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Path to Zero: City Stories - When citizens lead in cities – engaging local people in local climate action, with Nantes Métropole and Guimarães
92 Plays1 month ago
Host: Sean Errey | Produced by NetZeroCities
What does it actually take to bring an entire city on board with climate action? In the first episode of Path to Zero: City Stories, host Sean Errey explores one of the most critical drivers of climate progress: citizen engagement. Drawing on the experiences of Guimarães in Portugal and Nantes Métropole in France, this episode reveals how meaningful involvement goes far beyond ticking boxes, from Citizens’ Assemblies to multi-month group challenges.
Carlos Ribeiro of Guimarães' Landscape Lab shares how a 2013 environmental diagnosis exposed a deep disconnection between citizens and nature, sparking a decade-long journey of co-creation and trust-building. Elise Lindner from Nantes Métropole describes how annual climate challenges have evolved into immersive, community-led adventures, including a now-legendary challenge to go screen-free for a weekend. Both cities are candid about the gaps that remain, and both offer powerful lessons in making the path to zero a truly shared endeavour.
Transcript
Introduction to City Lifestyle Changes
00:00:00
Speaker
Okay, quick question. What actually makes people change the way they live in a city? Is it a policy, a project, or shared experiences, the kind that spark conversations at home and reshape how people see their city?
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to Path to Zero City Stories, a podcast about how cities are not just planning to reach climate neutrality, but actually doing the work on the ground every day to get there.
00:00:26
Speaker
In this podcast series, we'll explore a central question. Why does climate neutrality matter for cities and citizens?
The EU Mission for Climate Neutrality
00:00:35
Speaker
We'll look at how cities and local leaders across Europe are shaping the future, not simply just to meet targets, but to transform the spaces they live and work in and to improve the lives of the people that call them home.
00:00:48
Speaker
Across Europe and beyond, cities are on a mission, quite literally. In 2022, 112 cities joined the EU's mission for climate neutral and smart cities, committing to reach climate neutrality by 2030.
00:01:01
Speaker
and many others are on that same bold path. But there's no one single route to that goal.
Citizen Engagement in Climate Action
00:01:07
Speaker
Each city charts its own way forward, and through this mini-series, we let them tell you how.
00:01:12
Speaker
Today, we focus on one essential driver of progress, citizen engagement. As you'll hear from our guests, their actions to involve their fellow citizens in the decision-making process was no box-ticking exercise.
00:01:26
Speaker
For meaningful change to happen, it simply can't be. When citizens are informed and involved, the path to zero becomes not only possible, it becomes shared.
00:01:37
Speaker
And the two cities we'll hear from today embrace this approach in powerful and creative ways.
Guimarães: From Industry to Climate Leadership
00:01:46
Speaker
My name is Carlos Ribeiro. I'm the executive director of the Landscape Lab. The Landscape Lab is a research center, also a center of environmental education that supports the city of Guimarães in all of its climate journey. Guimarães in Portugal is a mission city with around 156,000 inhabitants and has been the European capital of culture in 2012, the European city of sports in 2013,
00:02:16
Speaker
and will be the European Green Capital in 2026. But it was not always a front-runner in climate action, having been an industrial city with a difficult environmental history. We saw some videos, pictures of the 80s and the 70s. We saw... um a city with lots of industrial pollution, with land degradation, a great disconnection between citizens and nature.
00:02:41
Speaker
And ah some of these awards, European Capital of Culture and also the European City of Sports ah were and great moments of mobilization of the citizens to improve the sense of belonging of the community.
00:02:57
Speaker
And also, in important moments to improve the rehabilitation of the different buildings in the city center, old factories, also to expand the the green areas. Guimenaige likes to say that this was a starting point of their climate journey, where the city really committed to a green transition.
00:03:19
Speaker
But first, the city needed a better idea of where they were starting from.
Guimarães' Model for Citizen Empowerment
00:03:24
Speaker
So in 2013, the mayor asked for environmental diagnosis to understand and to design an action plan ah to accelerate this kind of of green and green transition. The diagnosis showed us that we had a lack of citizens participation, as citizens' the client obligority, and also a lack of private sector engagement. The results were a catalyst for initiatives that put citizens at the heart of their plans, and a model of three elements that guides how the city connects with them and empowers them to act.
00:04:04
Speaker
The first one is the one that we call creating identity. It is important to improve the sense of belonging, the need of transform transformation between this climate challenge that we have and the citizens. Citizens need to understand why we need the transformation, why we need to design a project, why we need to transform a street, why we need to construct a psychopath. And then, Of course, that we are able to a go to the the second dimension, transporting the landscape, transforming the territory, transforming the city. We can use the citizens to act as guardians of this transformation. And the third dimension that we always talk about is building the future, is trying to replicate the solution, replicate the transformation, replicate the strategy in other ah places, in other points of the territory.
Citizenship Challenges in Nantes
00:04:59
Speaker
The city organizes regular events and challenges, creating ongoing opportunities for awareness and participation. One example is the Citizen Assembly, launched as part of the city's mission pilot program, facilitated by Net Zero Cities.
00:05:16
Speaker
we have now, and citizens assembly with the discussion of different needs and try to theorize the intervention in in the city, try to implement the solutions that what we are discussing with with our citizens, with our community. Of course, there's different moments in this kind of discussion moments, or awareness moments, celebrating moments, because it is also important to celebrate, to celebrate the transformation, to celebrate the awards, to celebrate the small achievements that we have, are important to to evolve, to engage the whole community.
00:05:58
Speaker
Engaging an entire community is no small task, but Nantes Metropole have also used citizen challenges to reach across their city, turning them into somewhat of a tradition.
00:06:09
Speaker
I'm Elise Lindner, and I work as a ah climate and EU project manager at Nantes Metropole. Nantes Metropole is a group of 24 municipalities around the big city of Nantes. Nantes is located in the west of France, Since 2011, they have run yearly climate challenges, each focusing on one key element like energy or waste. Encouraged by strong participation and feedback, they launched a new pilot activity in 2023, designed to bring all of these elements together.
00:06:45
Speaker
People shouldn't have to choose to work on waste or on energy, but what we want to achieve is a true behavioral change in people's daily lives. So the new concept now around climate challenges is also to put people into a challenge form. by also with a group dynamic, but it's not on a single topic. So for instance, we have a climate challenge around micro adventure.
00:07:15
Speaker
A micro adventure is organizing, for example, a weekend where you have a very short distance trip to, let's say the next village and you go there by bike and you prepare your picnic with no plastic and you don't leave any waste behind you. but even with a strong concept.
00:07:35
Speaker
Nantes Metropole faced a familiar challenge. How do you actually get people to join in? How do you turn a good idea into real, on-the-ground participation? We wanted to address this, you know, theory of the triangle of action when every party rejects the fault on the others by providing a skill that really makes people want to be part of it. We don't have a rewarding system as such in terms of We could imagine vouchers, for example. I think what's really key in what we propose is the collective aspect. So when you decide to participate in a challenge, you participate as a group. So you join, for example, just to cite some examples, we have a church association that has opened a climate challenge. We have some youth associations. We have also, of course, some environmental associations. We provide them with workshops where they can learn how to cook vegetarian or vegan, for instance. And the feedback we have from
00:08:43
Speaker
participants is that these these workshops or conferences are really the best part of the climate challenges because this is where you get to meet other people, you you get to try new things, you test, you learn. So this makes these workshops very lively and and they have an an impact because I think in the end, it's not just about attending once a cooking workshop.
00:09:11
Speaker
ah Because anyone can do that also in their free time. It's about during this workshop also discussing with others and then testing things at home and meeting the group again and sharing what you've tested at home. And this really engages people into different ways of doing things at home.
00:09:30
Speaker
The challenges in Nantes aren't just one-off workshops. They're designed as full journeys. Each one spans three to six months, giving participants time to reflect, experiment, and take action in their daily lives. We have these workshops in between where you work on the topic, where you test things, where you discuss. In between these moments, there are what we call mini-challenges. So um at home, you are encouraged during, let's say one week, for example, to cook at least two vegetarian dinners. One of the more memorable of these mini-challenges focuses on digital habits, and it did strike a chord.
00:10:12
Speaker
We have one climate challenge that is focused on the digital tools, um the importance of course of digital materials and consumption in our daily lives in terms of carbon
Local Focus in Guimarães' Climate Action
00:10:27
Speaker
footprint. And one mini challenge there is to leave your screens, all of them, computer, a smartphone, everything for an entire weekend. And this has proven to be among participants, one of the most difficult, but also most interesting challenges to to go for. And those having done it have to
00:10:51
Speaker
told us how much it has generated discussion within the family, for example, and how they had to find alternatives for the time they were usually spending on their phone or computer. So these mini challenges, when they are really done in an...
00:11:11
Speaker
attractive but also challenging way are, I think, a very powerful tool to generate discussion and in the end to generate behavioral change.
00:11:23
Speaker
To help participants stay engaged, Nantes developed a dedicated app, a kind of companion for the entire process, where you can register, follow your challenge and report on the success or the difficulties, as well as receiving good tips along the way.
00:11:40
Speaker
While the group challenges are central, the city didn't want to leave out those who prefer to act alone. That meant making solo versions of the challenges accessible too. Citizen challenges run for the last 10 years that we were attracting the usual suspects.
00:11:58
Speaker
Families or individuals already engaged into transition. What we tried now with the climate challenges is to go beyond. We have 50,000 students in Nantes, so it's a very important part of the population. And um working with partners is a way to reach out to these, let's say, more difficult target groups.
00:12:20
Speaker
For instance, the university is providing climate challenges to the students in a different format. So duration is a bit shorter. We are convinced that having this more tailor-made approach to reach out to different target groups is the way to actually reach out to these target groups.
00:12:43
Speaker
This targeted approach is helping to diversify participation, but it's still a work in progress. we haven't yet fully achieved this goal of enlarging the population taking part. So we have, in terms of profile, most participants are rather high educated ah participants living in in houses rather than in and apartments and already, from what they say, already rather engaged into climate or environmental action.
00:13:17
Speaker
This is something that we still need to work on and improve to reach out to these more remote pilot groups.
00:13:27
Speaker
In Guimaraes, getting citizens involved hasn't always been easy. The city had to face a tough truth. Engagement doesn't just happen. It needs context, relevance and creativity.
00:13:38
Speaker
Just ah an example. We know that the impact of the plastics in the oceans, but for us and for for here in the city, these are to explain the need of changing behaviors of the citizens because of the impact of plastics in the ocean, because the ocean is 50 kilometers far from the city.
00:14:02
Speaker
But we can do the same strategy, talking about the river that we have over the window, that we have in the city, the different main rivers that we have, because the pollution of the plastic pollution starts here in the rivers.
00:14:19
Speaker
Rather than rely on distant concepts, the city chose to ground the conversations in everyday life. Starting with the rivers that people see on a daily basis, rather than the oceans they never visit, it's one example of how Guimarães works to reconnect citizens with their environment and with the climate challenges that affect them directly.
00:14:40
Speaker
We need to find innovative strategies to reduce the disconnection between citizens and the nature and the citizens and the the climate challenges. If you want to you to and engage citizens, for example, to ah discuss the need you of expanding green areas or to create a pedestrian area, we need to explain to citizens that ah this kind of transformation will improve the quality of air and with a great impact in the health and well-being of the citizens and also discuss the transformation, the the type of transformation with the citizens. ah So,
00:15:26
Speaker
If we do this one time, we can do this again and the third time, we are also improving the trust between the citizens and the policymakers.
00:15:38
Speaker
That trust is also built through culture in Guimarães, through sport. With thousands of fans gathering every week, football stadiums became powerful potential spaces for climate awareness.
00:15:51
Speaker
To turn this passion into impact, the city worked with local clubs, not only to spread the message, but to lead by example, through sustainability plans covering mobility, green areas, and noise.
00:16:04
Speaker
Culture, too, plays a strategic role. Events across the city are being reimagined by sustainability in mind, not just to inform, but also to inspire.
00:16:15
Speaker
People love sports. And we know that sports can be a great driver for the transformation because we are talking about thousands of supporters every week in the stadium. We can also ah try to transform the cultural events in zero-carbon cultural events to give a different message to our stakeholders, to our citizens. So ah sometimes it is important to um ah use
00:16:46
Speaker
these different strategy to to engage the citizens Engaging citizens is one part of the puzzle. But in Guimaraes, another key focus has been the private sector, which is also understood as part of the community that needs engagement.
00:17:02
Speaker
Here, too, the city has learned to adapt its approach. We understood that, okay, most of our companies are small ones, are SMEs, so we need more support for being active in the community. So we create different kind of actions.
00:17:21
Speaker
One of them, more technical action, for example, supporting them in designing sustainability plans and measuring the carbon footprint. Guimaraj set up a dedicated team to guide companies through the green transition, but technical support wasn't the only ingredient.
00:17:39
Speaker
What really helped to drive participation was creating shared moments that connected climate action with purpose, visibility, and pride. but We are supporting the companies in the different team building moments, planting new trees,
Measuring and Adapting Strategies
00:17:53
Speaker
creating moments of new of forestation of different areas areas nearby of the different companies or in the ah specific areas of the city, burnt areas, for example. And these moments are great moments of commitment of the different companies.
00:18:13
Speaker
And with this project, we for example, we are planting 2000 trees per year with the investment of the of the different companies. A company, we ended this project, it created a moment ah with 30 other companies of the territory to create a great moment to plant new ah trees, um So I think that just to finalize, we need to be very, very resilient in all of this process because it's it's difficult. And this is why we are talking about 10 years of work in this participatory approaches and co-creation approaches.
00:18:56
Speaker
Doing is one thing, but doing is always followed by measuring. Because if the goal is transformation, you need to know what's actually changing in the environment and in people's minds.
00:19:08
Speaker
We need to understand if the strategies, of course, is transforming the perception of the citizens and also transforming the behaviors. And for example, regarding the city's perception, every five years, we launched a citizens' perception survey with the United Nations University,
00:19:31
Speaker
to understand the citizens' perception about the strategy of environmental vacation, of mobilization strategies, but also about different indicators, the noise, the green areas, the air quality, about the climate change effect or the water saving measures.
00:19:52
Speaker
These surveys provide more than just data. They show shifting priorities. What people cared about in 2014 isn't the same as what they'll care about in 2020 nor in 2025. And that matters.
00:20:05
Speaker
Not just for tracking change, but for shaping it. The survey results feed directly into the city's decision-making. And they're shared openly with the residents. in a big event that we have here in the city, the Green Week that we celebrate in June.
00:20:20
Speaker
And the the last survey we presented there with the citizens, with the communities, in the big event in the public space, also with the the presence of the politicians. So the Landscape Lab and the United Nations University ah presented the the result, presented the conclusions. And for us, it is very important, these moments of discussion also, not only the presentation, but also the discussion. um The results are also available in the the website of the municipality, in the website Gladscape Lab.
00:20:53
Speaker
Measurement isn't only about numbers. It's about learning how to build better relationships, adapt strategies, and co-create a climate-neutral city with its people.
00:21:04
Speaker
In Nantes 2, listening is a core part of the strategy because no matter how well the challenge is designed, it has to reflect the reality that people genuinely live in.
00:21:15
Speaker
through these climate challenges, want to engage people, but also wants to hear their feedback. Because, of course, our politicians know that not everything that the city and the municipality is providing is perfect and that public transportation isn't on the entire territory or that the the energy offer isn't yet fully working and so on and so forth. That's why each challenge is also an opportunity for dialogue.
00:21:45
Speaker
Participants act and share what's working, what's missing, and very crucially, what needs to change. So what climate challenges are also for is to collect feedback from participants about public policies that are missing or that are not supporting enough for them to achieve a more sober ah way of life. And we are collecting this feedback from participants through different ah evaluation mechanisms. And these feedbacks will be incorporated into a final sort of set of recommendations that will be handed over to our decision makers in order for them also to take their part into the the work.
00:22:30
Speaker
Because a fair transition doesn't ask everything from its citizens without giving something back. Support, services and a voice in the process are part of the deal. We expect a lot from inhabitants, but we have also to provide them with more services and more support for them to achieve their climate neutrality journey.
Components of Building Climate-Neutral Cities
00:22:52
Speaker
So what does it take to build climate neutral city?
00:22:56
Speaker
Plans? Yes. Technology, of course. But most of all, people. And as we've heard, Guimerage and Nantes are working hard to recruit as many citizens as possible to shape the real challenge that they
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:23:09
Speaker
live in.
00:23:09
Speaker
Thank you for listening to Path to Zero City Stories, a podcast series exploring how cities across Europe are working toward climate neutrality every day. You'll find other episodes in this series on our website at netzerocities.eu or on your favorite platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
00:23:27
Speaker
If you like this podcast, please consider leaving a review or why not share with a colleague or a friend who's interested in local climate action. This episode was produced and scripted by Alan McKenzie.
00:23:38
Speaker
edited and designed by Anne Charlotte Costabatti. And I'm your host, Sean Urie. Until next time.