More information
Description
To comply with new EU regulations, Polish local authorities are gradually assuming responsibility for local activities related to climate change. Guidelines on the implementation of local low-emission economy plans put emphasis on the necessity to engage citizens in this process. Unfortunately, according to the results of the ‘Role of Local Community in the Development of Low-Emission Economy’ report, not all local authorities respect this requirement. We will address this problem by engaging inhabitants of mid-sized cities (from 10 to 100 000 residents) from various parts of Poland in co-deciding on the climate policy of their towns. Our experience shows that smaller locations do not have the same resources as larger ones, which is why we have decided to support them. We will join forces of participative practitioners and climate experts to come up with civil councils tailored to needs and abilities of smaller districts. We will run a pilot in four communes – inviting local authorities and residents to jointly design local climate policies. Based on that we will prepare a programme supporting the organisation of such councils in the entire Poland, including expert consultations, educational materials on participation and climate change, as well as tools supporting inhabitant inclusion. We will recruit 20 people who will organise such councils across Poland, with our support and will compile a report summarising councils featuring inhabitant-generated recommendations for local climate documents. The first of our partners, Norsensus Mediaforum of Norway, has rich expertise in media and informational education, so it will help us launch a promotional campaign. The second partner, the Instytut na Rzecz Ekorozwoju Foundation, will play the role of an expert supervising the factual aspect of councils thanks to its experienced staff.
Summary of project results
Due to new EU regulations, Polish local governments are slowly taking over responsibility for local climate change response activities. Guidelines for the preparation of local low-carbon implementation plans and other policies and strategies emphasize the need to involve residents in the process. Unfortunately, according to the report ''The role of the local community in developing a low-carbon economy.'' - not all local authorities respect this requirement.
We responded to this problem by involving the inhabitants/kids of medium-sized towns (between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitants) from different parts of Poland in co-determining the climate policy of their places of residence. We know from experience that smaller cities do not have the same resources as large ones, which is why we wanted to help them. We joined forces with participation practitioners and climate experts to develop a form of citizen deliberations tailored to the needs and capacities of smaller municipalities. We piloted this in four municipalities, inviting local authorities and residents to come together to develop municipal climate policies.
Based on this, we developed a program to support local governments in organizing such deliberations across Poland, including expert consultations, educational materials on participation and climate protection, as well as tools to support the inclusion of residents/kids. We recruited 16 local authorities who, with our support, organized such deliberations in their local government. Based on these activities, we produced reports on the meetings, including recommendations for municipal climate documents developed by the residents of the municipalities.
We have, of course, involved our partners in our activities. The first of these, the Norwegian organization Norsensus Mediaforum, has extensive experience in media and information education and therefore supported us in creating a promotional campaign. The second partner, the Institute for Sustainable Development Foundation, due to the experience of its staff, played the role of expert overseeing the content side of the meetings.
The project was aimed at the municipalities of medium-sized towns and their residents. Where meetings have been successfully organized, around 20 recommendations have been adopted, and authorities have started to implement them, showing that the main objective of the project has been met.
From the evaluation surveys, we know that participants in the deliberations, in addition to increasing their sense of empowerment, have significantly raised their level of knowledge on topics related to both climate and the form of the citizens'' conference itself. Municipalities have also given us feedback that they have changed their view and, thanks to the project, have noticed that this formula does not require a huge financial outlay.
Summary of bilateral results
We do not evaluate positively the cooperation with the partner from the Donor State - the impact on the project results or improvement of knowledge and understanding was zero. Throughout the project, our cooperation with Norsensus Mediaforum was limited to three updater meetings, consultation of the project flow (work methodology) and preparation by the partner of a description of good deliberative practices from Scandinavian countries. The latter activity was to help us prepare references to good practices from abroad at the stage of creating the methodological publication. However, the quality of the product delivered by the partner left much to be desired despite our providing a detailed brief. We know from discussions with Vedat (the partner''s representative) that the last year has not been kind to him in terms of workload and his own health....Unfortunately, cooperation with the Norwegian partner did not develop after the first difficult moments, after trying to add comments and requests to improve the material on good deliberative practices from Scandinavian countries, we did not further attempt to establish a relationship. Nearly the full amount spent with the partner from the Donor State was not reported as an expense. We are pleased with our decision, because Norsensun Mediaforum also later appeared as a subcontractor to our other Norwegian partner in another project, and problems with communication and product quality recurred.