Municipalism and climate change: which role for the cities within the ecological transition?

The climate crisis has increasingly significant repercussions at the local level, in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Air quality, water, energy, soil and food are becoming crucial public health issues. Several municipalist experiences have addressed these issues and suggested innovative approaches to public policy. This workshop will explore some of these experiences, focusing on potentially common issues and providing concrete solutions and tools.

Program:

This debate will be moderated by Solenne Boiziau and Thomas Simon, from Fréquence Commune (France) with the following speakers:

• Ana Huertas is a facilitator of eco-social transition processes and coordinator of the international project Municipalities in Transition. She is part of the coordinating team for the Spanish Transition Hub and promoter of the collective housing project La Fàbrica de la Transición (Spain).
• Nicolas Haeringer, from 350.org (France) a non-governmental organisation founded in the United States and working for climate justice. It organises and campaigns for corporate and community divestment from fossil fuels, which are responsible for the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere and global warming.
• Vedran Horvat, director of the Institute of Political Ecology – IPE in Zagreb (Croatia), sociologist, journalist, author and activist.
• Sergi Escribano, from Commonspolis (Valencia, Spain), a think-do-tank whose mission is to strengthen citizen initiatives that build local alternatives to the systemic crisis. Agricultural engineer, founder of the Cátedra Tierra Ciudadana of the Polytechnic University of Valencia where he leads several projects related to the development of sustainable food systems.