The CARTIF Technology Centre and the Badajoz Provincial Council held a bilateral workshop last week focused on promoting shared solutions related to behavioural change for climate adaption and rural revitalisation. The event, entitled “Climate Adaption and Regional Climate: Shaping a Sustainable Future for the Province of Badajoz”, addressed the main and interrelated challenges facing the province.
The session focused on the growing impacts of climate change –such as heatwaves, droughts, and biodiversity loss- and their direct relationship with the challenge of rural depopulation, particularly among young people. The strategy seeks to bring together all relevant stakeholders around clear and effective solutions that combine behavioural change for climate adaption with rural revitalisation. The aim is to generate real opportunities to strengthen the local economy, improve quality of life, and foster a sense of belonging, through a collective co-creation process that defines specific capable of transforming rural areas of Badajoz into a more resilient, attractive an sustainable territory.
This journey has been developed in the framework of PRO-CLIMATE project, an initiative funded by Horizon Europe Programme that promote a behavioural changes and governance to confront the climate change through a joint definition of adaptation measures. The project is structured around the Living Labs in six European countries. One of them is located in the province of Badajoz, which makes it possible to connect local knowledge and expertise with a network of European reach, fostering exchange, experimentation, and the implementation of solutions aligned with climate action and rural revitalisation.
The meeting was attended by researchers from CARTIF’s Natural Resources and Climate Area, José María Sanz Martín and Nuria Fernández Rico; the Provincial Councill for Rural Development, Demographic Challenge and Tourism of the Badajoz Provincial Council, Ana Belén Valls; the Head of the Demographic Challenge Service, Pilar Muñoz; the Senior Project Design Officer, Pablo Zambrano; and representatives of the Extremadura Rural Development Network (REDEX) and the Local Action Groups of the province of Badajoz.
Ana Belén Valls, who welcomed participants to the meeting, highlighted that “the PRO-CLIMATE project us, without a doubt, an essential tool for analysis and diagnosis, aimed at delivering solutions that harness the opportunities generated by climate change and neutralise its devastating effects on the Demographic Challenge”.
In this context, the programme of workshops, agreed with the various stakeholders groups across the territory, will continue to be expanded through new sessions, with the aim of fostering a shared understanding of climate adaption, showcasing good practices at regional level, and co-creating action measures that promote new economic and social opportunities in the province.