Local authorities interested in learning how to better incorporate participatory practices in their climate planning are encouraged to attend a webinar co-organised by The Covenant of Mayors and the DECIDE project. The session, Community Ownership and Participation for Effective Mitigation & Adaptation Planning will take place Thursday 24 November from 09:30 – 11:00 CET and will show how with proper engagement strategies, local authorities can empower their citizens to jointly own and participate in climate and energy measures.

Local authorities have much to gain from tapping into the potential offered by the local community. On the mitigation side, an increasing number of energy communities and collective energy actions (e.g. collective self-consumption / energy sharing schemes and crowdfunding campaigns) are making it financially and socially attractive for citizens to take ownership of the local energy transition.

At the same time, there exists an increasing need for distributed risk governance and citizen engagement in the adaptation to climate change. Examples from cities around Europe include participatory budgeting for ecological transformations, participatory processes to ensure ownership by local residents of nature-based solutions (NBS), and the climate-proofing of (social) housing landscapes.

Participants in this webinar will learn:

• Why community participation is critical across both mitigation and adaptation streams
• What it means to have “ownership” over local climate change measures
• What kind of forms of citizen participation and ownership exist and how it is solidified in long-term climate and energy planning
• Under what conditions public participation and community ownership of local climate & energy measures can thrive

To read the webinar's full agenda, click here.

To register for the webinar, click here.