Climate change mitigation and adaptation require various measures at many levels and with different types of actions. EU funding, such as, for example, the Interreg Europe programme, is one important channel for focusing attention on climate issues. To broaden up the perspective and to make several parties heard in the climate policies, engaging stakeholders is a must.

Authors: Marjut Villanen & Hanna Suutari

The Interreg Europe programme encourages the different European regions to learn from each other by promoting the exchange of knowledge and experiences. To ensure this learning process and to support the improvement of regional policies, each Interreg Europe project partner must involve regional stakeholders in the project. (Interreg Europe 2023, 14-15)

The ClimateGO project, one of the projects co-funded by the Interreg Europe programme, promotes this exchange of information between six European regions and strengthens regional cooperation and development with the help of stakeholder groups. The focus and main goal of the project is to promote climate-smart and resilient governance at the local and regional level. To ensure this, each project partner has invited representatives from key organisations in their own region. (ClimateGO 2024)

A diverse group tackles climate change

In Päijät-Häme region the local stakeholder group consists of representatives of municipalities and cities as well as corporations, health and wellbeing services and research institutions. The diverse composition of the group will help to deal with the project’s multidimensional theme from different perspectives.

To practice successful climate policies not only the decision makers but also civil servants, scientists and tradespeople have their own role in elaboration and implementation of climate actions. For example, good examples of successful coordination of climate action and business can be obtained from companies. The role of research institutions in making science-based climate policies is evident. On the other hand, civil servants are often responsible for presenting issues to decision makers, which makes their role important in promoting climate-smart decisions.

Cooperation started with active participation

The project’s first stakeholder meeting was held online in June 2024. The hopes and wishes of upcoming cooperation were discussed. It was pointed out that a clear and concrete message in project events as well as in communication is important. In addition, it would be good to emphasize that those participating in the project’s activities do not have to be experts in the subject, but the activities are open to everyone. To strengthen the message, it would be also wise to cooperate with other projects related to similar topics. The company representative also emphasized the positive synergies of climate action and the economy. These synergies are important to highlight and communicate to a wider public as well.

Picture 1. In the second stakeholder group meeting it was noted that climate actions are relevant to many actors in Päijät-Häme. (Image: Hanna Suutari)

The stakeholder group met for the second time in fall 2024. At that time, particularly the climate plans of the seven municipalities of Päijät-Häme sparked discussion. Maarit Virtanen from the regional council of Päijät-Häme represented the climate work done in municipalities so far. She pointed out that climate governance has been raised as a cross-cutting theme in the municipalities’ climate plans. (Virtanen 2024)

Another current theme in the discussions was sustainable mobility. Annukka Heinonen from LAB University of Applied Sciences was talking about the ERDF-funded KELPO project one of whose goals is to produce and disseminate information on sustainable mobility to support municipal climate plans and political decision-making in Päijät-Häme region. (KELPO 2024)

Interregional meetings broaden the understanding of climate-smart decision-making

To broaden up the perspective of climate-smart decision-making stakeholders participated in the first interregional meeting held in Lahti in June 2024. The stakeholders received information about the current state of climate policy in the partner regions as well as the policy instruments and their development needs. The opportunity to participate in the climate walk and to define the good practices of the project was also offered.

The ClimateGO project will continue until summer 2028. The next steps of the interregional cooperation and learning process include a joint webinar in October 2024 and getting to know better the situation and good practices of the Slovakian project partner in spring 2025. Locally, in Päijät-Häme region, a discussion event is planned for the end of 2024. This event is targeted especially for the stakeholders and regional decision-makers but will be also open to a wider public interested in the topic. Active discussion of the theme on various channels and with different stakeholders ensures that also contrasting perspectives will be reflected during the development process.

References

ClimateGO. 2024. Interreg Europe. Cited 17 Sep 2024. Available at https://www.interregeurope.eu/climatego

Interreg Europe. 2023. Programme Manual. Lille, France: Interreg Europe Secretariat. Cited 17 Sep 2024. Available at https://www.interregeurope.eu/sites/default/files/2023-02/IR-E_programme_manual_annexes.pdf

KELPO. 2024. Sustainable Mobility Pilots in the Region of Päijät-Häme. LAB Projects. Cited 16 Sep 2024. Available at https://lab.fi/en/project/sustainable-mobility-pilots-region-paijat-hame-kelpo

Virtanen, M. 2024. Alueellinen sidosryhmä – Ajankohtaista ilmastoasioissa. Presentation in local stakeholder group meeting in 27 Aug 2024.

Authors

Marjut Villanen works as an RDI-specialist in LAB. In ClimateGO project she works as a project manager promoting the achievement of the project’s goals.

Hanna Suutari works as an RDI-specialist in LAB. In ClimateGO project she works as a communication manager and strives to promote clear and concrete communication about climate-smart decision-making.

Illustration: During the 1st interregional meeting, stakeholders had a chance to participate in a climate walk in a stormwater management site in Hennala, Lahti. (Image: Hanna Suutari)

Reference to this article

Villanen, M. & Suutari, H. 2024. Boosting climate-smart governance with stakeholder cooperation. LAB Pro. Cited and the date of citation. Available at https://www.labopen.fi/lab-pro/boosting-climate-smart-governance-with-stakeholder-cooperation/