Citizen empowerment is one of the keys to being more resilient in the hottest times of the year
During the summers of 2022 and 2023, Ecoserveis and ABD have carried out a total of 64 workshops, reaching 540 participants.
The workshops were aimed primarily at vulnerable citizens. To do this, the project team traveled to the most affected neighborhoods, both socially and structurally. Activities were carried out in Barcelona, L’Hospitalet and other municipalities in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, and it was shown that families living in old buildings (up to 87% of the current stock) are more vulnerable to climate change as they suffer more from high temperatures. The buildings where they live have little thermal insulation and solar protection that tends to be inefficient. They also have less access to installing an air conditioning system.
Some of the workshops have been aimed at sharing tips for dealing with heat waves, both at home and on the street; others, at better understanding utility bills and existing tariffs. The project has also offered complementary activities for families with children in order to facilitate work-life balance.
One of the conclusions drawn from the activities is that, although families have some strategies to combat the heat, they are generally unaware of other services offered by the city of Barcelona and other municipalities, such as the Climate Shelters.
As a novelty, collective mapping activities have allowed us to begin building a database extracted from citizen knowledge about public spaces, to identify warm areas, shaded areas, green areas and points with water availability, among others. The first results obtained in L’Hospitalet can be consulted HERE .
Volunteer support has been key to the implementation of the actions
A key piece for the realization of the workshops has undoubtedly been the participation of the SEPAs (Summer Energy Poverty Agents) in the project. These are people from various entities who, on a voluntary basis, have been trained so that they can later carry out part of the workshops with the citizens. The Cooltorise project has had a total of 40 people trained in the Barcelona area who have allowed the deployment of all the activities of the project. Activities that have been concentrated especially during the months preceding the summer, as a prevention resource.
The actions have been carried out within the framework of the Cooltorise project, funded by the European Union’s H2020 program on summer energy poverty, in which the ABD and Ecoserveis Associations participate.
For more information about other summer energy poverty mitigation activities carried out by the Cooltorise project, you can consult the website: https://cooltorise.eu/
