Event 11

Workshop in Rijeka on 18^th April was based on Open Space Technology during which participants were supported to come up with proposals for urgent “green” topics in local communities  in order to facilitate co-prioritisation of ones to be addressed by the project in following activities. Key topics that emerged from the implemented OST method are:

1. Local food production – citizens shaping edible city
2. Local food sovereignty and biodiversity – old varieties and seed bank
3. Heat and sun – citizens energy, heat shelter strategy
4. “Green” citizens participation.

Key stakeholders and possible collaborations were discussed as well as potential joint public campaign needed to raise awareness  among a larger number of citizens as possible on “burning ” green topics relevant to the local community. Except on public (online and printed) media as well as social media, participants stated there is a need to develop and deliver public actions with powerful, targeted messages related to mapped issues and topics in order to address the importance and the level of priority in action toward them. Campaign should invite and gather a large network of all different stakeholders in order to send as powerful, loudest message as possible that will reach the largest possible audience among the community empowering them to take action and embrace positive changes in everyday lifestyles towards sustainability.

The central topic of the workshop in Opatija on 7^th May was the issue of active participation of citizens in shaping a sustainable community and low level of citizen participation in democratic decision-making processes. Despite various methods of involving citizens, from direct democracy through elections, city councils, local committees to the process of public consultation on various local policy documents, citizens respond poorly to these forms of participation. The key problem detected is the weak and insufficiently clear communication between decision-makers and citizens in order to understand the procedures and limitations imposed by legal and administrative regulations within the local public administration, which regularly appears as obstacles in the implementation of certain local interventions that are in contradiction to the interests of citizens and private capital. Participants highlighted several local issues that cause citizens’ dissatisfaction with participation – concretization of the coast, destruction of the environment and nature for the sake of investors (construction of residential buildings), decline in the quality of citizens caused by numerous construction sites and the destruction of local infrastructure (roads, reduction of green areas, etc.). Also, the low level of decision-makers concern and understanding of the consequences of climate change as well as the absence of short-term and long-term policies, i.e. action plans aimed at mitigating and reducing the consequences of climate change at the local level as a community that depends on natural resources related to the primary economic branch, was highlighted – tourism – the problems of increasing and sudden changes in extreme temperatures, raising the level and acidity of the sea, lack of locally grown food, non-use of the sun for the production of electrical energy and the potential of sustainable local applications (electric bicycles and scooters) were especially mapped.

In a dynamic conversation on 17th May in Njivice in order to be able to respond to climate related challenges, the meeting emphasized the importance of quickly abandoning fossil fuels and switching to sustainable alternatives. How sustainable renewable energy actually is and how it is disposed of was a key aspect of the discussion. It is necessary to pay particular attention to today’s marketing tricks of industries and politicians about „sustainable” options, which according to all research and practical examples are just as harmful as the current „creators” of the problems we are in. Disposing of old and defective solar panels, propellers of windmills (not to mention the danger to birds), batteries for electric cars, as well as their questionable power supply from classic sources of electricity are just some of the issues when discussing alternative and sustainable ways of producing electricity and dependence on fossil fuels. Pandemics and wars, although they dominate the media space, must not distract us from the essential problems that surround us, and on the one hand, greater responsibility of the media in reporting on environmental policies and issues, as well as a greater level of information literacy, is needed. The largest percentage of people who listen and read new information and news are young people up to 25 years of age. But the fact that they do not watch the main media and information channels but use social networks and private servers is a call for reform. Their skepticism towards the honesty of the media has been something that has been investigated for 10 years and the political authorities should take this into account in order to be as close as possible to the ideas and goals of young people. Scientific facts warn that the survival of young people is threatened. In order to be resistant to changes, the question was asked how and how much, and the answer is that we need to reduce energy consumption by 4/5 at the level of each individual. As the main strategies, consumption reduction and localization were highlighted as key steps towards achieving this goal. The conclusion is that we should actively work to create a sustainable future for all of us. In order for „politics” to accept all this and start working meaningfully in the direction of the green transition, the key lies precisely in young people and their engagement. It is necessary to educate, encourage and support more young people to enter situations and spaces where decisions are made and ideas are developed.

Most important conclusion on 14th May in Opatija is that there is an importance to create opportunities for active, meaningful and joyful experiences that motivate and empower youth for active contribution to shaping their local community in a sustainable manner. Youth in the local community needs to restore trust through interactive, intragenerational, experiential and joyful activities that give them a sense of true influence on the life of the surroundings. Therefore it is important to have professional youth workers working systematically with local youth on “green” topics, offering them opportunities to suggest ideas and afterwards supporting them in planning, developing and implementing those ideas so they have a direct and meaningful impact on shaping a resilient community.

On 28th May in Opatija using open space technology, participants mapped 6 potential roadmaps that could be implemented in the local community as a citizen’s contribution to transition:

1. Painting dark surfaces white to reflect heat, because dark color absorbs heat and on summer days in the city raises the temperature and encourages the use of air conditioners. Such places should be mapped and small groups should be organized to paint over the dark surface with white asphalt paint. A public invitation could be used to invite citizens to do the same around their homes (e.g. floors on balconies, exterior walls).
2. School mediterranean garden developed with citizens’ donations of plants and the help of volunteers – parents, gardening section of the 60+ Club and members of the Green Network.
3. Picking fruit from abandoned trees in the city center that no one takes care of, the owners are not there or are unable or uninterested to pick them, could be used for the social kitchen in the Red Cross. It can be initiated with an announcement so that citizens can apply who would give their fruit trees to be cut.
4. Installation of solar collectors on public institutions and spaces owned by the city.
5. Neighborhood composting bin in order to reduce waste and the production of greenhouse gasses.
6. Community garden. Public city gardens can contribute to food sovereignty – one of the goals of sustainable development. Besides the fresh organic produce, gardening has both a psychological and social effect and contributes to reducing depression and isolation in seniors. Interested citizens will request that the City earmark free arable land for this purpose. Possible roadmap for implementation – after preparatory work including gathering of interested parties and lobbying, followed by the fencing of the plot, bringing in water, regulations on the use of the garden and others as needed. The users of that garden could work closely with the school garden, creating a seed bank and demonstration beds.

In Drenova on 15th May, one of the biggest neighborhoods in the City of Rijeka, a group of citizens gathered to discuss the role of citizens in local food production and its potential for food sovereignty, one of the key issues and challenges in Primorje-Goranska county. Many households in Drenova have dogwood (local: Dren) in their gardens, and one of the priorities of the local community is to preserve this old, specific, autochthonous variety, which contributes to biodiversity and food security directly by citizens through the cultivation of food in their gardens. The meeting served for the exchange of information, education, empowerment about the methods of dogwood propagation, two types of propagation by agronomists, in order to make the entire settlement an edible city in miniature and to make all citizens aware of the importance of growing food, preserving the health of the soil and old variety.

The base of the discussion in Rijeka on 17th May is the fact that renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, water or geothermal energy are available to everyone as common goods, and their use through energy community projects, in order to meet basic energy needs, guarantees that the energy produced and thus the benefit achieved will be retained in our local communities.  Energy communities enable citizens, entrepreneurs and the public sector to invest in renewable energy projects and take an active role in the energy market. They represent an alternative to commercial energy companies and are characterized by open and voluntary participation (membership), direct ownership of citizens, cooperation with local small and medium-sized enterprises and with local self-government units and democratic governance. An important difference between commercial energy companies and energy communities is a commitment to socio-economic and environmental benefits for the community – and the benefits for the energy community are more important than making a profit. The energy transition can only succeed in the cooperation of all actors having citizens at its center. In order to achieve the development of energy communities and citizen energy in Croatia, these roadmap must be undertaken:

1. Make the process of registering energy communities simple and affordable for groups of citizens who are not (energy) experts and establish a support system in this process.
2. Provide financial support to energy communities from available funds with the application of state aid rules in order to mitigate the risk of energy community projects and encourage their development and stable growth.
3. Ensure that energy communities can easily reduce their electricity bills to their members through energy production, share energy directly with members and conclude energy purchase agreements directly with other actors on the market.

To make cities and municipalities at the forefront of the development of civic energy by ensuring the involvement of citizens and energy communities in renewable energy projects in public areas and roofs.

The meeting in Rijeka on 6th June discussed the rise in temperature as one of the consequences of climate change and the direct consequences it has on tourism and all related industries, which we primarily rely on in our county. The year 2023 was the warmest year on Earth since measurements have been taken. The first four months of this year are also the hottest ever. Croatia belongs to the most climatically vulnerable areas of Europe. Despite this, there are not many discussions in Croatia (neither nationally nor locally) about how to behave during heat strokes, how to adapt work processes to it, how to act if there are overloads /outages / infrastructural systems, what kind of planning activities to reduce the tragic consequences. The conclusion is that it is necessary to network all local initiatives and relevant networks into joint efforts in order to encourage fellow citizens to act in order to strengthen resistance to heatstroke. It is extremely important to publicly talk about the fatal consequences of working in conditions of exposure to extreme heat (in tourism, in construction, in agriculture and horticulture, in communal and emergency services… outdoors), especially in the case of existing chronic health problems, and especially in the purpose of preventive action and behavior aimed at mitigating the consequences of climate change. Some of the key conclusions that bring concrete measures and plans with the aim of prevention and protection are:

• Shelters from the heat
  1. For people – open spaces where a large number of people move or stay should be protected from direct sunlight with natural or artificial shade. For age- and/or health-impaired groups who live in rooms that are not cooled, provide publicly accessible places where they could cool down.
  2. For domestic and wild animals – provide enough watering holes in shady places.
• Infrastructure
  1. Communal – Since thermal shocks are accompanied by a strong increase in electricity consumption due to cooling devices followed by often experiencing interruptions in supply due to overloading the electric networks, electricity distributors should have a plan to disconnect certain groups of consumers in order to prevent the total breakdown of the network.
  2. Social – when extreme heat is announced it is important to have a plan of action in homes for the elderly, in schools and kindergartens, in hospitals, when organizing events for a lot of people in open and closed spaces.
  3. Intervention services – since in extreme heat a need for intervention services increases it is necessary to have the rules of conduct of each service in such circumstances.

There is a high priority of development documents to become the basis for activities that will prevent further deterioration of the environment and to enable its regeneration and the creation of structures that can protect the population from disturbances that have already been done, and about which we know that it will work for decades to come.