections, which saw two new members, Glen Dissaux from Brest Métropole (FR) and György Laki from Kajárpéc (HU), join the Climate Alliance board, the focus was on the Cascais Declaration. As a network, we wanted to set an example for just resilience in our regions, cities and towns. With the audience onsite and online, we discussed how the local level can strengthen just resilience. These contributions along with insights from the following conference days were incorporated in the final version of the Cascais Declaration.
Read the Cascais Declaration.
Thursday, 10 October 2024
CAIC24 Opening plenary | 10 – 12
How does just resilience work at a local level? That was the topic of our opening plenary session in Cascais. Speakers and the audience engaged in a lively discussion. What matters is geographical inclusion, learning from one another, justice at all levels, including gender equality, bottom-up approaches and the inclusion of particularly vulnerable groups! Key speaker, Dr João Morais Mourato, highlighted three dimensions of just resilience: distributive justice, recognition and procedural justice.
"It’s not just about adapting to change, but changing how we adapt", Dr João Morais Mourato, Institute for Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon
Contributions:
- Dr. João Morais Mourato (Institute for Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon)
More than just resilience - Jan Kamensky
Visual Utopias of local resilience
Workshop Slot I | 14– 15:30
Geo-spatial data to accelerate climate action and resilience
Geospatia and earth observation data can help our cities to better understand climate and energy phenomena such as heat, flooding, mobility, land subsidence and air quality. However, equipping all cities with the necessary knowledge and capacity to utilise such services remains a major challenge. That is why the Climate Alliance and the Covenant of Mayors Europe are working with service providers such as the European Environment Agency and Google. Both showcased their offerings for local level at this workshop.
Contributions
Dr Kavitha Muthu (European Space Agency)
Space applications for smart and green citiesPhillip Harwood (European Space Agency)
Stakeholder Engagement Facility
Engaging citizens for a future worth living
How can we successfully involve citizens in the local transformation? This workshop highlighted possible solutions: offer low-threshold opportunities for participation locally that are close to the people and ensure that measures are geared towards people's lives, their homes and their neighbourhoods. A very local approach, however, means that solutions must be individualised: there is no one solution for everyone. This workshop explored two concrete Climate Alliance offers: the Energy Caravan and the EU Climate Pact activities.
Contributions
- Brice Mertz (fesa e. V.)
Citizen Engagement - Meaningful climate action through the Energy Caravan Campaign - Natasha van Doorn & Rita Prates (Country Coordinators Portugal, EU Climate Pact)
Engage your community in climate action - Martín Cobos (Badajoz, Spain)
Photo Story: Replacement of public street lighting
Financing nature-based solutions: A psychology-based approach
This workshop showed how behavioural economic factors can influence investments in nature-based solutions (NBS). The focus was on common prejudices such as the present-orientation, where the immediate benefits of traditional infrastructure outweigh the future benefits of NBS, and the status quo orientation, which leads to a reluctance to introduce new solutions. By using nudging techniques such as timely reminders or simplified decision-making, these biases can be mitigated to encourage investment in NBS.
"Nudging is about removing friction, and making it easy to make the 'right' choice. It is not about forbidding anything, or giving a monetary incentive”, Christina Gravert, Associate Professor at University of Copenhagen
Contributions
- Stefano Ceoletto (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici)
Behavioural economics and nature-based solutions - Christina Gravert (University Copenhagen)
Nudging private investors towards nature-based solutions
Workshop Slot II | 16– 17:30
Addressing energy poverty locally with community-led solutions
In this workshop, organised by the Covenant of Mayors - Europe, the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub and the JUST-PEPP project, the different phases of energy poverty were presented, highlighting practical and concrete examples such as one-stop shops, energy communities and financing mechanisms.
Enhancing local resilience with digital tools
This workshop focussed on digital twins, virtual models of physical systems, and how they can increase local resilience through the integration of complex data. These models help communities visualise climate risks such as heat islands and use socio-economic data to focus on vulnerable populations. A key finding was the importance of engaging local businesses early in resilience projects to ensure their needs are met through participatory processes.
Contributions
- Fernanda Pinto Godoy (Sandyford Business District)
IB Green: Driving sustainability in the Sandyford Business District - Teresa Pais (Cascais City Council)
Cascais Participatory System
Responding to climate-related weather extremes
The local level is increasingly affected by the impacts of extreme weather events. A lack of financial resources and bureaucratic hurdles often stand in the way of local adaptation. However, three examples showed how cities and towns can nevertheless take action. The Province of Barcelona is relying on long-term structural solutions such as optimising the water system to combat the ongoing drought. The municipality of Kajarpec in Hungary, for example, is tackling the threat of flooding with local flood protection regulations. And in Frankfurt, Germany, mobile plant walls, known as green rooms, and water play facilities are being used to create cool spots for hot days in the city.
Contributions
- Albert Vendrell Roca (Province of Barcelona)
Drought in the Province of Barcelona - György Laki (Municipality of Kajárpec)
Flooding and desertification in Kajárpec, Hungary
Friday, 11 October 2024
Learn & Share and Cascais excursions | 10 – 15:00
The Learn & Share marketplace was the prelude to the last day of our conference. A colourful range of projects and initiatives invited participants to engage in lively discussions and exchange experiences. After two hours, participants set off on three excursions highlighting Cascais' good practice examples in local resilience, taking a look at the Cresmina-Guincho dune system restoration project, the NOVA SBE Campus for urban decarbonisation and the Qunita do Pisão park with a focus on biodiversity – a well-rounded conclusion to CAIC24!
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